Something in that communion....

It was my turn to teach CE this past week at Redeemer and the other two teachers were busy so Josh was my helper. I LOVE having Josh help me "wrangle" the kids on Sunday Mornings. He is so good, patient, and funny with them. They adore him which makes my heart melt.

We love Redeemer, it's a wonderful community of people and at the same time it is mission minded and outward focused. In a word, awesome.

But, as everyone says, if you are a married woman, be careful taking communion.

Seriously there must be baby juice mixed into that wine. I cannot remember the last Sunday that there was no rose, signifying a new baby, at church. The long term effects of this exponential growth are very evident in our CE class which had about 4-8 kids last year and has now become a class of 12-18 kids.

12-18 four and five year olds who have just sat very still for the past hour and a half during church, then ate at least four, count them FOUR, oreos, chocolate chip cookies, or some other energizing, wiggle inducing sweet treat from the kid's cookie table, and now are expected to behave for another hour before they are released to their parents.

Generally the class is fairly chaotic yet manageable for the first half hour. If we jump around a lot and get the kids winded before the Bible Lesson.

This week the lesson was on how God gave Adam and Eve, and subsequently us, dominion over all the animals and the earth. Here are some highlights:

Who was the first man?

"I know!! I know!! I know!! Umm...EVE!!!"

Isnt that cool that Adam and Eve got to live in and care for such a beautiful garden?

"Yeah, but then they SINNED and had to LEAVE"

Yes, but let's think about the time they were in the garden. Wouldn't it be awesome to name all the animals on the earth?

"One time I went to the forest and named all the animals there!"

"I named my Grandpa, before me he was named George, but then I named him Grandpa"

During the memory verse time, one "I have to go potty!!!" quickly became 12 "me too's!!!."

Taking seven little boys to the bathroom is a brave and terrifying undertaking. Josh came back looking like he had been to a war zone. The report: "Most went potty, a few just sat there, and Elijah is crying because he dropped his craft into the toilet."

I laughed and laughed.