Bible Stories at the Day Center!

After a couple worship songs in Russian led by Pastor Slava, we would start with a short Bible lesson that involved a game or some devise to make them think. Sentence by sentence I would read the story and Pastor Slava would translate. The first day we talked about the Napkin Story and the resurrection of Christ. Then the rest of the week we studied the book of Samuel with topics of “Fear and Courage”, “Trusting God”, “Vengeance and Mercy”, and then the Gospel presentation using the Friendship / Bead bracelets.

There are always a lot of distractions when teaching a Bible Lesson. A small game to drive home the point of a Bible truth always helps. Despite the long-winded minister (me!), the kids listened. They knew that I would play games with them, help them with crafts, and that I was the one responsible for bringing this week of activity together. If I could get them to see one Bible truth through our lesson, then I felt that they were getting the message.

On Monday, I used a purple ribbon and two paperclips as a devise to show them how God wants a relationship with them. I had the kids write Jesus in Russian in the center of this ribbon. I held up one paperclip and said this represents God, and the other paperclip saying this represented each of them. Then I placed the paperclip over the ribbon in a certain way that when the ends were pulled, the paperclips would be joined together. The ribbon, representing Jesus would join the paperclips representing God and each of them together. It was a way to introduce Jesus as the key that tied us together with God. The kids thought the little trick was interesting and I hope held their attention as I talked about what we were doing there that week.

One day, we were talking about Trusting God and I remembered a story I heard from the Director last April 2008 when we were there. Two boys broke their neighbor’s door at their apartment. The boys (about 10 years old) were worried that the police would be called and they would go to jail. They went and talked to Nadezhda, the director of the Day Center, and they all prayed together. They were depending on God and trusting in Him to help them. As I retold this story, it probably embarrassed the two boys there, but they remembered the incident and remembered that they sought after God in their hour of need and trusted in them. I told the boys and the group listening that I was impressed that they went to God with their problem and trusted in Jesus first!

On Friday, I shared the Gospel and explained the meaning of salvation. The kids listened intently. I went through each of the beads as a devise for explaining that God wanted a relationship with us. I did my best to keep it simple and short so I wouldn’t lose their attention. In the end, I asked them if I could pray a prayer and then if they wanted to, they could pray a prayer too to ask Christ into their lives. After the prayer, I asked if this was the first time any of them had prayed a prayer like that. Five kids raised their hands. I was so pleased. I’m careful not to just pray a prayer and take names and numbers for some ministry statistics. Sometimes Russian kids will pray the prayer just to please the American. I felt the moment was right and the attention was there. They might not understand all things, but I thought that the hands that were raised were honest confessions. I told them all welcome to the family of God and that one day we will all spend eternity together, along with Pastor Slava and members of my team in heaven together and remember this day!