The High's Outweigh the Low's

This past Sunday night after returning from our family Easter dinner my husband congratulated me for surviving my first Easter as a staff ministry worker. I said, "uh, thanks." I was not really sure how to respond. I knew Easter was going to be a bit more challenging than an average Sunday and would need a bit more preparation. I didn't realize however the stress I would be under. Part of it was due to my poor planning in deciding to have a birthday party for my daughter the day before. In the twenty four hour period before Easter I had lost my keys three times and probably yelled at my children at least twice that number.

When I accepted the position of director my first Sunday was about one month out from Easter. We had a going away party for the previous director that day and during the meeting I was already trying to recruit volunteers to help on Easter. I was determined to be prepared and ready. Every week I seem to learn new things about this ministry. One thing I'm reminded of each week is no matter how prepared I am there will always be at least one or two glitches. This past week my Easter glitches were the following:

-I ordered sticker sheets from Oriental Trading Company to use as a craft and for the kids to take home. They came in and I didn't think to count them until the Saturday before Easter. Not only were there not enough for the three classrooms I needed them for they turned out to be boring for the kids and not enough of a craft by themselves.

-Because of the sticker sheet fiasco I decided to make up a new craft at the last minute for the four and five year olds.....rock art. I found a bucket of rocks in our resource room and thought the kids could decorate them to symbolize the stone that was rolled away from Jesus tomb. In addition I thought what four year old would not want to take a rock home. Turns out some four year olds don't like rocks and the ones that do like to hit other four year olds in the head with them. Probably a better craft for on older age group.

-I wanted the toddler class to have something special to do for Easter. Because of this age group they don't have as much structure as the other classes so we had an Easter Egg hunt for them. I figured toddlers would love plasic Easter eggs with an animal cracker inside. Well, some of them did but most of them were screaming too much to notice. Key learning for next year is to be sensitive to the fact that kids will be more upset than usual because they might have a different person taking care of them, will have more kids than ususal in their class and more kids they don't know.

-I bought pots of real flowers for our large group stage. In my mind I was thinking Easter, spring, colors, what we would do in adult church for the stage etc. Yes they added some nice color but I highly doubt the kids cared about it. For the expense I could have found something much better. Now I'm stuck watering these things at church every week so we can continue to use them to get my money's worth. Oh and then there is the poisonous factor. Note to self, let go of my own interests of hating fake flowers for the best interest of the kids were trying to serve.

There may have even been a few more here and there but these are the first that come to mind. After taking some notes on what I would do differently I wanted to make sure to evaluate what went well if anything at all (I am new at this.) Turns out there was a few things.

-Our Good Friday services had the highest attendance ever and although we did not have childcare during the 5:30 service our 7:00 kids service was great. My job does not include overseeing Friday night services but knowing there would be more kids in there than usual and more families visiting I felt compelled to help. We set up the time just like we do on Sunday mornings. They were able to do a craft that we had leftover supplies for and they watched a video from the current curriculum we are using. Mrs. Nancy from the Sunday 10:30 four year old class was in there helping out which blessed me that she would step up in an area she does not usually serve in. The kids that knew her from Sunday loved seeing her there and she really made a huge difference in the evening.

-Speaking of Good Friday at the end of the services four college students came up to me and enthusiastically told me they wanted to serve on Easter morning. I did nothing to recruit them they just came out of the blue. Each of them showed up on Sunday with the same enthusiasm and helped the classrooms go from being adequately covered to more than adequately covered.

-Cristen Reber who has been serving in Noah's Club for the past few years off and on did an outstanding job leading large group during the 7:30 service. That girl definitely has some talent that I do not possess. Hopefully she will be in there at least once a month to connect with the kids.

-On a personal note one of my prayers was that I could attend the Good Friday service and one of the Easter services. I was able to attend the entire 7:00 Good Friday service and thanks to Leah taking over I was able to sit in a majority of the 9:00 Easter service.

-Lastly but most importantly THE VOLUNTEERS SHOWED UP AND SHOWED UP BIG! Like the Good Friday services our Easter services had the highest attendence ever. During the last service they had to bring in extra chairs to the worship center and divert many people to our video venue. How this translates for Noah's Club is LOTS OF KIDS. Even with the high attendence the classrooms were more than adequately covered. Some teachers like Mr. Chip and Mrs. Leah served during two services. We even had a "first serve" lady named Tania who served joyfully during two services. I was so proud of our amazing leaders for being there early and helping these kids.

So in the whole process of doing this Easter thing for preschoolers I learned a lot. Lot's of things I would do differently next year. But for this year I'm celebrating the good and how it outweighs (to a certain degree) some of the challenges.