Three women end long service at leading children’s conventions

Three women will lead their final song and tell their final story to the children and preschoolers gathered at Convention 2009 in Columbus, Ohio.

This year Carol Grieser’s completes her fifth and final convention as leader of the children’s gathering, the same for Susan Graber of the preschool gathering. Rose Widmer, who writes the curriculum for the children, plans to take a break from leading at conventions after this year, her fourth convention.

Children’s gathering
The popular “random acts of kindness day” will continue this year on July 4 in Columbus, says Carol Grieser (pictured below), children’s coordinator.

On this day, the children share personal thank-you notes with candy, pencils and other treats to the staff people in the hotels and sing them a song.

According to Grieser, one staff person said, “No one has ever done this for us,” and another person had tears in her eyes after she received the children’s gifts. The day started at Convention 2005 in Charlotte, N.C., and serves as the Servant Project for the children.

Grieser says the children’s gathering offers a time for children to learn, develop friendships and worship. It is not child care, she says.

This year, the children will also collect donations in buckets for swingsets for a church in Texas through Mennonite Mutual Aid and Mennonite Mission Network. Last year, the children raised $800 for medicine in hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Even the MYFers gave a lot of money last year,” she says.

Other activities for the children include a session with cooperative games; a session on bullying led by Steve Thomas of Walnut Hill Mennonite Church, Goshen Ind.; time with the “Lion and Lamb” group of Bluffton (Ohio) University, and a “make-it, take-it” time relating to the Convention 2009 theme.

On July 1 and 2, the children will work with a children’s theater group from Columbus. The children will lead worship in the combined evening service on July 2.

“We tell the children it’s not a performance but leading worship for the service,” says Grieser. “Children help us understand the love of Jesus. It’s not complicated for them.”

On July 3, the children plan to visit the zoo, and Grieser invites parents to join.

Preschool
Susan Graber, (pictured) preschool coordinator, says she believes in the importance of preschoolers experiencing many hands-on opportunities. She acknowledges that the “Breathe and Be Filled” theme will be abstract for many preschoolers, but using familiar songs and stories will help children connect.

Daily themes include: “filled with joy,” “filled with love” and “filled with God’s peace.”

Graber plans to tour the center’s exhibit hall with the preschoolers and participate in the speakers and storytelling times that would be appropriate. She will investigate what “might be already happening that preschoolers would enjoy.”

Graber says she still needs volunteers to work with the preschoolers for Columbus—hopefully people that have experience working with children. “Those people are a big part of what makes the program successful,” she says.

Curriculum
Through stories children discover the power of God’s Spirit at work—personally and around the world, says Rose Widmer (pictured above), curriculum writer.

“‘Spirit’ is harder for children to grasp because it’s less concrete,” she says, “but stories can demonstrate the power of God’s Spirit and show how it does change people, not only in the Bible but today.”

Her curriculum for the children’s gathering will include stories from the New Testament and stories from today. The curriculum teaches about the Holy Spirit and reminds children that after Jesus’ ascension “we were not left alone but with the Spirit.”

The planned activities will help children identify their gifts and discover how the Spirit may move in their lives, especially as they grow older, Widmer says.

“It’s exciting to see how [the Spirit] will play out in children’s lives,” she says.

Anna Groff is assistant editor of The Mennonite.