A Teaching Tip from Jody

This week we are pleased to have a guest blogger! Jody Capehart is an author, educator, speaker and wonderful friend of CEF. We always look forward to her visits to teach classes here at CMI each semester. Jody's book, Cherishing and Challenging Your Children is a classic of instruction and motivation for children's workers. We love Jody and appreciate the time she gives to help us become better teachers.

The following article is from Jody's Web site, www.capehartconnection.com, and is used by permission. This idea about "Prayer Trees" could be used in the class, Teaching Children to Pray in TCE Level 1 or in Devotional Life 1 in TCE Level 2.

Using Prayer Trees

We all want our children to have a deeper prayer life. We encourage them to pray. At home, we may notice that our children’s prayers may start becoming more rote. In the classroom, we notice that whoever leads off with the first prayer request, everyone else tends to follow. For example, if the first child prays for a "hurt knee", suddenly every child has a 'hurt something'. If the first child prays for Grandma, the other children tend to pray for their Grandmas. So how do we deepen their prayer walk and help stretch in their walk?

This is a tool that I have found to be very helpful over the years. It begins to move their prayer life to a deeper level and helps you to bond with the students over time. The purpose of this is two-fold:

1. To have a tangible reminder of how God is working in our lives - to see the answered prayers.

2. To walk with children through the journey of praise when God says "yes", grieve with them when God says "no" and help them to learn patience when God says, "wait". Each one provides an invaluable training with the children in their spiritual journey.

How to Make It:
1. Put the outline of a tree on a bulletin board in your classroom, or if at home: by the kitchen table, your child’s table, or some easy to reach place.

2. When you pray, post major prayer requests on a tree that you have cut out of paper. For each month, select a new shape, fruit, or leaf to put on the tree. Cut out shapes or items for your tree that change each month.

For example:
September: apples
October: pumpkins
November: fall leaves
December: Christmas lights
January: snowflakes
February: hearts
March: shamrocks
April: lilies
May: apple blossoms

They don’t have to be authentic, botanical items. They can be a symbol to represent the holiday or month.

How to Use It:
Either you or each child writes a short prayer request and puts it on the tree. Each time you use the Prayer Tree; you look at the tree and take an item you have prayed for. When the request has been answered, the item moves from the top of the tree to the bottom of the tree, to look like it is lying on the ground.

As the year advances, the top of the tree, as well as the ground under it, becomes a kaleidoscope of prayer requests. Those on top are still unanswered and thus a visible reminder to keep on praying. Those on the bottom serve as a growing reminder of the many prayers God has answered. At the end of each year, gather up all the answered prayers, put him or her in a baggie and send them home with each respective student or at home, place them in your child’s memory box.

God's Children

In her e-newsletter, River Currents, Sheri Syverson, director of River Valley CEF in Arizona, shared the following story from Sandy Tees, one of her GNC teachers. This story would make a great illustration in TCE Level 1 classes such as Counseling a Child for Salvation or Encouraging the Newly-Converted Child. It could also be used in the Level 2 class, Being a Witness for God. Using true stories of real children in a GNC setting is an important way of keeping your TCE students focused on the value and impact of the GNC.

With squeals of glee the room at Yucca came alive with fifteen children ready for Good News Club on the second Monday in August. After a couple of months of quiet it was a joy to see all of their faces, the familiar and the new. I shared the Gospel Spotlight: God Provided, then gave the invitation for those not saved. A faithful club member, a third grader, made sure that her sister and a friend, both kindergartners, made their way to the back table to meet with me for the salvation call.

As I sat down and began talking with them, the third grader approached Mrs. Syverson to inform her that "they both know everything about being saved, I've told them all I know; but I wanted to make sure they did it right!" Both of the kindergarten girls were definite about their desire to have Jesus come into their hearts that day, resisting the temptation to join the others in a review game ongoing while we talked at the back of the room.

After they both said a prayer of repentance and acceptance, I said how happy I was to have them both as sisters in Christ, since we were now all part of God's big family. A head framed by blond curls looked up and a dimpled grin greeted my glance as she bubbled forth, "I love you" -- oh, how that touched my heart and reminded me yet again of why the precious time we give to Good News Club is so important! Not only are there two more names written in the Lamb's Book of Life, but a third grade missionary is hard at work in Yucca bringing more lives in touch with her Jesus. --Sandy Tees, GNC Teacher

Isn't that a great story? Our thanks to Sandy for submitting it, and to Sheri for granting us permission to reprint it. If you or one of your TCE students have a great story to tell that could be useful as an illustration, send it to us (Lynda.Pongracz@cefonline.com). We would be glad to pass it along to our IOT family.

Time to Laugh!

The last few weeks we've had some serious content here in the Cafe, so we thought we'd lighten things up this week! Following is a "Top Ten" list that was submitted to Teach Kids! Forum by "Therealvito" and is used by permission:

How You Know Your Life Has Been Taken Over by CEF

A few years ago at Christian Youth In Action camp on skit night at the end of the week, the emcee did a tribute to night time talk shows between each skit. Here is the top ten ways to tell your life is being taken over by CEF:

10. Everything you own comes in one of 5 colors

9. You think that a great party food would be red Kool-aid and Rice Krispy treats.

8. You’ve taught all the other students in your Driver’s Ed class songs about street signs.

7. You can keep a straight face as you talk seriously about a “Flipper-Flapper.”

6. You keep asking your Drivers Ed instructor about that obscure “Go” sign.

5. You no longer see things in the world as merely black and white, but more as dark and clean.

4. The great debate in your house is between those on the flashcard side and those on the flannelgraph side.

3. Your pet’s names are Ringu and Ti-Fam.

2. You can’t pay attention in math class anymore, because the teacher is not using “Fill in the blanks.”

1. You keep thinking that the worship service at your church would be better if all the songs were held up on paint sticks.

We hope you enjoyed this little humorous interlude. Every now and then it's good to laugh! For more great articles both humorous and serious, be sure to visit Teach Kids! Forum by using the link in the sidebar.