The children lift up their hands to Yeshua-10th Avenue North

This semester's first grade chapel was a doosie. This year has been a stretching one so far. It's really different working with 15 boys and 4 girls. Most of them are Ugandan so even the parental involvement is surprisingly different. 

So when it was time for me to get 1st grade ready for their chapel, I picked something that they really loved telling the story of...Noah's Ark! 

We've also been learning about some of the different names that God has. One of the children in our class is named Emmanuel, which means "God with us". Earlier this year they had a homework assignment to find out what their name meant which really interested the children. So, this brought to mind a song that 10th Avenue North used to sing at camp called "God with us". As most of you know, I sing all the time. So I've been teaching the kids lots of songs through out the year so far. I have also been teaching the children some signs when we learn our word wall words to help them remember them more. So, combining these efforts I taught them to sign out the song "God with us". One of the lyrics is "The children lift up their hands to Yeshua, God of love, Emmanuel, God with us". Here's a picture a friend took of the kids signing that song.

The kids went on to move outside while I stayed inside the chapel. Just outside the door sat a small child squatting on the ground ready with the microphone. I started off by singing "The Lord said to Noah..." and he chimes in singing the wrong words- "to build me an archy archy." The crowd erupts in laughter. My kids all start screaming and standing on their tip toes to get a glimpse of how people were reacting. Oh my. I got the crowd and my children calmed down and corrected my student so we could start again. This time around things went much smoother with the lyrics, but the kids were still their rambunctious selves! In the process of me stepping out to get the weather people to come in for "it rained and poured...", the other children were in the ark singing "So Rise and Shine" and the animals on the ark decided to climb up onto the risers for some fun. Never a dull moment with these kids. 

We ended by singing the chorus "I will cast all my cares upon you" and had one my students tell the audience what that meant which was really rather endearing. 

While the chapel didn't exactly turn out the way I had originally intended, for the rest of the day I did have people walking up to me telling me how funny of a chapel it had been!

I am glad that week was over, as all in the same week was my class chapel, my assembly (where I taught the elementary school the song "He's my rock, my sword, my shield..."), report cards due, parent-teacher conferences and a special fellowship night with my KIU gals. Needless to say that Friday night I relaxed, but looked back on the week as a real experience and one where God was very VERY very present in my life! Praise the Lord for all of his goodness :)