This summer is spinning by in a swirl of assembly skits, cool pops and glittery paint projects. I’d like it to spin a little slower.

I love being the Kinder’s intern. Their little hands, big eyes, wide smiles and quick feet (how do they move so fast??) are ever challenging, unpredictable, and delightful. The tinies stole my heart day one. See for yourself:

See? Your heart is melting too. Now that you’ve met Camp Faith’s smallest crew, be prepared to simply adore them (if you don’t already).

Teaching Bible study to small children is ah, shall we say…TOUGH. Remember those sweet hands, eyes, smiles and feet I mentioned? They are constantly on the move. To accommodate the energetic little chickadees, time teaching the Word must involve fun and engaging activities to keep their short attention spans.

One such game came after a lesson on the Armor of God. God gives us special pieces of armor to protect us. We put on this armor by praying and listening to the Holy Spirit. We use the armor of God, as his truth to protect us from the lies of the enemy. You and I know this- it is infinitely harder for 4 and 5 year olds to understand. So, Camp Faith’s insightful director and my dear friend, Miss Anna, found a game to illustrate this point. The idea is to write lies on balloons and put the truth inside. I wrote lies like “I don’t matter” and the truth on a slip of paper inside, “Children are a gift from God.” (Psalm 127:3) Kids got to “pop” the lies with the truth. Keep in mind- I used truth from scripture and was so, so careful to talk about finding the truth in the Bible each time we popped a balloon. My objective in the lesson became helping the children understand where Truth is found.

We popped 7 “lies” to find the truth. At the end of the lesson, I asked my sweet Kinders where we could find God’s truth.

“IN THE BALLOONS!”

Dear Reader, I know you are probably laughing right now, but in that moment, my hand looked like it would be permanently stuck to my forehead.

Truthfully, sometimes lessons like this are discouraging. I want to see results, see the Kingdom built before my eyes. Ushering Heaven to Earth is definitely more than a little bumpy, but I cling to this truth: God is at work.

God is at work in more ways than I can see. He is working all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

Sarah Bessey writes about being part of that work in Jesus Feminist:

“But when Christ begins a work, he finishes it. His heart is for his sons and daughters, for their freedom, and he welcomes them home into the family; we are part of that holy work. And if we are called to the hard, unsexy work of setting things right slowly with little visible success, we can remain joyful in perseverance.”

I pray for joy in perseverance, to be faithful even when I can’t see the whole picture.

Let me leave you with a little happy from a most precious kinder, Isaiah. He spoke this prayer during Bible study.

“Jesus, I know you love us. You protect us and keep us safe like a shield. I love you. Amen.”

Maybe there are little successes after all.

– Sarah Kate