Kids Will Be Kids...

For the first time in nearly 15 years, we have children in our church. We've never had a really big program for youth, just simply because we've never really had more than one or two children at a time. We've been truly blessed in the past year! We now have 11 children in our youth program! My mother and I began teaching sunday school last year and though we were doing a fabulous job *yes, I was bragging on myself *LOL*. We had purchased all sorts of activity books and quarterlies with all sorts of Bible stories to help in our teaching.

In late November, we were beginning to prepare for the start of Advent. Our older children understand what Advent is, but our younger children, they don't- so we just simply focus on the meaning of Christmas with them. While the younger children were coloring in their activity book, my mother asked them "Do you know who's birthday it is on Christmas?", the children looked up at us puzzled. Ok, I knew right then, we were in trouble. So my mother told the children, "It's Jesus' birthday". The children looked up at us and said, "Who's Jesus?"

I nearly had a heartattack. In our eagerness to begin teaching and getting sunday school off the ground, we forgot completely to teach them who Jesus was! Honestly, I guess we just simply assumed that they would know, but when you're teaching young children, you can't assume anything. After explaining who Jesus was to the children, Wooz *Brandy is her name, that's another story in itself*, and Blaye looked up at us and said "We've been to Jesusland". *Ok, Jesusland is not a real place*. Well, I had to bite my tongue so that I didn't bust out laughing. As calmly as we could, my mother and I both asked, "Where is Jesusland". Without missing a beat, Blaye replied, "It's on Roan Street". Ok, Roan Street is in Johnson City, and the part he was referring to, was one of the roughest areas in Johnson City.

I nearly lost it. Those kids have the wildest imagination. We've come a long way since November. They now know who Jesus is, but we've gone all the way back. Today, we started with "The Creation". We figured it was best to start from the very beginning, so there was no confusion. Well, no more confusion anyway. It's it funny what kids can come up with?