How to Memorize Scripture – Tim Sandvall and Michael Sims

[00:00:00] then call 802 four three nine seven nineteen and now here’s your host Kevin

[00:00:06] Conover bring your time bring Yoshi welcome to educate for life I’m your

[00:00:12] host Kevin Conover my web sites educate for life org and if you are streaming us we are on Facebook

[00:00:18] we’re on periscope we’re on YouTube we’re on the web all over the place so I hope you’ll join us today we’re going to

[00:00:25] be talking about Awana and the best way to memorize scripture and just the impact that this ministry has had if you

[00:00:31] don’t know about wanna it’s it’s a huge ministry now but we have two guys here

[00:00:38] that are on the show today who have been serving in a wanna for quite a while and they’re gonna talk about the impact of

[00:00:43] the ministry how they got involved in the ministry and how it’s changing lives all over the world so my guests today

[00:00:49] are Tim San Ville and Michael Sims guys thanks for being on the program today you bet thanks you’re having us in wave

[00:00:55] to the camera right there and all the people out there so if you have questions that please feel free to post

[00:01:01] them or if you have comments you’d like to share please do so we’d love to hear from you and love to be able to answer

[00:01:07] your questions so guys why don’t we start with just you telling me what role do you play in a wanna currently Tim

[00:01:14] yeah so I’m the awana missionary for well everywhere from Southern California all the way to El Paso Texas so I have

[00:01:23] about 260 churches that we currently encourage and support and introduce to

[00:01:29] with new churches that that are interested we get to introduce them to awana and get them trained and that type

[00:01:36] of thing so that’s fantastic and how long have you been with awana so I’ve been employed with awana almost five

[00:01:41] years I’ve been engaged with awana since I was eight so Wow

[00:01:46] so about thirty-six years so that you were a true convert I have I have yes I’m all-in so that’s fantastic

[00:01:55] yeah okay and what about you Michael I’ve been my current status I guess you

[00:02:01] would say is the commander and pastor of Maranatha Chapel Alana okay okay so

[00:02:06] who’s the boss here or is there oh no boss there’s no boss no I can’t tell you what to do okay

[00:02:12] no we encourage and we support the Maranatha temple its servant servant leadership yeah and we said we support

[00:02:19] them too yes exactly that’s awesome oh isn’t encouraging yeah and then Michael how long have you been involved with

[00:02:24] twenty four years this would be my 24th year serving that’s fantastic so you guys must be persuaded that this

[00:02:31] ministry makes a big difference a big impact if you’ve been involved this long absolutely

[00:02:36] so Tim for you what was your involvement when you started at eight what what uh yeah so I was I was the friend that was

[00:02:44] brought to the bring a friend night so a family family friend needed one of the

[00:02:51] sections in the book was to bring a friend to club and so I was that friend that they got brought and loved it I

[00:02:58] just I fell in love i if I’m honest and I tell our leaders this I fell in love with the game time

[00:03:04] yeah honest that was my eight-year-old boy yeah so love the games just and it

[00:03:09] wasn’t you weren’t just like so spiritually yeah no I didn’t jump right

[00:03:14] into the scripture memory I wasn’t the best at memorizing but you know what God grabbed ahold of me about sixth grade

[00:03:21] and everything changed and and for me it became yeah it’s it’s what drew me into

[00:03:28] deeper relationship with Christ at that point and I just never looked back yeah

[00:03:34] obviously and your that so far this this involved obviously it’s had a huge impact and we’re gonna talk about that

[00:03:40] because I think for me when I first saw the the impact that awana was making I

[00:03:45] was kind of taken aback I I had no idea that it was making as much of an impact as it is and I think a lot of people out

[00:03:51] there they don’t know they they think hey this is an awesome church program yeah they’re memorizing Scripture but they don’t actually realize how

[00:03:57] significant and what a big impact it’s making and I think a lot of young youth groups and so forth they struggle to

[00:04:04] have an impact they struggle to have you know are we really ministering to these kids in a way where it’s long lasting

[00:04:10] and sometimes you feel like man is what I’m doing in vain and it’s nice to look at what awana is doing and go hey this

[00:04:17] is time tested and approved here it’s it’s making a difference and we can see

[00:04:22] it you know we’re not just hoping it’s tangible it’s right there and you can actually measure that which

[00:04:27] is you can’t often do that and it’s not a it’s it’s not the required criteria for serving but it’s really encouraging

[00:04:35] to see that Mike I was gonna ask you you were just telling me off the air what

[00:04:40] the acronym Awana means I mean that’s kind of a funny name I wanna do you

[00:04:49] wanna go to go with me to I wanna write what so what does it wanna mean I wanna is the acronym for approved work men are

[00:04:55] not ashamed it comes from the second book of Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 okay so say it one more time approved workmen

[00:05:04] are not ashamed approved workmen are not ashamed that’s a fantastic acronym and

[00:05:10] that makes me like Oh wanna even more now that I know what that acronym is but

[00:05:16] let me read it to you for those of you who are listening it says here are 2nd Timothy 2:15 do your best to present yourself to God as

[00:05:22] one approved a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles

