You have adopted an older child into your Christian family from the foster care system or an orphanage abroad. The child has never been to church, which has been our experience with most of our foster children. You would like your new child to learn the stories and verses that you may have grown up hearing, a foundation for faith. You would also like your child to get excited about doing it. You want your child to meet other Christian children and make new friends with similar thinking families.

Your new children may be lonely. They are probably missing their friends and need something to occupy their young minds and some solid friendships. AWANA clubs start around this time of year all over the world. The programs are usually two hours long and consist of memory verse time, story time, and game time. The children earn awards for memorizing verses and attendance.

AWANA stands for Approved Workman are Not Ashamed. It is from the following verse 2 Timothy 2:15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. The program is for children age three through sixth grade. However, there is also a junior high and high school program.

One of our daughters came to us a few weeks prior to her fourth birthday. I was the only person who could understand her when she spoke. Even the foster mother who parented her for seven months before us couldn’t understand her speech.

Of course, we enrolled her in private speech lessons twice a week at our rehabilitation hospital. However, we also enrolled her in AWANA cubbies. The cubbies are three and four year olds who memorize shortened verses of about five words, sing songs, and play games. We taught our daughter to sign the verses and to say them. We felt that this memorization really helped her enunciation skills and her vocabulary.

All of our children, even those who only stayed a few weeks, have attended AWANA. Our adult children continue to maintain friendships, which began at AWANA. These friends were the first friends they made and they have lasted the longest.

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