Awana Awards Night

Over the past few years we have been SO blessed to have our girls involved in a program called Awana. It's a fun kids program that is held in many churches where they play games, learn more about Jesus, and most importantly learn to hide God's Word in their hearts through LOTS of scripture memorization.

I've seriously been amazed at some of the passages that my girls have been able to learn and memorize. Certainly a very important tool for when they are grown and going through all of life's trials ... they will have a wealth of scripture to recall and to dwell on.

In Awana they each get a book for the year and as they progress through the book they earn little awards. For the younger ones they earn these jewels that go in a pin on their vests. For the older ones they earn these little buttons that go on a pin on their shirt. When they finish one book they can move on to the next book and at the end of the year they have an awards ceremony.

Joy is in SPARKS this year. She finished her first book! Yay, we are so proud of her! In fact, both of our girls finished there books despite the fact that we missed several weeks ... they were both so determined to finish that there were many weeks where they memorized several sections of scripture so that they could keep up towards their goal. We are so proud of their determination!!

This is the group of Sparks - they sang a couple songs before the awards were handed out.
And here she is with her ribbon!

Hope is in TnT - or 'Truth in Training' ... here is the group of TnTers singing their songs.

And here she is with her ribbon! {the ribbons get bigger and better as they get older! In fact the next awards for her are more like a plaque}

The girls have been friends with these girls in the next pictures since birth - their Mom and I were pregnant at the same time for both of our pregnancies. So here is Joy with her friend, "S".

And here is Hope with the older sister, "E" ...

We love you girls! We are so proud of you both!

Oh, by the way ... AWANA stands for ... Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed ... based on the verse in 2Timothy 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."