[00:05:28] the word of truth and that’s an awesome scripture to build a ministry on right that’s a firm foundation because a lot

[00:05:35] of what I think the church is struggling today with is the fact that sometimes we’re moving away from Scripture we’re

[00:05:41] not as focused on Scripture as we need to be and there’s a big complaint out there by a lot of people that there’s a

[00:05:47] very high level of biblical illiteracy and that’s something that I wanna actually solves would you say for sure

[00:05:56] yeah yeah I mean I think we’re as a ministry our focus is twofold evangelism

[00:06:02] and discipleship lifelong discipleship is kind of that’s the the are if you

[00:06:07] want to call it new focus that the discipleship component which integrates

[00:06:13] that that scripture memory as as a very important piece of that yeah but yeah

[00:06:19] let’s let’s be honest biblical illiteracy is certainly a challenge within the church yeah I know for me

[00:06:27] when I was a youth pastor I was a youth pastor for about three years and one of

[00:06:33] the struggles was that you’re kind of doing you want to keep the kids engaged right the kids come in and a lot of them

[00:06:39] have a zwei with their parents on whether they’re going to be involved or not which isn’t always the right way to be

[00:06:45] right the the tail wagging the dog but is to keep them engaged but at the same

[00:06:52] time a lot of I think youth pastor struggled to have a a kind of system in place that is moving the ball down the

[00:06:59] field with the students and you end up sometimes just entertaining them rather

[00:07:04] than actually helping them to grow into disciples of Christ can you Michael take

[00:07:11] us back to what is the history of Awana as far as a column has it been around and how did it how did it get going well

[00:07:18] from what I know there’s a book out there that are true ham I think Lance Lathan wrote and it is called I think

[00:07:25] it’s mr. rawana started in 1950 with two men there in

[00:07:31] Illinois and I do believe it was Chicago okay south side of Chicago gospel side and

[00:07:37] they had there was many boys that were in you know they were in shambles

[00:07:42] history and not get any boy would do and started a club called the Pioneer Club

[00:07:48] and that’s where pioneers came from and then the girls liked it so much they started one for the girls called guards

[00:07:54] and that went on for years and it grew out of that and it just continued to grow and they

[00:08:01] started developing you know scripture memory I think a lot of the the games came from going up and down the

[00:08:07] elevators I think sometime in Chicago the colors red blue green and yellow

[00:08:13] what games kind of came out of going up and down the elevators oh it was a square there was four colors there was

[00:08:20] four Gospels so you know everything has a significance with the Word of God the gospel yeah and the one of pledge is

[00:08:27] basically boys and girls for Christ and training them to serve Him yeah and so

[00:08:33] that’s the main thrust and focus of awana one thing also with the one as it’s gone through the years and evolved each club

[00:08:40] has a bridge for each grade and so there’s always something that they build upon and they go back over it and build

[00:08:47] upon that verse even more and as they get up into the you know higher grades it starts meeting

[00:08:53] more to them but yeah I thank God for art and for Lance and for their wife’s

[00:08:59] because they were very instrumental in getting awana started along with their support group and prayer I think the

[00:09:05] power of prayer had a lot to do with it as well at the same time that was going

[00:09:11] on Billy Graham was going on so you can see two patriarchs you know one for evangelism and also the other one for

[00:09:17] youth in the same concept yeah it’s pretty cool yeah that is fantastic and

[00:09:23] so how many countries now is Awana in I think you were just saying hundred twenty two hundred and twenty-two

[00:09:29] countries yeah that’s phenomenal yeah so you’ve got people all over the world that are being impacted by this program here

[00:09:36] started I’m always blown away how God can use you know one faithful person a couple faithful people and that can

[00:09:44] balloon into this gigantic thing like I always think of like the Salvation Army

[00:09:49] started by one person you know and other ministries like this and just how they when we’re faithful God is faithful also

[00:09:55] and when you see the the history I mean art when art and Lance started it there

[00:10:00] was never an intention for a huge international ministry yeah

[00:10:06] that was not the focus the focus was hey there’s some kids that need to know Christ yeah and and they did something

[00:10:13] at the moment that that they saw right in front of him so they and then God took it and just blew it up yeah and it

[00:10:20] was it’s it’s kind of cool to to hear those stories of to see what as the area

[00:10:25] saw what was going on and they said hey you’re doing something good here huh we want it we want to know a little more

[00:10:31] about that and then it just yeah yeah when we come back we’re gonna take a

[00:10:36] real real brief break when we come back I’m gonna talk about the difference between a child that is that has grown

[00:10:42] up through wanna and maybe one that hasn’t and the the difference in the

[00:10:49] dedication to God’s Word is incredible and so we’ll talk a little bit about that we’ll talk about what is this

[00:10:55] recipe that awana has put together that has become so effective and impactful

[00:11:00] and also for those of you listening you want to check out a wanna you want to get involved with it it’s something

[00:11:05] that’s making a huge huge impact and your involvement in your local church is very likely that

[00:11:11] your church itself has Awana and maybe you didn’t know as much about it as we’re going to talk about here and maybe

[00:11:17] this will inspire you to get involved in a ministry that’s making a very tangible and dramatic difference stay with us

