no.40 130609 Thank you for letting me serve at the preschool ministry

Me with my two front teeth missing, in front of my church in Korea.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control"

- Galatians 5:22

It's been more than a month since I started serving at the preschool ministry at my church. I still haven't met all the children in the ministry, but I am meeting them one by one slowly. I think I remember all the names of the kids in my class. They're all super cute, and they remind me of the kids in Korea. I taught at an elementary school a few years ago. Although I was there only for a half year I really enjoyed my time. I was debating if I wanted to extend my stay there and continue teaching, but I wanted to come back and finish my studies first.

I've always wanted to be a Sunday school teacher because I have a lot of good childhood memories from my church in Korea. I also remember looking up to my teachers, thinking one day I want to be a teacher just like them. My first option was the primary department and work with elementary school kids because I have experience teaching and working with them. During the time I was considering serving at Sunday school, I saw an advertisement on the bulletin that preschool department was in need of female teachers. Although my first choice was elementary school, I thought why not at least try and see what preschool is like. That evening, I emailed the pastor of the department and we met the following week for a brief meeting. She told me about the ministry and went over what a typical Sunday was like. Then she invited me to come and observe the worship and the classes.

Ever since the first Sunday I went to observe the ministry, I've been going to help out the department every Sunday. According to my calendar, today was the eighth Sunday serving at the ministry. I think I would've enjoyed serving at primary department too, but I'm thankful that God has placed me in the department where I was needed. I am thankful for my co-teachers at preschool department. I am very encouraged by them as I see these young teachers (I'm the oldest, and I'm so not used to this because I'm usually the youngest in most of groups of friends I hang out with), loving the children and guiding them to God.

At the end of today's meeting, we took some time to pray for our children in the ministry. I realized we never got a chance to pray for each other. I want to take some time to pray for the teachers in the ministry by relating to the fruit of the Spirit that we learned today. By the way, did you know that the 'fruit of Spirit' is singular and not plural? I just found it out today when my pastor mentioned it in the sermon. Until today, I thought the nine characters in Galatians referred to one fruit. I was totally mistaken! Anyways, I pray that we will bear the fruit of the Spirit. I pray that we will have love for God, joy in Him and peace with Him, so that we may share this love with our preschool children. I pray for our forbearance, kindness and goodness, as it can sometimes be a challenge when working with such a young age group. I pray for faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, so that we may be a godly example to the children.