Teen girl squad, Wednesday night pinch hitting, etc

Well, Teen Girl Squad was pretty good on Wednesday. We talked about pacifism, which is something that we don't talk about a whole lot in our church (unfortunate! Churches of Christ were among the "peace churches" up until the 1950s..and then I guess we forgot about that). I totally cribbed a sermon from Rob Bell at Mars Hill Bible Church (I love their podcast). The girls really liked it--it gave some historical context to the whole "turn the other cheek, go the extra mile" thing. They seeemed deeply interested in the number of things that are hidden in the Biblical text, simply because our historical perspective blinds us. Amanda, in particular, seemed fascinated by the idea that she had heard that text a thousand times, always thinking it meant one thing when it meant another.

The real victory of Wednesday night came in the 3rd and 4th grade class, which JC had to teach on his own, because Ginny was out of town and I was teaching the older girls. He had had a really long day at work and was really not feeling up to teaching. I saw Lachlan before classes, and I mentioned that JC was teaching by himself--could she please be extra good for him? She said she would try. "Can you help Amanda be good?" I asked. She rolled her eyes.

Here's what JC told me about class: When Amanda's mom came in, she saw JC and said, "Oh, you're here. Do you need me to stay?" JC told her that she should go to her own class, he could handle Amanda.
Once her mother had left, Amanda said, "If my mom isn't going to stay, I'm going to be extra bad so that she'll have to come back."
JC looked her straight in the eye and said, "I don't care how much you act up, I'm not going to reward you for being bad with mom time." Her jaw dropped--he had figured out her game.

While Amanda was not terribly well-behaved during class, she at least paid attention to the story and played the games related to the class and things.

If only we could figure out a way to reward her with mom time for being good. I think I'll talk to her mom about that this week.



Ali's dad is still missing, and they've called off the search. I don't know what we're going to say to the other kids tomorrow, or to Ali if she's there. Poor child.