Why we love A.W.A.N.A.

Our first AWANA meeting of the new year is tonight, so why not join us? (if you live in our town... :-D)

A.W.A.N.A. is a Christian club organization that trains & teaches children to follow Christ. A.W.A.N.A. stands for Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed. Our church offers A.W.A.N.A. clubs to kids ages 3 to 6th grade. In the club (for a fee) each child receives a book, vest and patches. The patches are earned by memorizing Bible verses and books of the Bible. There are three main groups that our church offers: Cubbies (ages 3-5), Sparks (grades K-2) and T & T (3rd-6th grade). T & T stands for Truth and Training. Each level gets a little more difficult, but also builds upon the previous learning somewhat.

Rebekah with her award in April.

Caleb at Spring 2010 awards banquet

We love A.W.A.N.A. because our kids have memorized sooo much Scripture in this program. They are able to memorize whole sections of John 3, Psalm 23 and more. They memorize the books of the Bible, which is sooo important! They have a theme pledge at the beginning of each meeting which states, "I pledge allegiance to the A.W.A.N.A. flag, which stands for the A.W.A.N.A. clubs, whose goal is to teach children the gospel of Christ, and train them to serve Him." They say this pledge at the weekly meeting, after the Pledge of Allegiance, and they follow it with the pledge to the Holy Bible.

We also love A.W.A.N.A. because our kids have met and enriched great friendships there. They get to be with a great bunch of kids, and learn to get along with them in a safe situation. They play games, usually active games where they learn good sportsmanship. They are rewarded for good sportsmanship, (as well as completing "sections" of verse memorization) by receiving A.W.A.N.A. bucks. Then twice a semester, the leaders and volunteer parents run an A.W.A.N.A. "store". They get to use their bucks to buy bags to hold their book/ Bible, bookmarks, and other small toys.

Mallory (last Spring) with her diploma-
for parents too!

Another reason that we love A.W.A.N.A. is because our kids love it! The servant-leaders are wonderful, they volunteer their time to teach our kids and "hang out" with them, and encourage them on a weekly basis. They truly care about each child and pray for them, which is so wonderful! They have a Pinewood Derby each Spring, and our kids LOVE it! We've even won several awards for car design and speed! In the T & T group, they have a Rocket Launch each fall. They go for walks with the leaders on a Saturday once a quarter too. At the year-end, there is an awards night where the kids receive ribbons and plaques for participating and completing their books. We were very proud of Rebekah several years ago when she earned a "Sparky" award plaque for completing all three Sparks books! She ALMOST earned the "Timothy" award for completing her T & T books, but not quite... now she is in Youth Group!

We love it for one more selfish reason- it is a mini-date night for us! We still have our 2 year-old with us this year, so we aren't totally alone on that evening of the week. But we are nearly kid-free, so we spend our time shopping for birthdays & Christmas, or just running errands that we need to do. Sometimes we just go out for coffee!

Have you ever heard of A.W.A.N.A.? Have your children ever done A.W.A.N.A.? I'd love to hear any stories that you have about it!