Our Report Card - Sunday, 10/21

Here's my take on this Sunday:

Student Attendance:

• PromiseLand1 (Birth to 36 months) - 18
• PromiseLand 2 (3 yrs to Kindergarten) - 27
• FaithWeavers Sunday School (Grade 1-5) - 43
• KOW Kids Service Team - 9
• Total Students -  88

Volunteer Staffing:

• Leaders & Support - 8
• Volunteer Staff - 42
• Teen Leaders-In-Training - 13

Weekend Highlights:

• OK... so here's the deal.  This last Sunday, I'm teaching FW2 Grades 3-5 with Joe & Janice Olson "shadowing" Alex & I.  They were finishing up their Orientation to FaithWeaver's Sunday School.  We had a great class.  The students were wonderful.  There was life.  Then we went to our Closing Exercises where our facilitator, Liane Ray, did a great job of helping us to consider that day's Main Point.  Except......  Her Main Point didn't match my Main Point.  And much to my chagrin, I discovered that I had taught next week's lesson this week.  I was so embarassed because I had really prepared for excellence and was excited about having Joe & Janice with us.  When I thought about it, I realized how I had messed it up......  Next week, I'm the Closing Exercises facilitator.  On Saturday, I was brushing up for that week and got it's Main Point stuck in my brain.  When I came into class on Sunday, I just resurrected that thought process and continued with that corresponding lesson.  Truthfully, it was an understandable mistake.  So...  why am I sharing this with you? 
• First, I want you to understand that we will all make mistakes.  When they occur, we face a choice.  We can acknowledge them to ourselves and to others.  It's OK. 
• Second, if you are going to serve in Children's Ministry, there will be times that things don't go as planned and God will still use that time!  Frankly, we had a great class.  The Closing Exercises were still relevant to the kids.  Nobody died.
• Third, our mistakes will sometimes cause us to make subsequent adjustments.  Given that I've taught next week's lesson this week, I'll need to adjust.  I've decided that the story of Solomon turning away from God is still a rich story to continue to explore for another week.  I can never teach every element our curriculum offers so Alex, Stephanie, and I will tackle it from another learning style.
• Fourth, we didn't scare off Joe & Janice.  In fact, they had a good chuckle with me, felt relief that we aim for excellence - not perfection, and have committed themselves to serve in FW2 every third week as a resource to our team.  We've agreed to be fallible together.

Just thought you'd like to know...  Anything like this ever happen to you?

Comments

[Trish]

Thamks for sharing your story Hohn. I think that knowing that even you make mistakes, can help all of us. Talk about a "teachable moment".

[Diane Morey]

John,
As a teacher in a public high school, I hear stories like this all the time. My favorite is when one of my colleagues (who taught a mix of French classes to sophomores and European History classes to Freshmen) in the first week of school came into class all business-like. She stood before the class and blathered on in French, asking kids questions about what they remembered from last year's french class. She was growing frustrated as the kids just sat there and stared at her with a "deer caught in headlights book." Finally, fifteen minutes--and no comments--into the class, she switched to English and asked, What is wrong? Why is nobody answering my questions? I'm speaking in simple French you should know by now! The kids in the class looked relieved to hear a sentence they understood. One brave young lady raised her hand..."Ms. Bradley, this is your Freshman World History Class!". My friend turned six shades of red and they all had a good laugh. The kids hadn't known her--or the school--well enough to speak up so they had politely sat through an upper level French lesson, quietly seeking a way to tell her she had her class schedule mixed up.