AWANA meetings in the age of COVID-19

As with everything else nowadays, AWANA is likewise affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our AWANA program has chosen to meet each Wednesday at the normal times via Zoom video. Surprisingly, I would estimate that at least 75% of the kids still attended once we went virtual. We start off at the intro Zoom meeting with all the clubbers together – praying, reciting the pledges, singing the AWANA song and hearing a short lesson. Our AWANA director has been very creative in trying to stay faithful to our original AWANA calendar themes that had been planned – here is the calendar for March/April:

She encouraged parents to take pictures or video of themselves and their kids doing some of these activities (such as hiking, pool or shopping) and then she made a video of the submitted activities.

Counsel time for our club (Truth & Training) is prepared by our director ahead of time and posted on YouTube. Parents are expected to have the clubbers watch the counsel time lesson before the night’s activities start. Then, after the main Zoom meeting, we break off into handbook time. I have two 4th graders who have faithfully attended each week since we’ve been meeting virtually:

Actually, I think this has worked out very well. The two clubbers I have were prepared and engaged each week and we had some great conversations. I think there was actually less distraction and “goofing around” in the virtual meeting compared to the normal handbook time.

Our small group had some great discussions about the following topics:

1. Faith in light of the current coronavirus crisis
2. The plausibility of Noah’s ark fitting all the animals (when discussing some verses from Genesis 6)
3. The Trinity (while discussing the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23). Emphasis being that the Trinity is One God, revealed in Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is a mystery, but it is not a contradiction.
4. The topic of who or what you’re living your life for. Are you living your life for XBox/Fortnite or for Jesus? If it is for Jesus, does your life show that?
5. The spiritual rebirth (being born again) and righteousness – both behavioral and “imputed” (while discussing Ephesians 2:10 and 1 Timothy 6:11). During the discussion on being born again, as I explained to them what it means to be born again. I taught them the meaning of a saying that I will never forget: “born twice, die once; born once, die twice”. They really liked that one once I explained it to them.
6. The reality of heaven and hell while we were discussing the “path of life”. We discussed how each person has the choice where they go.

I have treasured these times and I hope they have been meaningful for these 2 clubbers as well! One of them even asked if we could continue to meet over the summer!

Praise be to God!