First few weeks of the new kids' group at home

I thought I should write something about the start of our kids’ cell group as it has been quite interesting for various reasons. Our church has a network of cells for adults and for children in homes all over the city. These are partly for members of the church and partly for outreach. There are around 300 kids cells, with perhaps 20% of the kids coming regularly to the church children’s groups on a Sunday, the rest being friends and neighbours of church members, or part of specific outreach groups that children’s leaders have started in more outlying areas.

Being a British-Quechua multicultural family, and living in a mixed area with regards to race, material wealth/poverty, etc. I have been enthusiastic to start a group in our house that reflects the area and to try and break down some class and racial barriers. It’s not an easy task. Kids here, as anywhere, see just as quickly as adults the differences between themselves and others and they can be pretty mean, but I have seen barriers broken down to some extent at CORASON and so I know it’s possible. 

A lady from the church, Franz, an experienced children’s leader,  is coming each week to lead the Bible teaching (using materials from Brazil, from where our church was planted), while I am responsible for inviting the kids, playing some games with them, doing art/craft and providing refreshments. I’m also teaching some fun songs from an English-teaching  CD set as learning English is always an attraction. I’ve told them they can bring English homework along if they need help, but so far just one girl has brought something.

A couple of days before the first meeting, I gave out invitations to kids I know locally, plus a few others I met on the street nearby.  This resulted in 13 visiting kids coming along so that was an encouraging start. A couple of days before the second meeting, I gave out invitations to these kids again (or at least those who had managed to give me an address I could find) plus a few more I met on the street. This resulted in 23 visiting kids (27 in total with our 4)! The third week I decided not to give out any more invitations and see who turned up.

Our third Friday was a complicated afternoon for two reasons: ( 1) We had realised, due to a doubling of our water bill for May, that there was a water leak in the pipe that brings water into the house. Since all the pipes are cemented in under the floor the best solution was for the plumber to dig channels in the wall round one side of the lounge, through the downstairs toilet and along the long wall in the kitchen. New pipes could then be fitted from the tap outside to the sink.  At 4 o’clock the plumber had finished all the digging out but you can imagine how the lounge looked! (2)The girls needed to visit the social worker for the final appointment of the two year process, and she decided that 4pm on Friday was when they should go to her office. The office is about 45 minutes away so Roland had the choice of helping to run the cell group while I took them, or taking them himself. So he took them but that meant that I would be on my own with all the kids for up to an hour until Franz from church arrived to lead the Bible section, plus the plumber and the mess to sort out. Oh, and the plumber had cut off the water supply to the kitchen, including the tap with the water filter for drinking water. Fortunately I had already made a jug of juice and the downstairs toilet was still working!

At 4:10pm I was reading a book with Ben sitting in the passage just outside the house (best place for sun at that time of day, it’s cold indoors) when the first kids arrived – a family of 4 that includes a 3 year old and a 1 year old, looked after by their 6 and 8 year old brother and sister. I told them they could listen to the story too. About 5 minutes later another couple of boys arrived who also joined in listening to Ben’s story. By 4:20pm I decided to give up with the story and get a ball and our home made skittles out (the big yogurt bottles here make good skittles or cones for games). The plumber was staggering in and out of the house with rubble and by 4:30pm the lounge was ready to be put back to normal, with the dug-out wall mostly hidden behind furniture. I then quickly spread out a simple craft on the dining table (a basic cut and stick rainbow activity – it was Cusco’s anniversary week and we have a rainbow coloured flag). This was a bit calmer than the skittles activity and occupied all 8 or 10 kids that had by now arrived, Sammy and I helping the 3 and 1 year olds who didn’t get very far on their own.

By 4:45pm Franz had arrived, thankfully a bit earlier than normal (she comes straight from work in town) and so by 5pm we were ready to start with the English songs and then she did the Bible story. A few older girls (11 and 12) arrived at the last minute and I’m still trying to figure out where they come from. They walk home from school near our house but I think they then catch a bus to an area a couple of miles away. We really need to divide the group in two since we have more kids than we expected and a rather crazy age range! We said 4 to 9s on the invitation, but no one takes much notice of age groups here so I’m not surprised we’ve ended up with 1 to 12 year olds.

For the fourth meeting I decided to go round with invitations again (in the form of memory verse sheets this time), having ascertained where a large proportion of the kids live. Sammy came with me – the last time he did this he was about 1 and in a pushchair, accompanying me and Tom on our Eastbourne Kidz Klub round! (Tom and I visited kids in Eastbourne weekly for 6 years, finishing when Tom went to Uni and we came to Peru.) The Kidz Klub that Kings Church used to run continues to send ripples round the world – the weekly visiting and memory verse/ information sheets are key strategies – very simple, perhaps obvious, but very effective.

This time the first kids arrived at 4:05pm – it’s getting earlier each week. They were three girls that have come every week so we let them in and gave them a pile of books to look at while I finished getting the room ready (certain things have to be moved to make space for 20+ kids). Sammy helped with registration and preparing sandwiches with Roland. Ben sat outside hoping that his friend from school would come for the first time – thankfully he did, together with a friend of Hilda’s who came on week 2. Once about 10 kids had arrived I put the playdough and tools out on the table, which they absolutely loved. About this time Franz rang to say she had a bad throat and could hardly speak so could I lead the Bible section?  Fortunately I had purchased the book of resources the church uses for kids’ cells during the week and more or less knew what it was about! The session went well with ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ as the English song and a lively song from church. (Katy likes to help lead these!) Ben and Hilda’s friends seemed to get on OK, although we have some work to do to help the kids get to know each other as they are from a variety of different schools. Although they live fairly close to each other, they don’t know each other on the whole. Total kids this week: 23, including 3 new ones.

Next task is to find the homes of a few kids that I haven’t been able to locate yet and start to get to know their families. Plus, with a couple of children now coming from Ben and Hilda’s class, I think it will make it easier to invite more from their school. I also want to read up a bit on children’s cell groups and think about the distinctives of a cell group as opposed to a Sunday kids’ group at church.

3 Month Update

We are now 3 months in and numbers have stayed high, the record being 32. We have 8 regular kids between 10 and 15 years old and they have become leaders for small groups of 3 or 4 children, the idea being to give the older ones some responsibility and to mix the kids up for certain games and activities so that they get to know each other better. We have had a very small puppy attend a few times, but he did start to become rather disruptive so I think he will be staying at home from now on. The mouse that came one week was quite well behaved but I am a little afraid someone will bring a cat sometime, which could be difficult. The one year old fell asleep again last week and I ended up carrying him home as he is a bit heavy for his 8 year old sister. It’s a fun group to lead and there’s never a dull moment!