God is Real

The Lifeway material that we use for our Sunday School and VBS is good. This is no promo for Lifeway. But when I first volunteered to serve in VBS (because I was sending my son there and having to come back to fetch him) it was the first time I had seen a Lifeway manual.

Anyone who has never taught Sunday School or VBS before will agree that the instructions there are straight forward and the only panic you will get is - how are you going to be able to do so much in the short time you are given or how to remember it all without having to keep referring to the teaching manual.

[This is the part of Aunty Lani's briefing that I connect with - teachers cling on to their manual without realising that the children see us reading from the manual and not the Bible. So when this kid went home and was asked what happened at church, his answer was the teacher read a story from a magazine !! This is the pitfall we must not fall into - clinging on to the manual so much so that we forget to centre our lesson on God and the Bible.]

Anyway, the best part of Lifeway material for me is the Personal Study. When it's done - following the instructions for the lesson is easy. Lifeway gives many ideas. We can choose from them and select to do what we can. Sometimes, we have to play by ear with the children but never forget the lesson theme. When we have prepared ourselves in the Personal Study, the children we teach will be able to do what we want/expect them to do.

The VBS lesson this year for Wave 1 is about the theme "God is Real". In the personal study for Wave 1, teachers are asked this question - WHAT IS IT ABOUT GOD THAT IS REAL TO YOU ?

I know God is real. I believe God is real but how do I answer this question. In the lesson, the wave riders will be given a statement to finish : I know God is real because ........ I believe that as teachers, we are first to finish this statement before we can ask the children to do it.

I sat down to pray and think about this statement and as the Std 3 & 4 facilitator, I wrote to the teachers this :

God has certainly shown me that He is real in so many ways and at so many occasions - it's hard to recall now in which one He was not there. Many, many are personal and I shall not go into long stories here. But a common account is when I can never remember where I put things...which drawer or which cupboard etc etc. It always works for me to calm down and pray. I remember that He is almighty and my creator. I talk to Him and ask Him to help me stay calm and think. Where did I put that thing ? I say Amen and then so hard to understand how or why... I just walk to xxxx and there is that thing I was looking for. Halleluyah indeed ! Our God is so good and He is real.

Today I write to share my amazement of God in our lives that does not cease.

In faith, the VBS Committee added on a second Kindergarden class for the afternoon session because we had many children who wanted to register for kindergarden and there were no more places. My task was to look for teachers to take charge of this class..... actually I volunteered to do this and though I spoke so confidently that I would get the teachers, I just didn't know where to start. So I started to earnestly pray for teachers.

Then I spoke to Brandon and he was so quick to give me a name. God opens doors. And 2 days ago, I received a copy of an email for the teachers for that class to meet up. And there was a name of a teacher helper that was not on our VBS Committee list. Till this morning, I was still looking for a teacher helper.

From enquiries made, I was informed this morning that this teacher came to our VBS briefing and said she was helping out in the Kindy class. Everyone assumed she was sent by the VBS Committee and just included her in their discussion and planning. God sends people. God hears our prayers and He answers them. This is too wonderful for comprehension but all praise is certainly due. God is real.

When we serve Him, we see Him. And we also see how real and truly relevant He is in our lives.