Another year of AWANA--Yay!

We have been super busy these past few weeks.  I figured it was about time for a blog post!

The completed "A" on his cubbies' vest stands for "All", because all have sinned.  The completed "C" stands for "Christ" who died for those sins. 

Luke and Abbey just recently finished another year of AWANA.  Well, it was Abbey's first year and Luke's second.  Abbey was in the adorable "Puggles" class for 2 and 3 year olds.  Luke was a "Cubbie" again.  In case you are wondering what the "AWANA" program is, here is a little blurb from their website:  "Awana is a global, nonprofit ministry with fully integrated evangelism and long-­term discipleship programs for ages 2 to 18 that actively involves parents and church leaders. Each week, more than 2 million children and youth, 330,000 volunteers and 260 field staff take part in Awana in 30,000 churches around the world. Offered through local churches, Awana reaches kids where they’re at and walks alongside them in their faith journey."  For Luke as a Cubbie, it involved memorizing scripture each week for the past two years.  I love that it requires a lot of involvement from the parents, which means that I am reminded of the awesome gospel truths as well throughout the year.  The kids also do activities during the week at home in preparation for the weekly AWANA club meetings.

I am so proud of Luke these past couple of years.  In the past 2 years as a "cubbies" he has recited 85 verses at club, memorizing 49 unique verses.   He is so serious every week about making sure he has his verse memorized.  This makes momma happy, as I know that the verses that I memorized when I was 3 and 4 are still hidden in my heart.  In fact, those first verses taught are the ones that come most frequently to mind.  Here is a fun throwback video clip of my brothers and I when we were little, reciting verses we had memorized.  My brothers were 11 months younger than me--I'm not exactly sure how old we were in this clip.  I would guess we were around 2 and 3 or 3 and 4. My sister was probably in my mom's belly, just born or a little baby and I am 3.5 years older than her. My siblings and I were very close in age and played together a lot.  I am pretty sure we developed our own language.  At least our parents could understand us!  We also had very thick Texas accents!  Ha!

Also--I love the "ever Latin life" (instead of everlasting life) for John 3:16 in my rendition!  And of course, we have to debate the actual verse numbers--so competitive even with Bible verse reciting!  And then there is Jeremy pestering Jason just like he still does. That video is just the best! 

Flash forward about 34 years or so and here is a picture of Luke and Abbey, who just finished another year of AWANA:

Here is Abbey in her Puggles shirt and Luke with his fully completed Cubbies vest.  He received an "emblem" for each completed milestone--which includes several weeks of verse and Bible truth memorization, and activities for each emblem.

And, here is Abbey....being "Abbey".  And making Luke laugh, as usual.

In case you are interested here are a couple of little videos from their awards ceremony.  I love how Abbey seems to be really feeling the beat in that Puggles song--ha!