Ranaldi Way of Life

SO today It felt good to be back in my classroom at church.  These kids are so amazing. They are full of energy and eager to learn. Some of their questions and comments throw me off guard and challenge me and I love it!  They are a smaller group this time of year and although I would love to see more kiddo’s walking through my door, I really enjoy the time I have to spend with each one of them right now.

For today’s lesson because we had a smaller group I didn’t do the outdoor game or the Bible exercise from the material, instead we pulled out our journals and did an exercise on the story of Jonah.  We discussed the story of Jonah as we played the video. They wrote a summary of the story and lessons God was teaching Jonah while drawing a cartoon type storyboard.  I know we have watched the veggie tales version of this story before but when I asked them who Jonah was this is what I got:

Me : “Okay we are doing an exercise today about the story of Jonah. Do you know who he was?”

Student #1: ” Ya, I know… wait um….”

Student #2: “I know, it was Jonah…. Jonah’s Arc right? He’s the guy who built the arc with the animals.”

Me “No, that’s Noah…and it was Noah’s Arc….this is Jonah we are talking about today.”

Student #1 “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of him…but if he didn’t build the arc then why do they call him Jonah Arc?”

Me “Are you thinking Joan of Arc?? That wasnt a he it was a she and a completely different time period… ANYWAY, Jonah was a prophet sent by God to speak to Ninevah…He did not want to go there because the people were very bad mean people.  He was scared and didn’t feel they deserved to hear the Word of God.  Can you think of anyone today that is bad like this?”

they thought seriously for a moment

Student #3 “OH yes! Osama bin laden!”

Student #4 groans “that’s what I was going to say!!”

Me “well, let’s try and think of someone alive.”

Sudent #5 “HITLER!!”

Me: “Um… alive.  Who do you know of that is alive today and is a very mean bad person that you don’t like?”

Student #3 “Oh oh oh oh ! That Kony guy!!! He’s real bad!”

Student’s #1,2,4,5, 6 and 7 “Who is Kony??”

Student #3 “He’s this bad guy in Africa who kidnaps kids and makes them kill their parents. Watch Kony 2012 and learn about it! …well um… I’m not sure if it’s apropriate though…(as he then looks at me)”

Me “How do you know who Kony is??”

Student #3 “my sister. I ….what’s the word?? I… I… advocate for them… I help her spread the word about him because he’s a bad guy and we need to send soldiers over there to get him even though he has an army of children protecting him right now.”

*the other students sit in silence*

Me “OKAY… so yes Joseph Kony is a rebel in Africa.  He does kidnap children and hurts a lot of people.  SO let’s use this example okay?? WHAT if God asked you to go straight to Africa and walk up to Joseph Kony and tell him about God’s promise of salvation? What if God told you in a dream to go give Joseph Kony a message that God loves him and wan’ts to offer him eternal life in Heaven with him? Would you do it? How would you feel?”

*they thought a moment (i was very surprised no one blurted out some goofy answer, they seriously thought on this one*

STudent #2 “Yeah I would go, but I would be scared because he’s a really dangerous guy, he might kill me.”

Student #4 “Oh yeah!! He would probably kill me before I even got to talk to him!”

Me “would that mean you wouldn’t try doing what God asked you to do because you felt you already knew what would happen?”

Student #1 “No…I would go talk to him, but I would bring a gun just in case…. I also would take a plane, because Im scared of boats.”

Me “Okay, so what would you say to him when you got there? What would you say to a really bad man?”

Student #3 “I would be like his therapist and ask him like um… what happened in his past and why is he so angry… ”

Me “That’s very good…do you think he deserves to hear God’s message?… Do you think he should go to Heaven even though he’s a very bad guy?”

Student #5 “I don’t think bad guys go to Heaven.”

Me “what do you mean?”

Student #5 “I think that only good people go to Heaven. Maybe he is a bad guy now, but IF he were to go to Heaven it would be because God changed him…. right?”

Student #6 “Oh YAH!! God could change him and make him a better person, but he would use someone like Jonah to help him do it  right?”

Me “Possibly.  What would happen if that person tried hiding from God and tried to refuse to go talk to Joseph Kony … Like Jonah did”

Student #3 ” He would get swallowed by a whale? Wait no, elephant…. um no, what do they have in the water in Africa?? um.. Hippo??”

Me ” Ha! maybe not literally, but do you think it’s important to remember to trust God when we feel like he is asking us to do something we dont want to do, even if it’s hard? And NOT try to hide from him or avoid Him?”

Student #3 “yeah, we can’t hide from God anyway. He’s everywhere.  Well maybe if we were dead.”

Student #6 “No, if we were dead, we’d be dead and it wouldn’t matter….plus GOD would BE there if we were dead.”

Me “What did Jonah learn?”

Students “To not judge people and obey God if he calls us to do something hard.”

*silence as the continue drawing in their journals*

Student #4 “so….does that mean we might have to go to Africa now?”

….class dismissed…LOL.