Redeemer Kids: A Year in Review
From September through May, our children’s ministry follows the cycle of the church calendar and the narrative of the Bible to hear stories ranging from the beginning of Creation during Ordinary Time through the start of the church on Pentecost. Throughout the year, I get the immense privilege of having a front row seat to see our children learn and grow during this time and to witness the love of the volunteers as they shepherd these littles ones!
This year, I saw God at work in the faithful presence of each man and woman who showed up on Sunday mornings to teach the Gospel to kids, wipe runny noses, greet new families, and hand out countless goldfish crackers week after week. They have all loved these children and supported each other faithfully during the year and I am profoundly grateful to get to be a witness to this often unseen work of the Lord in our parish!
I want to share some of those stories with you, so here at the end of the year I’ve asked our volunteers to reflect on their time with the kids and share where they have had eyes to see and ears to hear God at work. Here are some of their responses…
Casey Cisco
Director of Redeemer Kids
Q. How did you see God at work in the lives of the children in our parish over the past ministry year?
“The 4th and 5th grade children are excellent readers. During our class I’ve rarely read the lesson’s Bible verses. Instead, I’ve seen God at work as the children volunteered to read and did so with voice, expression and feeling.”
“Caring for the children in our nursery is such a gift. In just an hour on Sunday mornings, we are witnesses to God's steady hand over their lives, their relationships with their peers, and their growth as human beings.”
“I have watched children in my class learn how to have fun with each other and how to include others in order to create a welcoming environment. I have witnessed kids learn how to take initiative on their own and apologize when an apology is needed, and I love seeing them treat each other with respect and learn how to be kind, even when they might not want to.”
“[In the children’s] growth in awareness that Jesus is with us in the room.”
“I saw so many children eager to read the passages out loud, happy to announce what time in the church calendar it was, and do a wonderful job of watching the lesson.”
“Children are learning the meta narrative of scripture and being able to answer the questions, what's in the Old and New Testaments.”
“I saw God’s work in the lives of the children… through their laughter and curiosity. I’ve been reminded that the most simplistic questions that children ask are the ones that we should be circling back to even as mature believers. I’ve learned so much by being asked simple questions and things that seem very ordinary to us as believers can be easily forgotten about or under appreciated. I like to believe that if I can explain something then I understand it and that’s why I love the kids curiosity.”
“In the 9:00 a.m. PreK class there was so much growth and excitement surrounding the church calendar that I had never seen before. They were eager to start new church seasons, excited to share what they knew about or had experienced in past seasons and engaged with Easter in a new way.”
“After a year of serving in the nursery with my two daughters, I see the toddlers in the congregation recognize them outside the classroom, want to be held by them. It's wonderful to see the bonding happen in both directions.”
“[I see this in] children who comfort their friends if they're sad, and children who recite Bible verses and songs.”
Q. Where did you see God at work through another volunteer?
“Our volunteer class assistants are, without exception, wonderful and dedicated teachers of God’s word. One Sunday morning when I was grappling with how to get across the ‘big idea’ of the lesson my assistant stepped in and gracefully took over. He began asking questions, focusing our restless class and leading them to discernment and understanding. God was definitely at work that day!”
“The men who have served in the nursery this year have been so loving and generous to our children… These moments have opened my eyes to how the Lord truly designed men and women in His image to work together in the mission of raising up our children; it is a blessing to serve alongside men on the nursery team!”
“DJ had such a gentle yet firm approach to the kids and was helpful in redirecting their attention.”
“Naomi is an incredible, joyful teacher! I adore how she engages the children, knows them all, gives them time to speak, responds in a way that they feel heard, and creates an engaging lesson for them!”
“Honestly, seeing Casey Scheetz wipe snotty nose after snotty nose feels like a beautiful example of someone serving like Christ served, like foot-washing but for babies.”
“Will has consistently showed patience and compassion to a child in our class that struggles with transitions. He is able to redirect energy, infuse a stabilizing presence, and mitigate the various stimuli that make it hard for this child to be with their peers.”
