TWO TUESDAYS A MONTH

Today is St. Patrick’s Day.  Tonight, I was asked to teach of group of sixteen 5-to-11-year-olds about St. Patrick.

The boy in the red shirt answered a question correctly about St. Patrick and was rewarded with a prize:
A miniature St. Patrick's Day hat.

Actually, I’ve been involved with this group for eleven months now.  We meet on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.  The group is called “HATS Club” and is sponsored by Youth for Christ.  "HATS" is an acronym for "Helping A Teen Succeed". We try to impact their lives for Christ before they hit their turbulent teens.  Some of these kids already live in turbulent homes.

Another HATS Club member receives a prize for a correct answer.

Not only do these kids meet a couple of times each month for dinner, for teaching and for games, but most of the kids also have individual mentors who meet with them one-on-one for an additional 3 or 4 hours a month.

More correct answers, more prizes.

I have been mentoring a ten-year-old boy since June of last year.  We’ve gone hiking, we’ve gone to movies and plays, we’ve gone swimming, and we’ve gone bowling.  This young mentee even helped me build a pergola in my back yard last summer after I showed him how to use a circular saw and a drill.

By the time the lesson ended, every kid got at least one
correct answer and a hat to prove it.

Tonight was a group event and I taught a lesson, asked questions as I taught, and I rewarded correct answers with a miniature St. Patrick’s Day hat.

 

At the end of the lesson, the kids learned that the shamrock represents the Trinity and my star pupil, who also happens to be my mentee, explained to the rest of the group what the Trinity means.

Also, I got a pretty sweet deal on those hats.  Twenty hats for only $4 at Macy's.  Or was it at the Dollar Tree?  Some store, anyway.