Tonight the Surrey small group of CCGC invited me to come share a bit about time management with the kids, and it was so much fun to hang out with these dozen or so wonderful, energetic, hilarious, surprising, insightful kids! Once again I underestimated how bright and intelligent the kids are; I must apologize! Since nearly half the kids were fairly new and didn't usually attend the small group, I figured that we'd need a few songs and games to break the ice a bit. But I think the ice had already been smashed to smithereens by the time the kids were bouncing off the walls! :) They got much more engaged and focused once we got into the "meat" of things when I explained I Corinthians 9:23-27 -- living with purpose and making the most of our short time on earth. They totally surprised me with their terrific and very deep questions: is Jesus the only way, what about other religions? What about people who've never done anything bad but just don't believe in Jesus? What about First Nations people or other groups that might never have heard about Jesus? Is there an "unforgivable sin", and what does that mean? So much excitement and interest and wonderful questions -- we ran longer than the parents in the next room! I should have gotten into the Scripture earlier and left more time for questions; sorry guys!
Afterward, during the snacks, I stayed even longer to chat and have some informal Q&A time with the parents -- and that was quite rewarding, too, to see these parents who care so much about their kids, and not just about their marks in school or what instruments they played, but about their happiness, emotional growth, and spiritual status. Many of them observed that their kids are so mind-numbingly bored in school, they end up becoming trouble-makers -- yep, I was like that, too! But I am happy to see these parents taking responsibility for their own kids' education rather than leaving it in the hands of the schools. They are all good kids -- bright and talented and compassionate and analytical and expressive! The prayer, and the task, is to channel their interests into serving others to bring glory to God who created us and loves us. It's an interesting feeling now that I'm closer in age to the parents than I am to the kids; I really empathize with their heartache and the emotional ups and downs that come with parenthood!
This grab-shot was taken during the snack time, an impromptu performance by our ten-year-old virtuoso violinist, Lucy! She's super-cute and so energetic! :) She played some Vivaldi, and here she's playing an Oriental-sounding piece unfamiliar to me; it was highly technical, with lots of tricky intervals and slides. She's a real child prodigy, and more importantly, she's using her gifts to glorify God!