“I see God working through Mrs. Cody, as she learns that each class that she teaches in her life will require different kinds of teaching skills and ‘strategies’.”
“Callie Dickens has such a gift for capturing the children's sense of wonder.”
“All of the teachers I assisted were fantastic. Their passion for teaching, their enthusiasm and their patience with the kids was so evident and so impactful in working with and teaching the kids.”
“I saw God at work through Callie Dickens. I’ve had the privilege to be her assistant and I can see her heart for the Lord by her expressions through lessons. She kept the children engaged and never failed to give attention to every curious question.”
“I see volunteers who show up with a few days notice and also with a few hours notice. I see volunteers who are very tender with children who are crying or hesitant to go to their classrooms. I see volunteers who choose to serve for weeks or months at a time so they can establish rapport and consistency in their classrooms.”
”The insightful questions that Becca Goodall always asks the kids.”
Q. Whether silly or serious, what did you hear a child say that has stuck with you?
“One of our early lessons this year was from Samuel 1 about how the Israelites decided to use the God’s power in the Ark of the Covenant to win their coming battle with the Philistines. They did so without asking God for His guidance or permission. Disaster was the result. After reading the Bible story we’d barely begun the discussion when I was struck by how the class quickly, very profoundly and without my prompts grasped what the lesson was all about… You can’t put God in a box!”
“One little girl singing all the lyrics to All I Want For Christmas Is You . . . after not speaking for 2.5 years in the nursery.”
“Several children from our small group participated in Holy Week services this year. Several of them described feeling ‘the sad room’ during the Good Friday service, stating that they didn't know why it was all so sad, but they felt like crying, and described a heaviness to that service that was unusual for them. This stands out to me because it showed me how our services helped these children experience Holy Week, even though they could not articulate the theological truths being reflected through those services. Can my 5-year-old explain why we call "Good Friday" good? No — but she got to experience Good Friday anyway. And I believe that it is laying the rich soil for their minds and hearts and souls to receive the seeds of faith — and as their minds grow to better understand the sacrifice and suffering of Jesus, his sinlessness, and the depths of his love for us, their bodies will already be familiar with these rhythms and rituals. They'll be able to overlay that story onto what their bodies have been participating in for years. That makes me so grateful for services that are multi-sensory, and for a church body that is reassuring that children are welcome, regardless of their level of participation.”
“One girl's favorite part of Easter was remembering her own baptism!”
“‘I can wait’ (from a child who has struggled to wait).”
“At the Shrove Tuesday dinner, one of the toys set out for the kids broke, so one little girl tracked down Rev. Dan in the crowd to get him to fix it. I love her conviction that the pastor of her (fairly large!) church was someone who would know her and care about her problems.”
“One of the children a few weeks ago randomly came up to me and told me that her sister was sick. I asked what was wrong and she told me that she had a cold and that her mommy gave her medicine. I offered to pray for her sister and she said ‘no’, smiled, and the skipped away to go play with the blocks. It stuck with me because this happened in less than a minute and was absolutely hilarious, but I still prayed for her sister in my own personal time. It made me realize that we still get the privilege to pray for people that we’ve never met and sometimes people don’t want a prayer in the moment. They just want someone to talk to. I may not have been able to heal her sister or give her a lesson on what the meaning of prayer was in that particular moment, but I was able to be an available ear and show concern and I hope one day she gets that same personal experience with God if she hasn’t already.”
“Without being prompted to apologize, one boy looked at his friend right in the eye and said, ‘I’m sorry for being mean, will you forgive me.’”
“A little girl in the nursery has made it very clear that she's a big fan of Aubie the Tiger.”
“One girl patiently held her hand high in the air for the majority of our teaching time, and when she was finally called upon for her urgent question, she proceeded to tell us all about the new record player that she got in her house.”
“One teacher asked the kids to share their name and then one thing they wanted to tell God. When we got to one boy, we asked him to say his name and with so much emotion he said, ‘I can’t answer that question, I need to answer the next one. I want God to know that my family is going to have a new baby!!!’”
