Not long ago, I traveled back to Bolivia. This was the third year in a row I was asked to lead the Elementary Spiritual Emphasis Week at the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center. Apparently they aren’t tired of me yet! The Lord blessed with a wonderful week of teaching, praise, friends, food, and prayer. I’m pretty sure the students enjoyed it too! 🙂

This year our theme was Life in the Kingdom. Monday saw us Meet the King, learn how a monarchy operates, and discover how our King is distinct from earthly kings. When a young volunteer was asked what he would do if he were king of SCCLC, he replied, “I would make less homework, keep everyone safe from robbers, and add a swimming pool!”

Tuesday’s lesson was on the Keys to the Kingdom: repent and believe the good news. In this chapel we looked more closely at John 3:16 and Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. Wednesday found us studying parables of the Kingdom in Matthew 13. We talked about the “now and not yet” aspects of the Kingdom and How to Live a Kingdom Life today. Our takeaways were to: 1) Love the King, 2) Obey the King, and 3) Plant Seeds for the Kingdom. Each student then took a “seed” and wrote how they could plant seeds for the Kingdom each day at school. Some thoughtful responses are shown below:

We studied Ephesians 6 and the Kingdom at War/Stand your Ground on Thursday. It was a chaotic and noisy chapel with plenty of visuals and volunteers to illustrate how to defend the Kingdom! Friday was a calmer as we discovered how to be Ambassadors for the Kingdom. I read the students a book, The Topsy Turvy Kingdom by Dottie and Josh McDowell, with the pages projected up on the screen. The story shows what can happen when we forget to live by Kingdom principles and how it takes courage to be the one to stand and remember those principles.

Preparing for these lessons provided timely reminders for me as well. As we endure another election cycle here in the USA, keeping a Kingdom-centered perspective is especially needed. I needed to be reminded that God, our sovereign King, is still on the throne. As subjects of His Kingdom, we must learn to live in the balance of the “now and not yet”, standing our ground against the forces at work in this age while serving as faithful representatives of a good, just, loving and merciful King. It’s elementary, after all.