End of November Update: Center Hill, PA
Awana has been a wonderful children’s ministry for our church. Things are going extremely well. Our club meets on Wednesday nights and began on October 3. We started out with 14 clubbers and have had as many as 23 in one night. Some of the clubbers go to our or other churches, while some do not currently attend a church. We have 16 leaders: 3 in Cubbies, 3 in Sparks, 4 in T&T, 3 listeners, 2 game leaders and myself, the commander/secretary. Each club has a secretary who records attendance, dues, sections recited, etc. I then take that information and record them on the permanent cards.
Each clubber pays a $10 registration fee and $.50 weekly dues. This covers most of the cost of uniform, book and awards.
Each night we have a different theme night. Some are themes for games and other times revolve around the lessons. We are going through the book Why Should I Believe the Bible is True?. Our club nights begin by saying the pledges to the American and Awana flags. We also sing the Awana theme song. Our church has been blessed with a projector that has really helped with getting words in front of the clubbers. This coming week will be Store night. Each clubber has earned Awana shares by reciting sections and bringing friends. I have tried to keep things simple (which is hard for me since I grew up in Awana at a large church!). But I already have ideas about next year – Sunday School attendance awards and even quizzing!
Our congregation has positively responded to Awana. In addition to the many volunteers, we have many who are praying for us. The Lord has also blessed us by several donations to help with the additional cost of Awana. Of course, we have to watch our spending and have tried to stick to a $50/month budget. Sometimes we have gone under, sometimes over. This includes expenses for theme nights (cupcakes, Halloween treat bags, etc.) and administration (labels, stamps, cards, etc.) costs.
Besides finances, our biggest challenge has been space. We have already begun praying for a new building 
and until the Lord answers, we will continue to be creative with the space we do have. I have had to make different schedules for different nights in order to make the most of our building. Most nights, the Cubbies are downstairs in a back “room” which is made a room by sliding out a divider. The remaining part of the basement is used for handbook time and game time. We are unable to use the game square because of our size. However, since no one really knows what it is (except me), it has not affected game time. We even used some of the games we played at Discover Awana this past week!
The Cubbies leaders have certainly been faced with many challenges that they were not expecting. One week they had a child who would not listen and hit other kids. That child has not returned. They also have a few parents who stay the entire night. This past week, one of those mothers was unable to stay which led to crying by her two sons in Cubbies. Thankfully, their older brother is in T&T and helped to get them to go back to the others. They continue to persevere however!
Todd and Angela Shoemaker
