Vacation Bible School

Last night, I truly felt like I had achieved greatness.  I taught two classes of about 15 kids each about making friends cross culturally.  The kids were grades 3 and 4, and Kindergarten to grade 2.  I find it easier to speak to an entire congregation.

I really had no idea how to speak to these kids.  What ages would they be? What is their comprehension level?  How long will they listen?  Do they even know where the UK is?  I don't know anything about primary school kids!

I started with a trip to Barnes and Noble to look through the kids books.  I didn't even know what I was looking for, but I figured at the very least, I could read a story.  None of the books caught my imagination, but the trip was helpful.  By looking at the books, grouped according to age and grade, I could get a feel for the average comprehension of the kids.

My sister gave me the next idea.  I was trying to think of a way to talk about the mix of cultures in the UK, and Joy suggested using tea as a snack and forming my talk around it.  Why, Eureka!  With Joy's inspiration, I decided to name my talk "Three cups of Tea."  :)

I pulled together numerous props, including two tea pots, 2 mint tea cups, and one proper tea cup.  I planned a very picture filled slideshow.  I racked my brain for creative ways to simply share my message of crossing cultural boundaries.  And Wednesday came.

My presentation touched on iconic London images, a little bit of personal history, and then I started to make tea for samples.  I first gave the kids "American" tea, which is sweet tea, served cold.  Next, I served them black tea, complete with shortbread biscuits.  I explained to them the role of tea in British culture, amid comments of "My grandma makes this kind of tea too!" and "We have an exchange student with us.  He's from across the ocean."  Next, I made and served Moroccan mint tea with plain tea biscuits.  As they sampled that tea, some were excited and some were very dubious.  After talking a bit more, I closed by asking them about the teas.  I didn't ask anything profound, but I wanted them to note how the teas were similar and how they were different.  I asked if they liked all of them and got the range of answers one would expect.  I tried to use that to illustrate that we can build bridges of friendship by focusing on what is similar, even when things seem very different, and we can also disagree on some things too.

Then the first group left, and the second group came and I started all over again.  My favorite moment with the younger group was when this dark haired little girl raised her hand and asked if she could have her tea in the proper tea cup.

By 8:30, I had packed up my supplies and was ready to start the hour drive home, exhausted.  Two thirty minute presentations for kids tired me out more than an entire Sunday morning.  Still, they were well behaved kids and I am glad I faced this challenge!