Does anyone have recent experience with AWANA clubs?

[ksuheather]

Our oldest was invited by a soccer friend to bring a friend night. I guess it has something to do with completing a badge or something. Anyway I let her go, even took her myself since I thought it would be a great experience for her because she is preparing for her First Holy Eucharist this year. When I signed her in I made it clear that we are Catholic and are here to visit only. She had a great time. But a few weeks later she got a postcard in the mail that I intercepted that said something along the lines of, "We love you, we miss you, please come back." I threw it away and was left with a sour taste in my mouth.

[TVR]

Ksuheather, that is uncool!

Our kids don't need to bring a friend to complete their sections/books. It is optional. And friends are not asked for their contact details.

[QueenSyd]

My church at home does AWANA now. My church isn't fundie at all and I think my mom has volunteered at it, so I'm pretty sure it isn't weird at all or I would've heard all about it. When I was little we had RAs and GAs, but we never did like the full stuff you could do through the programs, so it's probably still like that where they use the name and some of the stuff from a program, but not the whole program.

[hyperactress23]

My church started doing Awana when I was in 4th (?) grade. My first year I was a Chum (which had this Indian sort of theme) and the 3rd-6th boys were Pals, which I believe were similar, but I can't remember much about them. The next year Awana updated so that 3rd-6th grades were Truth & Training, and boys and girls were no longer separated. I was mad that all of the stuff I'd earned as a Chum was now wasted and I had to start again at the beginning. By the time I finished 6th grade, Awana was simply something my parents made me go to, but I hated it. I won a first book award and an Excellence (2nd book) award; my name is still on a plaque at the church for the second. There were things about inviting friends, which was frustrating since I went to a Christian school so all of my friends already had their own churches to go to, but I don't remember it hindering me. I found the games lame, the book (Bible-memorizing) time boring, and the council (Bible story) time a joke.

Then in 8th grade my church decided to do JV and Varsity (Awana's jr high and high school programs). Barely anyone came, but, of course, my parents made me. I completed the few lessons it took to get the shirt so my parents would get off my back, and then did all the extra stuff (stuff that required creativity like drawing pictures or writing stories or whatever), but didn't do any of the memorization stuff, and made it very clear that I had no desire to be there. They didn't continue doing JV/Varsity after that year.

Then in 10th grade I somehow got roped into working with the Sparks (kindergarten-2nd grade). For two years I would help them learn their verses, since many of them couldn't read, so that was pretty much all I did. They had fun songs about being the light of the world or whatever (since their mascot was a lightning bug), but half the time we didn't get to the songs anyways. In 12th grade they moved me over to council time with a friend of mine, but we usually just played them a CD with different stories on it (similar to Adventures in Odyssey where it's like Christian radio drama) and then talked about the stories with them while we did a craft related to the stories. Our council times that year were pretty much a joke. The next year I was in college and too busy (and too sick of Awana) so I didn't work Awana.

We also did the Awana Games every year (which I never went to since I hated the games), which were like big tournaments where you played the games that were like, running around in a hula hoop with your partner and relay races and such. We had our own Awana Camp since the official ones were too expensive; I went one year and hated it, then worked it a couple of years during high school.

From what they do now, all I know is that there's now a section in the church bulletin each week that says how many verses have been learned this year, but I don't live there any more so I don't know much about what goes on in Awana now. Apparently they've done away with the T&T shirts and just do badges now (I hated how they wouldn't count your awards for a week unless you wore your shirt), but I think the Sparks and Cubbies (preschool) still have vests to put their badges on. Apparently there's even a Puggles, which is for babies, but my church never did that, and I only know of its existence because my cousin was a Puggle as a baby. I have no idea what you would do for a room full of babies, since the Cubbies can't even learn real verses and just learn things like "Jesus loves me." or "I love God."

[Glass Cowcatcher]

My church started doing Awana when I was in 4th (?) grade. My first year I was a Chum (which had this Indian sort of theme) and the 3rd-6th boys were Pals, which I believe were similar, but I can't remember much about them.

Totally forgot about that. I can see how that kitchy Native American stuff would be really offensive to some people, good thing they changed it.

[genericJname]

No recent experience, but I might still have my vest from 1989 :?