Sunday School Teacher Training - The Family of God Lessons

It was a special joy to lead a two-day training for Sunday School teachers.   It was my first time leading a training since being officially sent to El Salvador as missionary in the area of Christian Education.  Needless to say, I was very nervous. 

How many teachers would attend?   

Would they be able to understand my Spanish?  

Would I understand theirs?  Would I have enough supplies?  

Would they like the lessons I had created for them?  I had so many worries.

 

But, as I’m learning to expect with full confidence, God showed up in a mighty way!

We met at the Methodist Mission Residence Saturday, December 20 through Sunday, December 21. 31 teachers attended – some with many years of experience in teaching and some with no experience teaching and some in the middle, but all came with hearts committed to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with their students.

 

 8 of the 11 Methodist Churches were represented. 

We spent our time discussing what it takes to be a committed Sunday School Teacher.  We learned about multiple learning styles, how to incorporate multiple learning styles in our teaching methods, and we also explored the new curriculum that I am developing for the upcoming year.  

Jonathan was there to help with translation, but we were both surprised at how well my Spanish had grown and found that not as much translating was needed as we had originally expected!

Teachers received a book of 9 original lessons that I have written specifically for the Evangelical Methodist Church in El Salvador.  (A HUGE thanks to Fernando and Jonathan who help translate these lessons from English to Spanish!)  Teachers also received supplies to help them teach the lessons, including an interactive family tree of the Family of God, mapping the connection of Jesus to the nation God promised to build from Abraham's descendants.  These lessons will be taught in the months of January and February 2015.

The theme of the lessons is “Family of God” and begins with the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah and closes with the death of Jacob after his is reunited with his lost son, Joseph in Egypt.  The purpose of these lessons is to teach children the stories of the Patriarchs of our faith as well as to help them understand how we are each invited into this family of faith through the love and free gift of Jesus Christ.

I incorporated an element of “make-and-take”.  Teachers made tic-tac-toe boards with Velcro Xs and Os that they can use to help their students review each lesson.  

All in all, it was a great way to bring a close to 2014 and look forward to 2015.