“Are you coming to children’s Sabbath School today Aunt Keren?” I was greeted by several cheerful young voices. After two weeks of complete lockdown, everyone was happy to be attending services again, even though it was in a limited fashion. Our church was meeting in six separate locations, mostly under houses. Those living nearest the church building were meeting in the church. Since our transit house is on the church property, this is our meeting location as well.

“Yes I am,” I replied with a smile.

“Can you teach the lesson study?” Janelyn continued.

“Sure, do you have a quarterly?”

“Yes, I’ll get it.” She dashed off while I walked toward the transit house. The best Sabbath School room on the church property is the cement floor we have under the house.

Soon children were joining me. From the smallest up to young adults, they all came, sitting on the cement floor. I welcomed everyone, and we started with a song. I was handed the quarterly, and I taught the lesson straight from the Bible, helping them to see how things in the Bible fit into their own lives.

Week after week I was asked to teach. I wondered where all of the teachers were. When the government loosened restrictions enough to allow us to all meet in one building again, the small groups came back to the church, and the teachers resumed teaching their classes. This is when I learned that I am the only Sabbath School teacher in the church who knows how to teach a mixed-age class. There were one or two teachers in every house church, but, none were comfortable teaching anything except the assigned weekly lesson to their specific age group. I silently added “create a children’s leadership training seminar” to my mental to-do list.

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