“Three redheads walk into a church. One redhead turns to the others and says… ” No really, the three of us did walk into church, and I totally did tell them to go get in their correct pew with their class.****It’s just a normal Wednesday for me, but let me tell you what God did. We’re in our new town, just visiting different churches each week on Sundays. The kids are really missing Awanas. For my out of town friends, it stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed – a weekly church meeting for kids with Bible verse memorization, group time, game time, etc, where the children can earn awards
based on their knowledge of the Bible and involvement in the program.

We didn’t go last year for a couple of reasons  – and I need to interject to say that the kids are nine and I still don’t correct them when they ask to go to “Iguanas.” We decided I would find a local church that offered the Awana program, and I found one in a medium-sized church nearby called Anchor Baptist.

I sent the kids off to their program, and in the pew, I hear it. “Offer to help.”

I thought back to every Awana program I’d been in – be it a listener and leader at Lighthouse, a Cubbies and Puggles leader at FRBC, even being a Spark myself years and years ago! I knew that most programs would welcome listeners, so I figured maybe they could still use a listener even if we weren’t members, and if the Holy Spirit was prompting me, surely it would work out, right?

“Hello. We’re new here. Do you need any help? My kids are here already so if you need help… you know…”

And they ask me if I have any experience with Awanas (the program was only three years old at this church) and I tell them yes… and yes… and… (Did I mention I used to BE a Spark?)

Then the director says “We need a leader for TNT. Could you do it?”

And that is the quick story of how one redhead walked into a local church as just a mom dropping her kiddos off and walked out as the new TNT Adventure Leader in charge of the weekly spiritual mentorship of six girls and two boys. For now? I’m not even a member yet. It reminds me that sometimes our own expectations are so much more stringent than His – sometimes all He needs is our availability, not our credentials.

I cannot WAIT to see God move in their lives and know that He used me to help. I’ll keep you posted.

Joyfully,

Karen

Photos courtesy of Awana.org.