[00:11:23] we’re gonna be right back [Music] hi I’m Marisa Conover and I would love

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[00:12:03] thanks for listening today this is educated for life I’m your host Kevin Conover and if you’re interested in

[00:12:08] apologetics that’s what I do I’m actually just wrapping up the year here just taught a bunch of 12th graders and we had a fantastic year of studying

[00:12:16] God’s Word and responding to all the difficult questions that people ask about the Bible and about how to apply

[00:12:22] it to life one of the hot topics that we’ve been covering which is very

[00:12:28] significant in our culture today and kids have to deal with when they go off to college are issues like human sexuality the whole issue with you know

[00:12:36] can a person identify as somebody as the opposite sex this is happening in schools all over the place and you know

[00:12:43] in California now a boy who identifies as a woman can identify into a girl’s

[00:12:49] locker room and you have transgenders using getting involved in sports of the

[00:12:55] opposite sex there’s so many different things here and as a young person growing up we want to be able to answer

[00:13:00] those questions so my website educate for life org we deal with all those kinds of questions as well as the

[00:13:06] questions concerning creation and evolution how do I know my religions the right religion and where did the Bible

[00:13:11] come from you know how was the Bible put together all those tough questions that young people are asking and really

[00:13:17] people all over the place are asking all over the age spectrum are asking are answered on my website so check it out a

[00:13:23] few if you can we’ve also got tons of shows out there I just recently entered interviewed Mary Jo sharp she’s a former

[00:13:29] atheist she talks about why she left atheism to become a Christian also just recently interviewed dr. Esther Yee who

[00:13:37] talks about the high levels of anxiety in youth today as well as in adults and

[00:13:43] we have a higher rates of depression than ever before and my guest today is Tim San Valle and Michael Sims both very

[00:13:51] very involved with awana and this ministry makes a real difference in the future of a young

[00:13:57] person’s life as well as their eternal salvation right and so absolutely phenomenal now so so take us through a

[00:14:06] regular a want a year like what what is the start and what are you trying to achieve as you’re going from day one

[00:14:13] until the end of that what is what are you trying to achieve with these young people hmm

[00:14:18] that’s like gosh that’s a loaded question I wanna technically we have two-year-old to 18 is the ministry focus so we have

[00:14:27] we have something for all the all children and youth so and and the the

[00:14:33] reason I say it’s a loaded question is each of the churches kind of adapts it as they need it

[00:14:38] I’d say the the majority of our clubs run and as a club in a club type setting

[00:14:44] which runs within the school year time period so they’ll start in the fall and

[00:14:49] and most of the churches right now are ending up their years with their end of the Year celebrations and stuff just

[00:14:55] like school would run but we have a number of churches actually that are just starting right now that are gonna

[00:15:01] be year long they’re starting to use it for their Sunday morning curriculum and that type of thing but ultimately I like

[00:15:08] I said earlier the evangelism and discipleship those are those are really our two focuses we want to make sure

[00:15:14] that every child that walks in that door whether or not they’re a church kid or whether they’re just coming off the

[00:15:19] street they’re gonna hear who Jesus Christ is and how much that he loves them making sure that that’s that might

[00:15:27] be their one time that they step in the building we’re gonna make sure they hear the gospel first and foremost and then

[00:15:34] of course for those kids that are returning whether or not once again their church kids or not we want to take

[00:15:40] that relationship build into that relationship make sure that they understand once again what does it mean

[00:15:47] to be a lifelong disciple of Christ and what’s their responsibility with that yeah it’s not just that now sit back and

[00:15:53] and receive now it’s they get to go out and make disciples absolutely I’m as a disciple of Christ

[00:15:59] it’s your responsibility to now go tell your friends about who Jesus is and what Jesus did for them yeah we start we

[00:16:06] start that young and and encourage the kids and gosh I I I love doing what I do because I get to hear all these stories

[00:16:12] of even parents being reached through their kids yeah yeah and what a powerful

[00:16:17] thing that is and I mean we’re a children’s ministry and youth ministry but there’s a lot of families and

[00:16:22] parents that come to Christ through hearing Bible verses from their kids and their kids lives change because of what

[00:16:30] Christ has done and the kids are taking work home – oh absolutely so they’re taking that stuff home and then the parents are helping

[00:16:36] them go through it so in a lot of ways these parents are also studying the same thing of that lately you know so it’s a it’s an outreach

[00:16:42] ministry all the way around I wanted to read some of the stats here this is off the 2013 Awana international website and

[00:16:52] this is kind of some of the stuff that blew me away and this is Awana kids kids

[00:16:57] who have gone through their awana alumni versus the national average 94% trust

[00:17:03] the Bible as God’s word compared to 58% a 93 percent attend church regularly

[00:17:10] versus 36% 61% reads Scripture several times a week versus 17% 74% serve in a

[00:17:20] local church versus 15% and then lastly seventy percent share their faith at

[00:17:26] least once a month versus 35% those stats are staggering and to me it makes

[00:17:35] sense that any church would go we need to get Awana in here because this is

[00:17:40] exactly what we’re aiming for this is what we’re trying to accomplish you know so Michael in your mind I mean you’ve

