Serving with kids

I was just reading Julie's (The antics of the three 22nds) post about whether having four kids gives her an excuse not to serve (yeah, I know I'm behind). 

After we took custody of the girls and finally got them home, I suddenly got thrown into a world that I never had any reason to visit before - Children's ministries at our church.  Sure, I had tons of friends that have kids and they volunteer countless hours for the benefit of children in the church.  Julie is among those special people.  I can't think of anything more difficult than sitting with a flannelgraph and trying to get a dozen wiggly and distracted preschoolers to listen to you talk about God.  She does it ... and she does it well on top of everything else she has on her plate.  Scares the willies out of me.  Give me my computer and I can throw something up on the screen for the worship service - or let me take pictures or run the sound board.  Anything that doesn't involve talking in front of people ... even little tiny people.

This Sunday I spent my first stint in the preschool room.  The church is trying to give those who regularly serve a break for the summer and when I got to the room there was no one there.  Only one person had volunteered to supervise the preschoolers and she hadn't arrived yet.  However, the rule is: there must be two adults in the room.  Guess I'm working Children's Church beat.  What do we do? What do I say? Where are the crayons? Fortunately the other person in the room with me was a veteran - Val was a lifesaver - I was just the extra body there to keep us legal - she came in and she knew exactly what to do and where everything was.  I tried to help with the craft - messed that one up.  The kids were supposed to depict their families on a piece of construction paper using other little bits of construction paper that I cut up for them while they were listening to Val.  I cut the pieces WAY too big and most of their families came out looking like cubist abstract art.  I guess that's OK, they ARE preschoolers after all - what am I expecting Monet or DaVinci?

Over the course of the summer I will be leaping out of my comfort zone - VBS, Sunday School, Children's Church.  We'll see how it goes.

Oh, and to answer Julie on her post - if God gives what us what we can handle plus a little bit to push us to grow - I've got a long way to go to try to keep up with you.  Some people use their kids as an excuse, I'm hoping mine help me to stretch and grow in a lot of different ways including service.