For me, one of the hardest parts of being an unemployed pastor is not having the opportunity to pastor children. I very much enjoy ministering to adults and youth, providing them with resources and tools to live out their own callings is a great joy for me, but nothing in the world touches my spirit like ministering to young children, witnessing the sacred moments that permeate their faith. The other day I realized that I hadn't done a children's time, prayed with or told Bible stories to children etc. in 8 months. 8 very long months.
And for good reason I think. I'm not currently settled in a faith community and it would be irresponsible of parents and caregivers to simply hand over their children to a person that doesn't belong to their faith community, a person that they don't know and have no reason to trust, pastor or not. Or perhaps that is my understanding of how things should be. I certainly haven't made any great attempts to insert myself into the lives of children in the congregations I have attended. Perhaps congregants would have been all to ready to have me step in and take responsibility for their children, though I hope not. I also have too much respect for young children to simply jump in and try to minister to them without giving them a clear understanding of who I am and what my place is in their lives. It's one thing for them to know that I'm a visitor telling them a story this one Sunday, or a student who will be around until she graduates, or that I'm their Sunday school teacher, or that I'm the pastor in their congregation. It's quite another to simply slide in and out of their lives unable to share with them why I am there, or for how long. It's hard enough for adults to have people wander in and out of their lives, let alone for children. If you've only been alive for 4 years, having someone enter into your life for 6 months is a significant chunk of time.
So in this space in which I find myself, this space of waiting, this space of random ministry if you will, I have decided to take the next several posts to remember some of the sacred moments that I have experienced in ministry. I will intentionally be leaving out names or changing names to respect the children involved.
So for today I want to remember one of my all time favourite Sunday school classes. Our lesson for the day was the story of Joseph being re-united with his brothers. My co-teacher had agreed to be Joseph, set on a throne of sorts up in our Sunday school room. The rest of us were on the main floor of the church getting in character. I had written out the story as a play and each child was a brother of Joseph's (the girls were a bit annoyed that they had to play male roles AGAIN), and one parent was Joseph's father. In order to help the children enter fully into the story they only received their lines when they needed to say them. There was no way to look ahead in the story, or to even know what story they were doing. They were simply a group of brothers in a land of drought. We did a bit of guided imagery to get ourselves situated and then moved into the story. The brothers, clad in dishtowel headgear, all made the trek to Egypt to seek food, leaving their father and youngest brother behind.
While traveling my students began to ad lib, trudging through a violent sand storm, dishtowels over their faces to protect themselves. Approaching the Pharaoh's right hand man each of the brothers fell prostrate before him explaining their plight. Joseph feigned ignorance as to the brothers identities and accused them of being spies with so much conviction that the brothers began to babble, even without their lines that no, no, they were just looking for food because they were starving!
As the story unfolded the children became more and more invested in the characters it seemed. They looked genuinely upset at having to leave one of their number behind as collateral and hungrily grabbed the small amount of food that they were allowed to take with them eating their pita bread as if they hadn't eaten for days.The kids all continued to read their lines when they received them, but also added, very appropriate actions, reactions, and other lines throughout the story. And when Joseph finally, almost in tears, revealed his identity the brothers were in shock. At this point, I realized that I had forgotten to assign anyone the task of running to get their father, yet when Joseph told them to hurry and get their father, almost everyone of them leaped to their feet and ran to find him.
Minutes passed as we waited in anticipation for Joseph's father to be re-united with his long lost son. Finally the brothers ran into the room, panting, and we asked where Jacob was. And loudly several of the brothers announced that he was on his way, he was just getting a coffee!
It was amazing seeing this story lived out by this group of children. They entered into the story so fully and afterward reflected so deeply on the emotions they felt, and that they thought the characters had felt as well as where they saw God moving in the lives of this family. Definitely a class that I won't forget.
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