[00:17:46] been you’ve been with Maranatha for a really long time and you’ve been with Awana you said for 24 years what is it

[00:17:52] that you see when you look at Awana what is it that’s that sets it apart from kind of the average church attendance or

[00:18:00] the average I’m not knocking youth groups because the youth groups are vitally important but what is it that

[00:18:05] sets it apart from the average youth group or something like that I see it as a family minister so the whole family

[00:18:13] can be part of the club and served together mm-hmm instead of serving

[00:18:18] separately in different aspects of the church they can still do that but a water brings the family tea and that’s

[00:18:24] the only thing that I one thing I want it does that’s different than any other thing in the church so it really

[00:18:30] provides kind of almost this discipleship opportunity for the family

[00:18:35] to get involved absolutely and that that is vitally important because we know that the family is the bedrock of a

[00:18:41] society that got God ordained bedrock right healthy families produce healthy societies and Awana

[00:18:48] in a sense forces parents to get involved in what their kids are doing versus the kids go on to youth group as

[00:18:55] sometimes as a babysitting thing versus no we’re coming together and a lot of

[00:19:02] youth groups one of the things they ballon is man I wish the parents were more involved but I wanna kind of almost

[00:19:11] makes it impossible for the parents not to be involved and I noticed that when my kids were in Awana is that they’re

[00:19:19] calling me at home hey we just want to check in on Graham and see how he’s doing you know and I’m like hey this

[00:19:25] guy’s calling my house and a part of me is like oh man we got to do our homework oh no oh I’m like I’m in trouble so what

[00:19:35] that’s good that’s that healthy accountability to stay in God’s Word so

[00:19:40] tell us a little bit more about the the levels and what changes over time so how

[00:19:47] does how does it want to change for a child when they start out in elementary then they hit junior high then they hit high school yeah Michael you want to

[00:19:54] talk a little bit about that that’s pretty that’s awesome – yeah and we go from two years old that we called up the

[00:20:00] Popo program I call that kind of the holding tank Cubby’s is three through three and four

[00:20:05] year old okay and that’s basically the foundation of Awana and then it goes from kindergarten

[00:20:11] to second grade which are Sparky’s and then from third through six is we call it t and t truth and training and then

[00:20:18] it steps up into the junior high seventh and eighth grade with track and then from high school and ninth through

[00:20:25] twelfth grade is called journey and so each of those have a bridge that builds

[00:20:30] upon it like I told you earlier and they get to review stuff that they’ve done before but they build upon it and it’s

[00:20:36] all about the application they take that home their parents get involved especially when they’re young bundles

[00:20:42] and three you know two to four year old kids they can’t read yeah so their parents are having to read the scriptures to them so they can memorize

[00:20:49] it understand it and then bringing it back grandma grandpa uncles aunts they’re all getting involved and it’s a

[00:20:55] pretty cool thing to see how God takes all that and orchestrates it and you know for his glory yeah yeah

[00:21:02] Tim can you add to that yeah the only thing I was gonna say one of the one of the keys and and Michael Michael and

[00:21:09] Maranatha does do a fantastic job of this but as as they get older once once you get into the junior high and high

[00:21:15] school age we pushed them back into the younger clubs to be serving so so much

[00:21:21] of the the younger clubs is build and build and build in and when when they get to the junior high age and the high

[00:21:27] school age right we’re coming alongside them saying oK you’ve been built into you have this foundation you have you

[00:21:35] have this scripture now you can speak into the lives of those younger clubbers and it’s just awesome to see these these

[00:21:43] these young men and women of God coming back in yeah the younger kids and and

[00:21:49] those younger clubbers man they I mean Michael and I can say something but if

[00:21:54] I’ve got a 15 year old young man sitting next to me saying the same thing yeah he’s got a way bigger impact than than

[00:22:00] we could yeah we tell them I mean you’re you’re losing your hair here and and

[00:22:06] Michael your hair’s gray right and so and so it’s the kind of board and so

[00:22:12] it’s hard a lot of young people they they look up to these younger kids as their heroes and hey they’re really cool

[00:22:18] and if you’re following Christ it must be cool therefore right I’m gonna follow Christ too right so as an eight year old

[00:22:25] yeah I mean I still Lance have no idea where Lance is anymore but when I was

[00:22:31] eight Lance Lance could have walked on water I mean he was and I mean he probably wasn’t he probably wasn’t a

[00:22:37] great kid but when I was eight I saw him as yeah he was awesome he was a high school kid but he was awesome and yeah

[00:22:43] and I looked at him and I said I want that’s what I want to do yeah and that’s a lot of what we need in in these young

[00:22:49] kids lives as good role models that’s right because and I’ve I see this with

[00:22:54] parents when they’re struggling to raise their kids their kids are kind of being asserting their independence by trying

[00:23:01] to separate from the parent a little bit and so in that moment in time it’s really important to have good role

[00:23:06] models in their life so when they when they go away from their parents a little bit who’s right near them somebody else who loves the Lord

[00:23:11] who they can also look up to and confide in and maybe that little bit of separation that happens sometimes with

