I had the opportunity tonight to oversee the children as they ran Joy Scouts (J-Scouts), part of our children’s ministry here at Gracepoint Fellowship, tonight at our North Loop building while all the parents are in Bible study or other Friday night activities. I was amazed once again at how much they pick up just from observing and learning life from all the aunties and uncles and thankful for how our children can grow up together like this.
The older kids (Caleb, Josiah, Vu, Christine and Nathan), grades 3-5, together took care of, fed, taught a short program (on keynote) on what Memorial Day is, and ran games for 12 pre-K, kindergarten and 1st graders. I wrote up Elijah’s prayer for the meal because I think it captures a bit of how our children are growing up.
“Dear God, thank you for the food, thank you for this day. Help us to listen to Christine nuna and the hyung-ahs [nuna is older sister and hyungah is older brother in the Korean language]. Please help Naomi to be good in Texas. Please help the kids in Cambodia to be healthy. Please help all the sick people to get better. And help us to have a fun time tonight. In Jesus’ name I pray.”
I was personally touched by his short prayer. In it, he managed to locate himself in this family of God as a younger one who needs to listen to the older kids and identified the older kids as role models for the younger ones. In it, he acknowledged that we are a part of a much larger picture of what God is doing in the world by mentioning his good friend and old across the street neighbor Naomi in Texas, whose parents are my very good friends Manny and Sunny who left to start a church in Austin. And in it, he even had a global perspective of what our church is doing around the world (his mom went to Cambodia this past year and both parents went to Taiwan on missions too).
After the presentation on Memorial Day in which they learned that there were soldiers who died in a big world war that we are remembering this weekend, they played games and had a reading time as well (that’s what the picture is of). One of the games was a game similar to “Sharks & Minnows,” except that Elijah was chosen to come up with the animals, and he chose “Impalas & Wild Hunting Dogs.” Impalas? Geez, I didn’t know what that was in kindergarten!? And the older children are already becoming experts in coming up with and running games for groups of 5-15! The older kids came up with the rules on the spot, some were designated as referees, others were team captains and they took turns running the games.
Of course, there are the little squabbles, the loud noise, the rug burns and the impalas who claim that they weren’t caught by the hunting dogs, but it was so fun to watch them. Very low stress (I even had time to write this up!) I’m so thankful our children have one another like this. Here’s a short clip of the Impalas vs. Hunting Dogs game. (‘m sorry for the quality, I had to do it on my phone.)
Before the impala game was Human Stratego, Rabbits vs. Snakes, and we ended the night with a rousing game of Toilet Tag! Too funny and too cute!
wow, i’m so proud of our kids – the older ones to take care of the younger ones so well, and even the younger ones like Elijah who was able to pray for his friend in Texas and for the kids in Cambodia that his mom met on the other side of the globe. this is a great snapshot into the life of our church.
I’m so thankful for the kids at our church, there is something very special about them. It’s exciting to see them grow up together in this community and I can’t wait to see how they will grow and mature in the ensuing years…
wow, i really miss these kids! i, too, was so blessed by Elijah’s prayer, such a sense of awareness and ownership over a wide sphere of concern. such a simple, yet moving prayer.
i’m excited to see how these kids will grow up and the kind of impact they will have on one another and beyond! truly, they have something so special and unique.
I am thankful I can be part of this church where we act as a village raising these kids together. It’s really such a privilege to be an auntie to so many kids and that challenges me to be all the more alert for our kids.
boy, these kids are better that some adults who can only think of themselves!
Elijah’s prayer almost brought me to tears =). I am really glad our kids can grow up in this kind of setting.
Too cute! Thanks for the clip, too.
Wow! I’m so thankful that my kid has not only a village of aunties and uncles to raise her, but all of these older brothers and sisters to teach her to think about life outside of her personal drama and demonstrate the Body of Christ in action. Some people ask us if we’re going to give her a sibling, and as much as I’d like to, I have nothing to worry about for her, because she has a bigger family than she could have ever asked for. She has plenty of brothers and sisters to beat her up (er, I mean, shape) and for her to bea…shape, a lot more than me and my three siblings did.
What a blessing.
I think it’s wonderful that Elijah prayed for the kids in Cambodia.
Tony Kim
Gracepoint Fellowship Church in Berkeley
It is so touching…
I’m so thankful that our kids are growing up being connected in a rich web of relationships! Haha ‘Impalas & Wild Hunting Dogs’ that’s hilarious.
our children are indeed already living out a community and know how to think about others! they are so blessed.
I’m so thankful that my kids could grow up in such a wonderful community!
It’s great to see these kids grow up in such a rich community!
What an amazing prayer from such a young child. I’m thankful that my son will be growing up in this community that stresses such important values even to our children! Not to mention how such a prayer even challenges me!
i was so touched by elijah’s prayer! so cute. i am so thankful to be a part of this rich community and church, and so thankful that my child has aunties and uncles, as well as older brothers and sisters to imitate and model after.
awww, that is so precious… i’ll let my roommate naomi know that her dear friend has been praying for her!
thank you for sharing!
I wonder if he got the impalas and wild hunting dogs from Planet Earth… And if so, I wonder if he just thought they were playing tag. =)
These kids and this community are really something special.
our church proves that it really is this kind of time-intensive social problem solving and responsibility that helps kids to develop and flourish, something that schools and individual families really struggle to duplicate. what a special place we have here!
i have to explain what toilet tag is. it’s hilarious! so, if you’re tagged out, then you have to pretend to be a toilet, so you’re pretend-sitting, and then you have to hold your hand up to the side to pretend your hand is the flush. and if someone wants to set you free, that person has to pretend to sit on the toilet (you) and flush using your hand, and then you’re free again! it’s so funny to watch them play that one!
haha, i have never heard of toilet tag. thanks for describing it for us!