AWANA what?

AWANAs
What in Zues' rear end is AWANAs you ask? Sounds like some sort of cheesy children's camp doesnt it? Well you're right about the cheesy part if you are an adult, but if your'e three it's a blast. Not to mention a free snack that mommy doesnt have to pay for. Well OK, the real reason for AWANAs is to teach young children the importance of Bible study, verse memorization (ok Im not all gung-ho about the verse memory for youngsters (3&4 year olds), but thats just me. Not only that they get to hang out with friends from school, and to make new friends with those that dont go to their school or daycare. To me it's all good fun and I get to act my shoe size rather than my age for a short while. Anybody that knows me, knows that Im just a big kid at heart. Ive been known to play with my daughters tinker toys or Lincoln logs sets. (Yes I did say that and yes they are still in production.)
So whay capitalize AWANAs, doesnt sound all that important - well no not in the great scheme of things AWANAs itself isnt all that important, but its good to go. AWANAs is actually an acronymn. Write this down if your'e absolutely particular:
Approved
Workmen
Are
Not
Ashamed.
Now if you look down the left sand side of those previous four lines you have AWANAs spelled vertically. Im not sure what scripture it relates directly to but Im betting its somewhere in the New Testament. AWANAs has three sub-goups or clubs. Cubbies, Sparks, and Truth & Training. Cubbies is for the youngest set - the three and four year olds, the next one up is Sparks, those are for those that are entering school - Kindergarten up to 3rd grade I believe, but someone who knows what they are talking about can leave a correction for me under the comments for this specific entry or leave me an email at dr_vfib{at}hotmail.com.
Truth and & Training is for what I call upper-elementary or at least that is what they called when I was stil in school. Its for grades 4-6th I believe, but nowadays they integrate 6th grade into middle school. Beyond 6th grade is the Youth Group but we'll get into that in a few years when Maddie gets there.
Now your'e probably sitting there thinking - yeah this is knock-off Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts wannabe club that instead of teaching children something useful, they shove Bible verses down their throats and the kids are expected to recite them from memory. Well, you're sort of right and mostly wrong.
Yes AWANAs is somewhat of a knock off of Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts, but as far as structure, lessons taught and what not - it bears very little resemblence to those afore mentioned Scouting clubs.
Here they teach kids lessons such as making right choices, having morals, and whatnot. It also gives the kids some time to go over the classic Bible stories that we've all heard at some point or another, but maybe we dont have all the details down. I know I dont. I didn't exactly grow up in the church, and I admit its a little embarrassing to have these stories referred to in the lesson or storytime but not able to answer for the details of the story. For instance, the story of David and Goliath. OK we all know the story and there's some science in that story that seems to give it some credibility. But as for specific details such as knowing that this David is the boy King David that is the son of Solomon (or maybe he's the father of Solomon, either way there is a Father-Son relationship to Solomon somehow). But back to my main point is - these kids get repeated exposure to the stories, and the lessons they present. Not only do they get the details, they get to keep the lesson that they learned from it as with David and Goliath, the lesson of that story is anything is possible through faith and believing you can do it (although to Miss_P that lesson does have its limits :wink: ) You dont have to be big, strong, or powerful to bring down a bully. You can use your head to do so.
Making right choices and having your morals about you, these are foundations towards building a better childhood, better relationships, and hopefully these lessons will stay with these kids for rest of their life if their home life is consistent with what they learn at AWANAs as well as at Scouts, school, or anywhere else for that matter. This is the main point of AWANAs. Laying the foundation for a brighter future.
To find out what really happens at AWANAs see below. Oh yeah, there is a 56K warning - I have included a short video along with the pictures, so if you have a slow internet connection this may take a while to load, if not, scroll down mates!