We had childrens ministry at the church in Côte d’Ivoire a couple times a week with close to 100 kids!
We taught a few Bible stories including Daniel and the Lion’s Den, David and Goliath, and Joshua and the Wall of Jericho.
We would start with worship, led by their youth leader and in their native language or French. To finish up worship Melanie would lead a fun song about loving Jesus that the kids absolutely loved! It’s called “potato chip” and quickly became a crowd favorite. We would hear them around town saying, “potep-a-chip”, “potep-a-chip”.
Next we would review the scripture verse for the month; Proverbs 3: 5 & 6. This was my part to lead and the verse became a large part of my race afterwards. Larry, our translator, read the verse line by line in French and they would repeat the verse back to us then say it as a group all together. After a few rounds we asked if anyone could say the whole verse on their own. To my surprise some had it down pat day one and could recite the verse by memory. It was really important to help them learn to memorize the verse because most of the villagers did not have Bibles.
After the memory verse Joey would tell the Bible story. We asked a few questions at the end of each story to highlight the important points and to help them remember it. Their next task was to act out the Bible story. This was my favorite part! To see how they acted each detail of the story and were so creative and bold was impressive.
David and Goliath:
When we completed the story and the lesson behind each one and how it ties into our theme verse we would close in prayer then play games. We taught them red light- green light. Haylee did so well with that game!
Melanie and I sang boom-chick-a-boom with a group of kids as well. Before leaving there was organized chaos with each of us surrounded by kids or leading a song or leading a game. It was awesome. They had so much fun and it was a joy to make them laugh.
Walking home, we always had a crowd escorting us the whole way. They showered us in flowers and we played clapping games and made silly faces. Language was no barrier for our interactions. They were always filled with love and laughter.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5 & 6. NIV
