The New Awana Year ~ 2012

Awana is back in full swing in our church. We actually started back in August, and these pictures are from our first night.

First night chaos...

Catching Up on Other Things

We recently participated in our local AWANA Grand Prix. This is a very anticipated event in our AWANA schedule! The kids get very excited about making their cars and racing them. Even the adult and youth leaders get in on the action!

TNT clubbers' (3rd - 6th graders) cars

Will placing his car on the track

Mike, ready to release the cars in the TNT races

Will was SO excited to place 1st in Design! He's been trying to win 1st Place Design for a couple of years now. He made a submarine this year. He christened it the USS AWANA. If you look closely to the left side of the submarine, you can see that he even made a little propeller (by taking apart one of his dad's fishing lures) and attached it to the rear of the sub.

Kate (participating in the leaders category) builds her car for speed. But she always manages to come up with a pretty cool design as well.

Kate ~ the double winner ~ won 1st Place in both Speed and Design!

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How do you celebrate Valentine's Day in your home? I certainly don't like the way it is such a commercialized holiday (like all holidays). I don't like for my husband to feel undue pressure to run out and spend money buying things just to convince me of his love for me. 

On the other hand, I don't think it's a bad idea to set aside a day to focus on showing our love for each other. So... in our house, we meet somewhere in the middle. We do give gifts, just little expressions of our love. And we try to focus on becoming more loving to others, as well as trying to develop characteristics that make us more lovable.

This year we gave our daughter a beautiful red rose, to tell her that like the rose, she too is beautiful all year long and not just on this one day. My husband and I want her to know that she is special, that she is created in the image of Almighty God. And that she is a treasure to us. This is a turbulent time for her--those teenage years--when she is forming in her mind an idea of what true beauty looks like. We want her to know that it is so important to focus on being beautiful on the inside... of being conformed to Christ's image. We want her to find her beauty and her worth in Christ alone.

Don't we all need to know that? That what this world says about us doesn't matter. That despite what the media tells us, beauty and worth are not measured by our dress size, or by whether we are wearing the latest fashions. That we are created in the image of God, and that we are to reflect His glory... that's what true beauty is. If you are a daughter of the Most High King, then you are the apple of His eye! And that is beautiful. 

Awana Closing Ceremony

We had our closing ceremony for Awana last night.

This is an opportunity for us to reward the children for their hard work, memorizing scripture all year. And to recognize the leaders who spend all their time all year working with the children, teaching them God's truths!

Here is Will, receiving the Excellence Award from the Awana Commander.

This award is earned when three books have been completed in the T&T club.

Will is the only child I have in Awana now. It's kind of sad... The other two are in our church youth group on Wednesday nights. They have all grown up in the Awana program at our church. I think it is an excellent scripture memorization program. By the time they finish Awana they have memorized so much scripture and have learned so many of God's truths!

This is the T&T Club, 3rd - 6th graders

My foot was feeling so much better that I decided to go the ceremony. I just kind of walked around on my tip toes on my left foot. Surprisingly, I didn't have as much pain as the doctor told me I could expect! Therefore, I kind of walked around on it a good bit yesterday afternoon, and this morning.

But by mid-morning, I noticed my foot was bleeding through the bandage. I called the doctor's office and talked to the nurse. She talked to the doctor and then told me that whether my foot felt great or not, I need to try to stay off it as much as possible for the next few days.

So, it is back to the recliner for me...sigh. I didn't get to go to my daughter's softball game tonight. I won't get to take my kids to the "Farm/City Day" tomorrow. Our church deacons and their wives are hosting a dinner meet and greet for a prospective youth minister tomorrow night, that my husband and I are supposed to go to.

On a good note, my 11-year old son made homemade chicken noodle soup for our supper tonight while my husband and daughter were at her game. From the recliner where I was sitting with my foot propped up, I called out each step of the directions to him, and he followed them splendidly! The soup was delicious, and I was so proud of him!

Well, I know this won't last long and I'll be up and around again in no time. Until then, I've got lots of home school catalogs to pore over, pondering next year's curriculum choices.

2010 Awana Grand Prix

the cars as they were being checked in by the clubbers

Every year our Awana clubs host the Grand Prix, where the clubbers design and build small cars to race. The kids can make their cars to look like...well, cars...or they can come up with a different design altogether. For example, my son chose to make his car look like a wii remote, as seen in the photo below.

The races are divided into three different divisions -- Sparks, which are kindergarten - 2nd graders, T&T, which are 3rd - 6th graders, and Leaders, which are obviously the adult leaders, plus any 7th graders and up that may be working in Awana. The clubbers can place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in the design category as well as 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in the speed category. Will's car placed 3rd in speed in the T&T race, which is kind of funny to us because he wasn't building his car for speed. He was going for design. He was a little sad that his car didn't place in design, but there were several other cars that were really neat. Overall, he was happy to win a trophy!

Below are some pictures of the evening. I hope you enjoy them!

waiting for the race to begin

getting ready to race

waiting for their cars to come down the track...the little fellow

on the right is Will's best friend and his car won 1st in speed

3rd Place in Speed