Awake

Adventures in Cross-Cultural Children's Ministry

I'm a AWANA Club leader in the TNT (Truth 'n' Training) club (3-5th graders) at Village. My two primary responsibilities are to the Red Team at during the girls' game time and to a group of 4th grade girls at handbook time. Our church has about 250 Korean families and consequently there are quite a few Korean kids at club. Most of the Korean girls have ended up with me. On the Red Team I have 4 Korean girls, 1 (East) Indian and 2-3 white girls. Last night one of the other teams needed another person so the game leader came over and asked me for a volunteer defector. Eujene, Claudia, Erica, and Megan all huddled together and said, "You can't break us up! We're the Koreans!" I sent Esther instead, (the Indian girl), but even she wouldn't go without a bribe. ;)

Most of the Korean girls speak Korean and English fluently but this year we have one girl, Erica, who is just learning English. She is learning quickly and recites Bible verses with amazing precision, but often I employ one of the other Korean girls (usually Debbie or Claudia) to help explain a word or a concept.

Case in point: In a handbook section Erica was completing, in addition to reciting verses, there are questions designed to clarify words and concepts contained in the section's memory verse(s). Inevitably one of the answers is simply/profoundly "Jesus" but the other question usually tests a vocab word. In this case question was "What does it mean to be punished?" referring to the Biblical concept of Jesus taking the punishment of our sins upon himself. So I implored Debbie to explain the concept of punishment to Erica. A tall order for a 4th grader indeed.

Debbie did some explaining in Korean but Erica still had a blank look on her face. Debbie said she was using the word for "getting in trouble" for punishment and asked if that was right. I thought for a moment. I considered my audience. I considered skills of my 10 year old translator. I considered the meaning of the concept and I replied, "Yes. Say, 'We get in trouble for our sins but Jesus got in trouble for our sins instead.'" I reflected for a moment on my instruction as Debbie translated what I said and Erica's head began bobbing up and down in understanding. Yeah, I would say getting flogged, beaten, and crucified "trouble." I'd call it Trouble with a capital "T"!