"Little Rabbit in the Woods..."

Every Monday night I troop up to the second floor of the girls dorm and make a fool out of myself in front of about forty girls. Dorm devotions happen every week night (except Friday night) and on Monday night some of the girls have a corporate devotion time. I am in charge of coming up with a game or fun thing, then we sing a few songs, then I give a devotional and try to make it simple and biblical. The format reminds me a lot of my middle and highschool youth group days and I have taken some ideas from my favorite memories of youth group. These girls have definitely received a dose of American culture this year for now they know the Hokey Pokey (which embarrassingly enough our President saw me through the dorm window teaching the students and will never let me live it down), the Cha-Cha, Telephone, and Simon Says (and many more). I also have taught them some of my favorite silly songs. My favorite being "Little Rabbit in the Woods." If you have not had the priviledge of hearing and participating in this song then I must enlighten you. The song has simple hand motions and the words go like this...

Little Rabbit in the Woods
Little man by the window stood
Saw a rabbit hopping by
Knocking at his door
"Help me, Help me, Help me" he said
"For the hunter will shoot me dead"
"Come little rabbit come inside
Safely to abide."

I taught the girls the hand motions but even better we sing the song three times. First in a normal voice with normal-sized hand motions. Then we do the teeny tiny version with a wee rabbit and wee hand motions. Then we do the GIGANTIC version and the rabbit is enormous and we use very low voices and jump around. It is great fun. I think the girls enjoy watching me make a fool of myself most of all. But it does really break the "icey" feel and helps everyone relax. I truly have probably lost all of my dignity here but oh well - that's what ministry and missions is about, dying to self!
Here are some pictures of our latest time singing the Rabbit song...

This past Monday night I decided to get some of the girls involved and did a small drama. There was no talking just movement. The theme for last few devotions has been light - Jesus is the light of the world, having Jesus' light in your life, etc. As I have been preparing these devotions I realized how much the image of light is in the Bible. So the drama went like this: five girls stood shoulder to shoulder with unlit candles. The person representing Jesus comes and lights the first person's candle and she starts singing "This Little Light of Mine." Then she lights the person's candle beside her and so on until all candles are lit and all the girls are singing. Then the person representing Satan (that would be me, which was funny because I had on a pink shirt) told each person why they did not deserve to represent Jesus and made them afraid to be "a light to the world." Then they would blowout their candle. I get to the last person who, with the person representing Jesus, sing the song with such fervor make the person representing Satan (me) so frustrated she leaves. Then the girl with the lit candle lights her neighbor's candle until they all are lit again and singing the song again. I explained the skit beforehand with a huge emphasis that no one can lose their salvation and in the skit when the girls blow out their candles it does not symbolize losing one's salvation. However, sometimes Christians become afraid and feel unworthy of representing Jesus in the world because they see all of their sin and failures. I tried to encourage them that as Christians our righteousness is not based on us but on all Jesus did and is. So we do not have to hide our light or cower when we are tempted to be discouraged. I used much simpler language and I hope they understood. My prayer is that God will work in all of these girls heart's and plant seeds and break down walls. Here are some pictures of our skit:

So, now it is Friday and I am already trying to figure out what to do about this upcoming week - it never ends! I am afraid that my creative juices will become stagnant at some point but I always seem to think of something (mostly with my colleague's help - Mrs. Lyle, who helps out during these devotions times too, she is a great help.

Well, until next time...