AWANA

For the past few weeks the kids have been going to AWANA out at Riverwood church. They absolutely love it. It is quite the change from going to Sunday school at our church. We basically had to drag them out the door to get them to go. They all said it was boring and didn't want to go. AWANA is a different story. They get home from school on Wednesdays and do their home work and any chores they may have as quickly as they can. Part of their homework everyday is to work on their AWANA stuff (mostly memorization stuff), and on Wednesdays they sit and study (by their own choice) for like an hour just trying to make sure they know all the verses that they will have to recite for their leaders. We also practice while we are eating dinner. They have learned so much in the last few weeks and it is exciting to see them want to go and learn more at church. Church has become something they want to do as opposed to something they have to do.
We have also been attending this church for the past couple of weeks. After much persuading to get Phil to go, I was successful. I told him that we should at least check it out since the kids are there every week. I told him if we didn't like it we could always just go back to our church, and just let the kids go to AWANA. I also talked to several people that were once members of our church that became members at Riverwood. It was nice to hear insight from others that could compare the two churches from their personal experiences. It seems that it really fulfills the needs of our family right now.