[00:23:17] with children so my guest today our Tim sand wall and Michael Sims with Awana we’re here in Southern California stay

[00:23:24] with us when I come back we’re gonna talk a little bit about how do they get kids to be able to memorize scriptures

[00:23:31] and we’re talking a lot of Scripture many of these young people have over 800 verses memorized incredible is is what

[00:23:40] it says on these stats here so that’s that’s something that cannot be said of most Christians so let’s talk to them

[00:23:48] about how do they get scripture memorized and into these kids now that’s a really important issue so we’re going

[00:23:53] to be right back stay with us [Music]

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[00:24:38] thanks for listening today this is educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover and I hope that you’re enjoying

[00:24:43] the program so far I’m really enjoying it this absolutely is such a big

[00:24:48] blessing to hear about the success and the impact of Awana sometimes you know we hear a lot of

[00:24:53] doomsday talk about oh we’re struggling with this and you know the world’s falling apart here and this this isn’t working over here but

[00:25:00] what we see here with what’s happening in Awana is we just see success after success after success and the ministry

[00:25:07] is just continuing to grow they started way back in the 1950s and

[00:25:14] that today they’re in over a hundred different denominations they’re in over

[00:25:20] a hundred and four different countries and it says here the global reach of

[00:25:27] Wawona has grown at a rapid pace with the goal of reaching 10 million kids with the gospel by 2020 and you know

[00:25:36] there’s no better ministry that I can that I can tell of that’s going to be

[00:25:41] able to achieve that or at least move in that direction in a way that’s very positive and so my guests today are Tim

[00:25:49] San Valle and Michael Sims they’re they work with Awana here in Southern

[00:25:54] California and Michael you’ve been 24 years with awana and again Tim 36 as a

[00:26:00] kid and as a leader 36 as a kid in a leader and so I wanted to talk about during this segment is so how many

[00:26:08] scriptures do kids know by the time they’re out that they’re actually memorizing well if they go from cubbies

[00:26:16] all the way up through their 12th grade and get their citation achievement it’s you’re looking at over a thousand Wow

[00:26:21] now do they actually have to is that just a thousand over that entire time or

[00:26:28] do they actually are they able to actually recite a thousand scriptures by that time yes they’ve recited a thousand

[00:26:35] scriptures by that by the end of their twelfth year so if I were to walk up to an awana kid who is really dedicated to

[00:26:40] awana he would be able to recite a thousand scriptures well not at one sitting okay they might have to review a

[00:26:46] little bit or we call certain things okay you know the ones that they do review on a weekly basis yeah

[00:26:52] they can probably go back I even have my grandson now he can go back from the beginning of wanna or be another this

[00:26:58] year in September uh-huh and he remembers every verse Wow all I gotta do is just give him either

[00:27:04] the reference or the first letter or word and then he just goes from there so scripturally what what is the

[00:27:11] emphasis on memorizing scripture why do you personally why is that so important

[00:27:16] to why is there such a focus on memorizing Scripture and how is that impacting these kids yeah I think I mean

[00:27:22] well scripture tells us we should hiding God’s Word in our heart is a key

[00:27:28] component and and 50 years of on experience says it works yeah so I think

[00:27:36] that the once again getting back to the the discipleship component of that what

[00:27:42] better way to understand Christ and and how much Christ loves us than then to

[00:27:47] hide his own words deep in our heart and and to be able to I mean use whatever

[00:27:55] term you want meditate I mean cogitate I mean spend time with I mean yeah when

[00:28:01] when when you’re memorizing God’s Word it’s it’s not a flippant thing I mean

[00:28:06] for most people anyway if you’re like me it takes time to memorize yeah and so that that that memorization work in and

[00:28:14] of itself is powerful because you’re you’re focusing on on God’s Word yeah

[00:28:20] and that’s fantastic yeah so then when you start about young there’s no garbage in their brain it’s

[00:28:26] just the Word of God so there’s nothing else that is you know distorted there and they can actually put that in there

[00:28:31] and hide it in treasure it yeah and as they grow we build upon that each each year and it’s just a beautiful thing to

[00:28:38] see what God is doing just with that yeah but his word doesn’t return void so another great thing to know that he’s

[00:28:44] put interna T in our hearts and just to be able to know the scripture and in any

[00:28:49] situation as they grow up God can recall that and they can just load it out and I and I’d say one of the

[00:28:57] things and this is probably just been in the last what five years we really have taken Awana from a place of just wrote

[00:29:04] scripture memory mm-hmm to once again that keeps bringing up that discipleship thing but but yeah

[00:29:11] the application of that it’s well and good to be able to quote all these Scripture but if you don’t know what you’re quoting what’s I mean yeah yeah I

[00:29:19] can tell you’re excited about this you just I just nice about my water I know but it’s when when they can understand

[00:29:25] it gets how much more valuable that is yeah then just and that’s real

[00:29:31] discipleship too you know I had a pastor tell me a while back well I was talking about he’s he he

[00:29:38] Jeff offhandedly said that that his

[00:29:43] generation had failed in a particular area and I wrote back to him and I said wait what are you talking about and he

