Teaching/Learning

It is now nearly evening, I've taught the Sunday School lesson, and had time to reflect on it a bit.

We are beginning a unit on Signs and Wonders

When I arrived at class, I set up the projector with my computer and discovered that if I wanted to see the speaker notes I had so carefully prepared, those notes would also be visible to the class. Not what I wanted.

I weighed out my options.
Could I wing it without the notes?
Did I have time to scribble them all out on a piece of paper?

One of the class members had arrived early, and I chatted with him about my dilemma. He asked, "Could you use your phone for the notes?"

Problem solved!

That makes twice in the preparation of this lesson when someone who knew more about technology than I do, happened to be in the room at a time when usually no one is in the room.

The first time was when I practiced linking the computer and the projector last week. I'd had a busy morning and did not make it to church until the lunch hour, a time of day when the youth pastor would not be around for questions. I began working with it and making some progress, but still not quite getting it when I heard the classroom door open. There was the youth pastor! We talked about quite a few things besides the projector, but he did help me with understanding how things worked, and how to get the remote to work in progressing through the slides.

I like to begin each class by asking for "God sightings", which seems an especially appropriate question when teaching about signs and wonders.

I told about the help I got from the youth pastor and from the youth group member at times I did not expect to have help. Did God orchestrate that help? Do I need to know the answer to that question?

I'm not going to write about the whole lesson. 

I've learned over the years of teaching that I receive more than I give.

That was true again today. One of those receiving moments was when I read a recent story from Botswana (check the link) about how a decision was made to renovate a park. It had deteriorated and become a dangerous place for the neighborhood. The community pondered what to do about it. 

There is a 'sign' in the story, and when I read it, some of the kids caught their breaths. Their faces changed. It was a moment of grace, at least for me.

The other moment of grace, for me, was during prayer.

We ended class by praying the scripture in a method of placing ourselves within the story. With their eyes closed, after rereading the passage, I asked the youth to imagine themselves as each of the persons in the story...to imagine the thoughts, feelings, questions of that person. 

Then we read the last verse of the passage one more time:

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

At that point, still with eyes closed, I told them that because they are created in the image of God, they also are signs and wonders. I asked them to listen as I spoke the names of each person in the room, and to visualize that person as created in God's image.

I needed to keep my eyes open, to look at each person present, to speak each name, and awe enveloped me as I realized some measure of the impact of being present in this gathering of persons, created by God, precious in God's sight.

The lesson today included this quote:

T"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

I don't know if they learned anything today, but I did.