Sunday school

One of my official, formal titles in Ghana is “Sunday school Madame” – a little different from the simple “teacher” we have in the States, even as the class style is completely different. Here’s the general format the students follow:

1) Open with prayer
2) Sing action songs
3) Review the lesson from last week
4) Review the memory verse from last week
5) Report on the challenge from last week (homework-style assignment to be completed throughout the week; e.g. make a mark every time you obey your parents; make a mark every time you say a kind word to someone)
6) Listen to this week’s lesson (which, in Africa, is followed by the students asking the teacher questions about the lesson, and then the teacher in turn asking the students about the lesson…lots of repetition to make sure it’s understood!)
7) Learn this week’s memory verse
8) Get assigned a challenge for the coming week
9) Give offering
10) Say the grace and dismiss

I’m serving alongside an African Sunday school Madame, and she is wonderful at keeping order. Of course, her methods are again a little different from ours in the States: “If you don’t keep still, I will beat you!” She oversees most of the class activities: my responsibility is conducting #6, #7, and #8 above.

While I love children (as you might know), the position I’ve been asked to fill has frustrated me at times. The children don’t understand my English as well as adults do, and it’s not uncommon to finish a carefully-told story and find that I need to repeat it because no one understood what I was saying. Also, there’s no Sunday school rotation schedule at our small church, so I’m missing a year’s worth of sermons. =( However, my family continues to faithfully pray for me each week, and I try to serve as unto God, leaving the results in His hands. Some Sundays have been more encouraging than others…and this past Sunday was one of them!

We had two unsaved visitors – a boy, “Daoud,” and a girl, “Mona” – and the lesson was on Jairus’ daughter being raised/the woman with an issue of blood. As soon as the time for questions came, Daoud’s hand shot up. “Does this mean that if we just have faith, anything we trust for can happen?” What a great question! And when we went over Ephesians 2:8-9 for our memory verse, and I explained the meaning, he answered my question “What is the only way to get into heaven?” with “We must trust Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.” I told Daoud’s Christian mother afterward to please ask her son what he learned in class.

Please pray with me that God will save Daoud very soon if He’s not already. I’m thankful after all to be a Sunday school Madame. ;)