[00:29:49] said we should have been more heavy on discipleship this was a much older gentleman and I think Awana is picking

[00:29:55] up the ball there in the sense that discipleship is critical it’s one thing

[00:30:00] to know the Lord and to be saved right we are justified but without the

[00:30:05] sanctification you can still have a very very painful and difficult life if

[00:30:11] you’re saved and you know Christ but you’re not actually taking his word in and beginning to live by it and I feel

[00:30:18] like so many people struggle and they go look at I’m saved why isn’t my life different yeah because it’s not just

[00:30:23] that you need to know Christ it’s that you need to do what he says which is is

[00:30:29] the next step that’s discipleship that’s sanctification Jesus Christ said he who

[00:30:35] does not listen to my words and do what I say is like a man who built his house

[00:30:40] on sand so it’s it you’ve got to listen to the words and then you’ve got to do what they say to have that firm

[00:30:46] foundation and I I just keep thinking of you know Romans 12:2 it says be

[00:30:52] transformed by the renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is and what’s

[00:30:58] incredible to me is because I have a lot of people on the radio who talk about a lot of the social problems that kids are

[00:31:04] facing social media addiction video game addiction anxiety suicide and depression

[00:31:12] human trafficking all these problems that from all these radio show guests I

[00:31:17] think about and I think to myself what is the solution well the solution is that your mind has to think like

[00:31:24] Christ thinks and that’s what this ministry does so it’s it’s the

[00:31:30] preventative to all these problems that people are gonna be facing in life yeah

[00:31:37] so I was I was thinking about this too so what is the process of memorizing

[00:31:45] scripture because a lot of people at home you know at all of us I think struggle with memorizing Scripture and

[00:31:50] we know we should do it but it’s kind of like ohm and I just can’t remember it

[00:31:55] you know and and so we give up sometimes so what is a Juana’s recipe right that

[00:32:04] causes these kids to be able to do this when so many other people even adults

[00:32:10] even pastors struggle to memorize Scripture what’s the recipe for getting

[00:32:15] that done yeah well in our club it’s been through the years it’s watching because Emmy for one you have to you

[00:32:22] know roll it over over and over and over again and that’s what we do but the more senses you use the more you’re going to

[00:32:28] remember there’s the more senses you use okay yeah yeah and so writing it out you

[00:32:35] know listening to it I mean all kind of different things you can do with that but there’s also in the smaller clubs

[00:32:43] the younger clubs there’s CDs and CDs now that actually has but know is that

[00:33:04] they have music to the to the to the verses yeah so and then what another mom

[00:33:10] has done through in our club she’s making a jingle that’s a good jingle and she’ll use that jingle for God’s Word

[00:33:16] and they’ll be singing it that’s great so you know whatever really works but

[00:33:21] the biggest thing is you have to study again study to show thyself approved yeah and so rolling it over talking

[00:33:27] about it you know there’s three phases of wanna there’s a game-time there

[00:33:33] handbook time and then there’s council time and so they take that you know and then they take that home and if they’re

[00:33:39] not studying when they come back you’re gonna know that hey you didn’t really study your verse did you yeah do they have to kind of sit in the

[00:33:45] corner if they didn’t read their back if you’re at Maranatha yes what we do with

[00:33:52] Maranatha mike michael has a military family yeah but you know we find stuff that

[00:33:59] works yeah but you know and I just to speak into that I think some of the some of the most fun is I get to see a lot of

[00:34:06] different programs and and some of the the joy I get to see is some of the leaders understand that every kid learns

[00:34:14] it differently I mean it’d be really easy to say hey so just do it this way and that kids sitting there going I

[00:34:21] don’t know what you’re talking about yeah and so that the some of the the leaders that do a great job love on

[00:34:28] their kids enough to figure it out what what works yeah and maybe that’s acting

[00:34:34] it out maybe it’s maybe it’s maybe it’s just writing it on a whiteboard and you

[00:34:40] erase a word or two and then you’re I mean there’s so many different things I think the other piece to it is you got

[00:34:46] to make it fun oh yeah I mean there’s your kids if you’re just gonna sit there and okay you study that verse but but I

[00:34:53] wanna I think one of the things I wanna has done a great job of is just bringing that fun and excitement to it so that

[00:35:00] it’s it’s a it’s a joyful thing that I want a kid to wake up on a wanna day going yeah I don’t wanna I mean it

[00:35:11] should be it should be a joyful thing yeah and for most of the kids it is yeah and that’s why cuz it’s it is fun it’s

[00:35:18] it’s an exciting thing and it’s not a dread it’s not that’s great well my

[00:35:23] guests today are Michael Sims and Tim sand wall they are very heavily involved in awana here in Southern California but

[00:35:30] a want is all over the world very likely there’s a church near you that’s gotta wanna going on and we have one more segment left stay

[00:35:37] with us we’re going to talk about some of the other things that go on in awana including camps as well as some of the

[00:35:45] other fun events that that really make learning God’s Word a blast and not something that kids are

[00:35:51] dreading but actually that they’re looking for work age so stay with us we’re gonna be right back

[00:35:57] [Music]

[00:36:03] Luke Gibson of LG equipment supports educate for life with Kevin Conover Luke

