AWANA Helper - Help!

Every Wednesday from 6 pm to 8 pm the children go to Kid's Choir and AWANA at our Missionary Alliance Church. AWANA is an international K-6 Bible Study program (Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed), consisting of weekly memory verses, a Bible lesson, related craft, and music, followed by active, cooperative PE games in the gym. The children wear vests as uniforms, and various badges and pins get affixed as they work through their verses.

This year, I'm an assistant in Daniel's class, responsible for listening to the K-2nd graders (AWANA Sparks) recite their verses. Nursery care is provided for Emily, and Timmy goes to AWANA Cubbies (preschool club).

I didn't volunteer for this mind you, since I try not to get too involved in the years I give birth. But the AWANA leader asked me if I could help, and I found myself saying yes, before I could get my hand over my mouth. Are you a sucker for personal appeals too? I've found that I can never utter the words "sorry" or "no", when asked directly. I did tell her I might have pregnancy bedrest in November (for Pregnancy Induced Hypertension), in case she wanted to look for someone else. She said that would be no problem, and signed me up. Yikes!

I'm ashamed to admit this, but even though I've been a Christian for eleven years, I've never bothered to memorize the order of the books of the Bible. That's something that people usually accomplish in AWANA or other church Bible Clubs, during their school years. But I wasn't brought up in church, (Catholic church doesn't count - they don't read the Bible, generally) and as an adult, I've been content just knowing the general sections of the Bible, and then thumbing through a little to find what I'm looking for. I'm much worse with the order in the Old Testament, since I don't read as much in it, unless I'm doing a commercial pamphlet Bible Study that has me reading all over.

So, see, one of these smarty pants kids is going to FIND ME OUT! They're supposed to at least try to look up the memory verses on their own, in our presence, before reciting them. That means if they're clueless, I'm supposed to step in and help them quickly find what they're looking for, and try to help them with their book-order memorizing, as needed.

Now, my husband is a walking Bible reference. After spending five years in Bible college, the man knows his books, chapters, verses, themes, interpretations, alternate interpretations, and his apologetics. With him at my disposal, I've not really needed to memorize anything, except my favorite verses. I usually just tell him the idea of the passage I want, and he gives me book, chapter and verse. It's been working nicely.

But no more of the easy way. Starting tonight, part of my devotions will have to be spent in getting up to snuff on this book order thing. I HATE MEMORIZATON WORK!

You know who's behind me getting roped into this, don't you? Yeah, God. He's kind of sneaky sometimes.