Random Acts of Kindness

This week at Bible Club the 5th graders had the opportunity to shop in the GFG store. The store is filled with many fun and interesting new things and the students look forward shopping in the store, and wish they could do this every week. While walking around the store with the 5th graders I noticed that they were not only picking things out for themselves but for others also. I stopped by Quincy who was at the jewelry, lotion, body spray, etc.. part of the store and asked what he was doing, he picked up a gold bracelet and said “I am picking out a late mothers day gift for my mom”, he later decided to go with the body spray instead of the bracelet. Later on I caught sight of ATia at the same spot and asked her what she was doing and she said that she wanted to pick out a bracelet for her mother whose birthday was in a few days. I asked what colors her mother liked and after she told me we found a beautiful necklace which she purchased with her GFG bucks! I have found that shopping at the GFG store gives the children the opportunity to show love to others through gifts. --Evian Schindler, Communications Coordinator

Jocelyn's Inspiring Decision

One of our goals at Bible Club is that students will learn personal responsibility; that they will take ownership for their behavior and be humble enough to learn and grow as a young person daily. Last night, it was a privilege to see one student at Bible Club exemplify this goal in a unique way.

Jocelyn is one of our 5th grade students, and she along with her peers, has been going through more extensive training in self-control and leadership to prepare them for the Impact Leadership Academy. In just 4 short months, our 5th grade students know and understand they will be graduating into the ILA and they are going to be asked to dream even bigger and do even greater things for God’s kingdom! Along with the excitement of this upcoming graduation from Bible Club, the 5th graders are putting forth the effort to become stronger and more disciplined leaders. We talked yesterday about the type of leaders they are going to be: servant leaders! That means it’s not going to be glamorous, they may not be up front, they won’t necessarily be praised, or even recognized all the time; instead a servant leader lays down their life to bless other people. To gain practice being this type of leader, the 5th grade class has been asked to really step it up with the CI Essentials; a set of guidelines that students follow to instill social skills and job skills into their day to day behavior. From “Raising hands” to “No inappropriate comments or gestures”, each essential teaches students to put others first and to understand what is and is not socially acceptable.

The CI Essentials are just way we help encourage personal responsibility with our youth. After a brief CI Essential lesson last night and a storm of questions about all the cool things they’ll get to do at the ILA, the 5th graders moved on with their normal Bible study. It was about half way through the night, when Jocelyn showed how much she understands what personal responsibility is all about. See, when they were doing their active bible lesson in groups, one of Jocelyn’s peers really upset her. A few weeks ago, Jocelyn would have probably rolled her eyes or responded negatively in the midst of her frustration. Yet what she did instead is something many adults could learn from… she just walked away! Her blood was just boiling and she knew that what she really wanted to do was let her peer have it; I mean she was really mad! She remembered our discussion from an hour earlier, about “Banning” any and all eye rolling, lip smacking, arm crossing, sighing, and other tantrum like behavior and she asked her classroom leader if she could send her self to reroute to cool down. Let me say this again, she actually sent herself to reroute! Talk about personal responsibility! Once in reroute, Jocelyn calmly explained what was going on, and she went back to class 10 minutes later and talked out her disagreement calmly with her peer! I was personally very humbled by Jocelyn’s great decision to walk away from the problem before saying something mean or acting out in way that would get her in trouble. I know I’ll think about Jocelyn next time I get mad or annoyed, and I’ll try to be brave enough to just regroup before dealing with the situation out of anger.

Atia's Faith

Recently during Bible Club, the 5th grade classroom discussed how God made all of us to reflect Him and how He lives in each one of us. The students and small group leaders discussed that if God wants his people to reflect Him, then we should act like God wants us too. During the middle of the lesson Atia, a 5th grade student, shouted “If you let God in your heart, then you have to act like God wants you too. Even though the nonbelievers don’t believe in God, they are still His children.” Mrs. Wanda, the Classroom Leader, reinforces that Atia is absolutely correct. Mrs. Wanda tells the students that God loves and forgives all of us; believers and nonbelievers.

After the lesson, I was curious to know were Atia had learned how important it was to act like God wants us too. She responded, “I don’t know. Well…actually, I learned it from my Precious Moments Bible my mom gave me when I was 3 years old.”