[00:36:08] grew up in the construction industry and now serves LG’s commercial and residential customers throughout

[00:36:13] Southern California whether you need grading paving hauling demolition on-site bulk water service

[00:36:19] water trucks tankers and towers call LG equipment at six one nine nine nine

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[00:36:36] [Music] thanks for being with us today

[00:36:41] this is educate for life I’m your host Kevin Conover and we air on Cape Rays FM

[00:36:47] 106.1 in North County down here in San Diego as well as AM 1210 and you can

[00:36:54] check us out on those stations but you can also listen to us on podcast you can listen on YouTube we have where if you

[00:37:02] if you want to see people’s faces you can let you can see us on YouTube we’re all everybody in this studio is really

[00:37:07] good-looking so if you want to check that out you can and you can listen to us on periscope Facebook we’re all over

[00:37:14] the place and I’d love it if you would share these these broadcasts we’re trying to let people know about the

[00:37:19] truth of God’s Word and also the testimonies from all over the world about how Christ is changing people’s

[00:37:25] lives Christ has not stopped millions and billions of people all over the

[00:37:30] world have been impacted throughout history by Jesus Christ he’s alive he’s living and he’s saving people every

[00:37:37] single day so we’re talking about that today the impact of this ministry that

[00:37:42] was started by one person that’s ultimately now all over the country

[00:37:47] affecting people’s lives all over the world affecting people’s lives and changing their lives and having fun

[00:37:53] while they’re doing it my website is educate for life org if you’re interested in learning more about wanna

[00:37:58] just go to lawanna or go wanna is AWA na and michael tell us one more time the acronym approved workmen are not ashamed

[00:38:06] approved workmen are not ashamed that’s based off of second Timothy chapter two verse 15 and I can’t think of a

[00:38:14] scripture to base that off of that’s what we’re trying to do we’re trying to be able to be a light for Christ an

[00:38:21] ambassador for Christ without having to be ashamed because when somebody says

[00:38:26] hey what does the Bible teach about this we’re not at a loss for words because we’ve spent time in the word and we have

[00:38:33] the opportunity to give the hope of Jesus to other people who desperately need it people are desperate for the

[00:38:40] hope of Jesus for the hope of eternal life to know that there’s a God out there who loves them who died for them

[00:38:45] and considers them worth while considers them valuable they’re his child they’re

[00:38:51] his daughter they’re his son and that’s so important for people to know the way we think about life dramatically impacts

[00:38:59] our lives it affects our relationships it affects the way we parent it affects the way we we work at a job it affects

[00:39:06] how we treat our neighbors all these things have a radical impact and that’s what the Word of God does for us it

[00:39:11] causes us to think right and properly guys I wanted to ask you what are some

[00:39:17] of the events that go on throughout the year with Awana for example I know

[00:39:22] there’s the races with the cars can you talk a little bit about about that yeah

[00:39:27] I think that the derbies most of those are church run functions now that you

[00:39:34] want a missionary my role used to do a lot of the events we’ve been pulled out of that and so most of that rests on the

[00:39:41] churches so the Grand Prix’s that the churches do are fantastic I and and here’s here’s the best thing about those

[00:39:48] is the dads the dads that get involved may not come to church for anything else

[00:39:54] but you know what you give them a block of wood and say build this thing to be fast oh my gosh they get so into it it’s

[00:40:02] no longer the kids project do some boasting – but they yeah I’ll get you

[00:40:08] next year yeah but most of those I mean are that the the focus is on the race

[00:40:14] but guess what we’re gonna share the gospel when they’re there that’s right and talk wait tell us a little bit more about those Derby races so what goes on

[00:40:20] it where did that come from what goes on there no I don’t know what the history of it is but but yeah they they can actually buy

[00:40:26] either a block of wood or they can actually buy a pre-cut car for those

[00:40:32] maybe single moms that don’t have the tools to be able to do it sure and then they just they do whatever they want to

[00:40:38] it they can go for speed they can also go for design most of the churches will do design awards so if they don’t care

[00:40:45] about the speed but want to make it look pretty yeah they can get that and they actually race them they actually have a

[00:40:50] timed and everything yeah they’re on track yeah yep you know it’s exciting that yeah the actual event is a lot of

[00:40:57] fun to watch and the kids the kids totally get into it now are there any other yearly events like that where

[00:41:03] there’s something big happening like that what other yearly events are there Bible Quiz err okay what is that Bible

[00:41:09] Quiz there is where we get kids that compete either within their own church or as a County we have a County Bible

[00:41:15] Quiz that where we have different churches compete and as go over a certain types of or certain sections in

[00:41:21] the book that they study and then they have multiple-choice questions speed round where they have to buzz in

[00:41:27] and quote a verse Word Perfect Wow and it’s it’s pretty inspiring yeah

[00:41:33] that’s got to be intense or competitive then we have the parents in the

[00:41:38] background watching and then what I like about it is like I get the parents

[00:41:44] involved okay now it’s your turn yeah give me like what yeah my book quiz

[00:41:54] was fun that’s great now I I’m having the privilege of being able to be involved with the Southwest Western

