Last June 27, 2010, the AWANA SY 2010 – 2011 started. It was a start of a new club year for the AWANA Ministry. New Commander in the person of Bro. Lyndon Zabala, and new club directors in the person of: Girlie Grace Balagot, handling the Sparks Club; Dennis Valles, handling the Flame Club; And, Gideon Pay-an, handling the Torch Club. Each club handles and teaches kids according to their level in Elementary School: the Sparks handle Grade 2 and below clubbers; the Flames handle Grade 3 and 4; Whereas, Torch handles Grade 5 and 6 as well as high-schoolers who want to join the AWANA Clubs.
The current school year started with 74 clubbers and currently has an average of 50 clubbers attending the AWANA Clubs every Sunday, 2:00 in the afternoon. And, also have 29 leaders helping, teaching and leading little kids to know Jesus Christ and training them to serve Him. This is the aim of AWANA Clubs, that is to teach and train them according to the principles of God’s Word, based from its theme verse, 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, A Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” AWANA as it stands Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed.
The AWANA Kick-off was the introduction and a special day for clubbers and the leaders prepared a period of games for them. A time to have fun and a time of laughter! It was also a time to introduce the leaders to the clubbers as well as the clubbers to their leaders. The activity done was a simultaneous game event from which clubbers are free to choose from, which game they would prefer. To describe it more, it was more like a fun fair, although there were no clowns or such. Some games were physical like shooting the ball, playing touch the body, bring me, etc. Other games, were Mind games like, unscrambling scrambled words, memorizing verses, answering questions and the like. And some were easy games mostly preferred by little kids, that is modified bowling and others. With all those games it was probably enough to motivate them to come back for next AWANA meeting.
But as the ministry of AWANA started, so are the battles and the challenges for the leaders. It is a challenge indeed seeing very young leaders handling young clubbers. For as the leaders know, the key for the success of the AWANA ministry, are they themselves, the leaders. For they are the main teachers, leaders and trainers of these young kids in knowing and following after our Mighty King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every leader is accountable to every clubber they handle. Every soul of each kid is on their hands. Therefore, great is the responsibility and accountability of these new leaders towards these kids who will soon become leaders of the next generation.
And probably a good question these leaders should ask themselves is “Where will their kids be after they are gone?” Evangelism and Discipleship are very important in our Christian lives and it is best done when we are young, easy to mold and to be trained. “As the twig is bent is how the tree will grow. As the mind is planted, is how the heart will know.” May God continually help these leaders as they lead the kids to and for Christ!