More Children’s Ministry & Easter @ EELY

3/8/15: Filling in for my friend Joelle Sobngwi (when she was in Tanzania) leading Sunday School at Église évangélique libre de Yaoundé (Free Evangelical Church of Yaounde). After dramatizing the story of “Jesus Calms the Storm” and singing, Grandma Gracie chats with children as they work on their Bible story coloring sheet. Grandma and I wear our ‘International Women’s Day’ fabric on this annual celebration day.

3/22/15:  “The Big Catch”. Joelle translates as I share the Bible story of Jesus telling his disciples to cast their nets one more time after catching nothing all night.               Left: paper cut to illustrate the multiple fish caught. Right: The children are fascinated with my fish props.

Pastor (Joelle’s brother, seated on right) had asked me to introduce myself on April 5, share what I was doing in Cameroon relating to Bible translation and at the church plus a little on my testimony. Being a French speaking church, an interpreter was necessary.
Children helped me tell the Easter story as they opened each resurrection egg and told the significance of the 12 objects (donkey, silver coins, cup, praying hands, leather strip, thorn crown, nails, dice, spear, white cloth, stone, empty egg). The exciting part was to see the number of children who raised their hands indicating they prayed the salvation prayer for the first time.	Bible story review game: Joelle held up each item related to the Easter story; I called on a child to tell about the object. When they answered correctly, the child chose a blue or pink egg with points for their team; paper eggs were placed on a pocket chart held by a helper.
A potluck dinner followed the morning service. Delicious Cameroonian food was enjoyed from the pews.  My favorite this day was a mixture of  vegetables and meat inside of roll of deep fried dough. YUM!

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Children’s Church at Église évangélique libre de Yaoundé

My Cameroonian friend and English conversation partner, Dr. Joelle Sobngwi, invited me to bring puppets to her church, Église évangélique libre de Yaoundé (Free Evangelical Church of Yaounde) January 25 and assist her with the children’s ministry. 

The lesson for the day was “Jesus Chooses His Disciples” with the memory verse: Matthew 4:19, “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men. ”

I was delighted that the children already knew the song I grew up on:

“Fishers of Men”

I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men.

I will make you fishers of men, If you follow me.

Chorus: If you follow me! If you follow me!

I will make you fishers of men If you follow me!

Paper cutting stories captivate children in churches,    schools, and libraries. I was to glad to find our Bible story in a book I brought, Clip & Tell Bible Stories by Lois Keffler. Only need a plain sheet of paper and scissors.	I folded the computer paper twice vertically and cut in from both sides as I told the story, aided by the children’s ministry assistant who translated. What is it going to be?	My translator helped me stretch the paper out…to be a fishing net. Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their fishing net to follow Jesus and become “fishers of men.”
Jesus wants us to also follow Him, and be fishers of people. I asked the children if that meant we are to carry around nets to catch people…as I demonstrated with Joelle’s son Mathis. In unison the children shouted “No!”	Of course not! We are to catch people by demonstrating God’s love for them. I folded a 9x12 piece of red construction paper into quarters, then in half to cut out a ring of 8 hearts.	What a joy to discover that children on the other side of the world could join “David” and I singing “Fishers of Men” that I learned well  over half a century ago. The children are becoming bi-lingual.
Youngsters were invited to help Polly Parrot squawk –to help laying an egg easier.	Yah! There’s the egg. Inside was the memory verse written on paper.	Suzy Sunflower, with Joelle’s help, encouraged children keep their face turned to the Son of God, as sunflowers follow the sun in the sky.