[00:42:00] leadership camp what you’ve got on the on your shirt there yes so tell us a little bit about that what are the students they get to go to that camp

[00:42:05] there in order to go to camp you have to complete your book that your book and we started with an excellence award that

[00:42:12] means you have to finish two books so usually by the time they’re in sixth grade they’ve completed that so they can

[00:42:17] go to camp they have the privilege of going but they still have to fill an application out the director of the club

[00:42:22] and the commander pastor has to sign it before it comes to us and then we check

[00:42:28] it out and then go through everything but Camp is a like we actually through the years have called that the Golden

[00:42:35] Goose I guess something that it’s something out there that kids strive to

[00:42:40] go for cuz can’t brings everybody back together again throughout the whole year of all the activities that we’ve done

[00:42:45] it’s kind of like a reunion but camp is it’s a different campus not like a youth camp it’s a little bit different where

[00:42:51] we running like a boot camp and so they get to hear they have personal devotions

[00:42:57] they’ve act activities Bible studies they still have to memorize Scripture one scripture or a day for five days

[00:43:03] I have Chapel time they have activity time so it actually puts him on a

[00:43:08] mountaintop experience so it takes all the distractions away there’s no phones

[00:43:14] no pads no monitors no nothing it’s just them and God and the mountains and the nature and I see it as they get to hear

[00:43:22] the clear call of God on their life and then when we bring in Chapel speakers to speak through that week along with our

[00:43:28] Bible studies and their personal devotions and they’re all talking and their cabin devotions it’s really very

[00:43:35] powerful to see what God does yeah people are getting saved rededicated in their life basically they’re changing

[00:43:42] their lives yeah because when they go back down that mountain they’re so excited with what’s God doing they can’t

[00:43:47] wait to get involved and do something that’s fantastic though and what a firm foundation that Awana sets up for the

[00:43:53] rest of their life I mean that’s so pretty a train up a child when he is young and when he is old he will not

[00:44:00] depart from it and boy that that has played out so well in a wanna and what you guys are doing so I’m really

[00:44:07] thankful for your involvement and all that you guys are doing and pouring into kids and what would you say to the

[00:44:13] person that you know doesn’t want to need a lot of volunteers or do you have

[00:44:20] enough volunteers what kind of what would you say to the person who is considering getting involved but hasn’t gotten involved what kind of a

[00:44:26] dedication does it take to be a volunteer involved in awana yeah most of

[00:44:32] the churches very rarely do I ever have a church that says hey Tim we don’t need any more volunteers we’re good yeah so

[00:44:38] it’s there’s always the need and quite honestly the smaller we can make our

[00:44:44] small groups the better yeah so I mean we try and keep five to one but if you

[00:44:50] can three-two-one yeah how much how much more discipleship happens when the groups get even that much smaller yeah

[00:44:56] you can actually have those one-on-one conversation so yeah we love we love our leaders it is a commitment we do ask

[00:45:04] most of the churches asked for a year commitment yeah just because once again it’s the relationship building aspect of that you

[00:45:11] can’t do that in two weeks yeah that that takes time to develop and so we do ask for a year commitment in most

[00:45:17] settings for that but gosh I tell you what the blessing the blessing you

[00:45:23] receive as a leader you’re there to give but wow you’re so blessed to watch these

[00:45:29] kids and to see to see how how God’s Word gets hidden in their hearts and just to see the life transformation that

[00:45:37] takes place through that yeah most of the leaders will tell you there they’re way more blessed than any blessing they

[00:45:43] provide to our kids amen amen that’s eternal eternal rewards right yep well I wanted to we’re almost

[00:45:51] out of time here and there’s a scripture that has always been a blessing to me

[00:45:56] and it’s Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 it says keep this book of the law always on your lips meditate on it day and night

[00:46:03] so that you may be careful to do everything written in it then you will be prosperous and successful and I feel

[00:46:10] like you know I hear that Scripture and I just think to myself wow that’s so true it just resonates because I think

[00:46:16] that for all of us it’s when we either don’t know what the Word of God says or

[00:46:23] we begin to take a detour off the Word of God that we begin to have difficulties and troubles and bumps in

[00:46:29] the road that cause you know us to experience pain that God doesn’t want us

[00:46:35] to experience that he’s like whoa you’re going off-track here get back on the Word of God and so if you’re out there

[00:46:42] and you haven’t put your son or daughter in awana I just want to encourage you I think

[00:46:48] it’ll be one of the best decisions you could ever possibly make is to have your child go because it’s a blessing to you

[00:46:54] as your child learns the Word of God and then it’s a blessing to you and is it

[00:46:59] ever too late if a kid’s hits ninth 10th grade is it too late to get in Nuuanu got to start young or you know anytime

[00:47:06] yeah anytime okay yeah is there a college you wanna just we might be

[00:47:14] developing something okay that’s to come I wouldn’t be surprised well guys thanks so much for being on

[00:47:20] the air today and I really appreciate your time and what you’re doing thank you letting us join you thank you so much absolutely did you miss part of today’s

[00:47:27] program don’t worry work Hamid to helping you get the info you need okay that was dumb but for real visit

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