Dayna with Gladys and her baby sisters at Kids Club...
Alicia, Sierra and Bailey doing puppets at Kids Club...
An hour before the movie was scheduled to start, we had over 25 people waiting outside. Sierra went out and played soccer with the kids while a few of us were inside popping up bag after bag of popcorn. We popped it up the old fashioned way - in a big pot with oil. I forgot how GOOD that was!! We filled up 100 bags of popcorn to hand out, and made 5 gallons of juice.
By the time we started the movie, we had over 100 people crowding into our small carport and patio area to find a seat for the movie. We had a few ice-breaker activities and then got started.
"The Cross & The Switchblade" is a movie from the 1970's - remember Pat Boone and Eric Estrada? They are the (very young looking) stars of the movie. Pat plays a pastor who is trying to reach out to the notorious NY gangs and Eric is a lead gang member who hates the pastor. There are many fight scenes (the teen boys seemed most drawn to those...go figure!) and in the end Nicky Cruz (Estrada) realizes the vanity of all he's done and turns to the Lord.
People seemed to really enjoy it - even the kids, of which there were about 80 of them!! We had to stop the movie 1/2 way through for some stretching and moving activities because the kids got a little restless, but they settled down again after we gave them an opportunity to move around.
After the movie we explained the gospel message to everyone using the "evangi-cube", which is this box thing that folds different ways to expose different pictures that explain the complete gospel message. People seemed to respond well, and we all prayed together at the end. Finally, everyone lined up for their popcorn and juice before leaving. We ran out of popcorn!
There was one little boy of about 6 or so who was being a real stinker. He was sitting in the back by me and just wouldn't listen. He continually talked and played and when I would tell him to be quiet he would just look at me and then turn around and disobey. I told him he would have to sit by his mother if he didn't listen. He didn't, so I told him to go to his mom. He said "no!" - all the other boys started laughing. I took his hand to take him and he braced himself against the wall and refused to come, so I picked him up and made him come with me up to the front by the mom's. After the movie when we were giving the gospel message, he was running and yelling and again wouldn't listen to us. I took him firmly by the hand and told him he would sit by the wall quietly until I said or he would receive no popcorn. Finally he obeyed and stood quietly, even though the other boys were making fun of him for getting in trouble.
After he had stood there for about 10 minutes quietly (while we were explaining the evangi-cube), I went over and brought him to the line for popcorn. I was able to explain to him that when we are obedient and do what is asked of us, that we receive blessings and rewards. With that I was able to reward him by letting him be first in line for popcorn. I think he really got the message and seemed genuinel proud of himself that he had done something good.
Some might say I was too easy on him, but I think he probably doesn't get much reinforcement to have good behavior. And besides, how often does God give us blessing when what we deserve is punishment? For me, it was the connection that made my night!
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