Sunday School teaching comes from God!

Yesterday I had a student in Sunday School. Generally I do not have any students in my high school/college age class, but in one walked yesterday as I was catching up with a three-year-old. I knew he would be in my class because he was big :), and the thought that attacked was, "You aren't ready for this student! All you planned for a lesson was to talk about angels and Jacob!" It was true that I hadn't very clearly defined what the lesson could be. But I knew that I had worked with the Bible Lesson that week and that those two simple ideas had been angel messages themselves about what to talk about this week.

I also have been cherishing something from the Manual one member of my branch church has shared a couple times recently, that Sunday School teaching is to be by question and answer...I'm not trying to cram information into some kid, but rather revealing what's already there--like we talked about "educere" "leading out."

So during our silent prayer I acknowledged that our Sunday School lessons were complete and that they included what everyone needed (teachers, too). I asked our visitor if there was anything he wanted to talk about from the Lesson, since he had marked books with him, and he said, "Well, actually my favorite story is in the Lesson this week." ............ Yep, you guessed it--Jacob wrestling with the angel! Ends up this young man drew a lot of strength from that story as he dealt with a challenge over the past year or so. Also, he said Truth was his favorite synonym, so I shared "reality" as a synonym for Truth...which he loved...and it fit so well since the Lesson was on unreality. I felt positively buoyant during the whole session!

I realized two things afterwards: 1) God had connected the student with me. It had zero to do with any effort on my part. So I realized a bit more that I'm not a factor in the "success" of Sunday School. It's a complete, divine idea totally in God's keeping. 2) Going back to avoiding human perfectionism ...I realized that the lesson plan I had came through inspiration and had no need of a laboriously organized plan with marked citations, planned review questions, etc. It just flowed, and I watched it happen. I felt relieved of a false sense of responsibility and so joyous that all was perfect--I just knew everyone truly did "get" what they needed.

-E.D. Virginia USA

Youth Committee planned successful lecture

In April 2008 a youth committee formed from Christian Science Sunday School students in Buenos Aires Argentina organized a lecture, Demostra el poder del Amor. It was held in a church in Ciudadela, a suburb of Buenos Aires, and was sponsored by Second Church Buenos Aires, Third Church Buenos Aires, and First Church, Ciudadela. The church seats about 80 people. Almost 175 attended, filling the church, foyer and anterooms!

The youth had regular meetings to design and produce flyers, invitations, a postcard invitation and banners. The designs were completely fresh and innovative. They put banners and flyers at the church where the lecture was held, also at various churches around Buenos Aires.

People from the community came. The youth also helped organize 2 buses of people coming from different locations in BA. One was a full size bus. The other was a smaller combi. This enabled people to attend since the church is in a suburb at least ½ hour from the center city.

The church was completely packed. Every seat was taken before the choir started. They filled the foyer with seats and arranged for a closed circuit TV for those in the foyer. They put kids chairs from the Sunday School in the aisle entrance in the foyer and those seats filled as well with adults. About 18 teens sat on the floor beside the improvised stage area, filling all open floor space. People were standing along the back walls. People were standing in the foyer, in the courtyard and a back anteroom. The sound was very good via a wireless mike.

The kids had a small adult choir sing 3 songs before the lecture, 2 were hymns and the 3rd was a modern rendition of a song, Ezekiel Rocks. It was spectacular. The kids made cakes and cookies for after the lecture.

Many of the parents said that this was the first lecture their kids had attended. There were kids of all ages. Some brought their girl/boyfriends. The kids did the ushering and shoehorning of people into the church. They arranged the stage area and then rearranged it at the last minute to remove all the plants and decoration so that more people could sit on the floor.

The youth approached everything collectively and through prayer. It was clear that the entire activity was planned with confidence in good, grace, harmonious working together, prayer for guidance, inspiration, spontaneity and flexibility.

This is the first time the youth have gotten together to do a joint lecture. It was such a success that they were immediately encouraged to plan other church activities. It will be exciting to see where God leads them.

-Elise Moore