"Awana Never Stops"

Throughout the Awana club year, Awana commanders, directors, and leaders pour energy, sweat, and heart into teaching the children. Then, when the year comes to a close, whether it be summer or a couple months at some other time of year, they welcome the break. Awana Missionary Joel Cook sums up the sentiment, "When I was a commander, I told the workers and myself I wouldn't use the 'A' word throughout the summer."

Joel and Virginia Cook, along with the other northern
California, northern Nevada Awana missionaries,
help start new clubs during the summer.

Yet, he also pointed out that now as a missionary, "When the club year ends, planning for the next year begins." For the three Northern California, Northern Nevada Awana missionary couples, the summer is just as busy as the club year.

Missionary Mike Sexton agreed. "I always laugh when people say, 'Awana's closed down for the year, you must be on vacation.'"

Joel and Virginia Cook, Mike and Becky Sexton, and Jeff and Judy Gilpin have three focus areas during summer: New club development, event planning, and church care.

"Ministry never goes away," Sexton said, "there are always people to talk to, to encourage, and to challenge. We want to become a partner with the local church, encouraging the pastor and pastoral staff. Sometimes we're even called to help with personal issues."

The Sextons often help in the role of church care by making presentations, meeting commanders, and establishing between three and six substantial contacts with each of the churches.

"I also want to connect with commanders, kids who grew up in Awana and are now married, and long-time leaders who are no longer leaders" he said. "That's what it's all about, connecting with people. Summer's also a time when we, through various avenues, connect with our ministry team and ministry partners, like by attending West Coast Honor Camp for a day."

Along with communicating with churches, the families work together to plan the different events through the year, including coordinating the 11 team-building dinners and making the new commander packets.

Mike and Becky Sexton take the leading role in planning the next calendar of events. They have to talk with the facility heads, check facility calendars, get contracts for the gyms, and recruit workshop teachers for the three conferences.

Sexton also maintains the special role of planning and coordinating the Commander Colleges for the southwest ministry teams, which includes California, Nevada, and Hawaii. This means he also has to coordinate with the missionaries for those areas and work with their schedules. In the last five years, there have been about three Commander College 101s and one Commander College 201.

"I'm the main point person for all of those missionaries," he said.

And yet, even with all of these areas of summer ministry, there is one other area that takes an extreme amount of focus. New club development peaks during the summer months, as the missionaries use this time to canvas areas and make communication with new churches, get the word out about Awana, and start training new leaders.

Jeff and Judy Gilpin brainstorm procedures to make the
limited summer time more efficient for the missionaries.

"The summer months allow us to take club visits off the agenda so we can focus on helping clubs start," Cook said. "Summers are when churches learn about Awana and contact us about Awana, because they want to start their new club at the beginning of the new year." This summer, from May until the beginning of July, he made two church presentations and spoke at three churches for Awana. At the time of this interview, he was preparing for a training one week away.

Unfortunately, reaching out during the summer takes its toll. Even though summer is the peak of new club development, only about one or two churches can start at a time. Therefore, this summer Jeff Gilpin is brainstorming procedures for exponentially increasing the number of new clubs. "Currently, if we have a church that wants to start the program, we hold a training on one Saturday for that church," he said. "As a missionary, when you have to train a church, it takes away time from talking to a new pastor."

Gilpin's vision is to teach the members of the Northern California, Northern Nevada Ministry Team how to train a church, and then hold three regional trainings three times a year.

"This way, when new leaders come on, we can send them to the trainings so they mix with established leaders and ministry team members."

Gilpin also has a vision for training the Ministry Team to help with the church care. "We want to give away more and more ministry, because then overall ministry in northern California and northern Nevada can be bigger," he said.

With the amount of things to do and the challenges to face, sometimes the missionaries feel overwhelmed. Gilpin sometimes finds himself second guessing his presentations, thinking "If I would have..."

"At those times, I try to relax and have faith, remembering that I'm planting the seeds and need to let God do the work."

Mike Sexton faces the challenge of balancing ministry
with home repairs and family.

For Sexton, his biggest challenge comes in trying to balance the ministry with family time and home repair time. "I could work all of the time and still not be done," he said. "I'm still leaning when to wait." He also continues because of 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, "For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."

And for Cook, one of his biggest challenges is making the connections during the summer. "I find it rather difficult to make contact during the summer with commanders, since they are on break," he said. When things get difficult for him, he turns to his "Rainy-Day Binder" — a collection of all the letters he's received from kids. "I respond to each letter within 24 hours of receiving it," he said. "I also keep the originals in this binder. When I'm feeling down, I read the binder to remind me why I continue in the program."

The missionaries ask that we continue praying during the summer, because "Awana never stops."

For more information about Awana Clubs International, visit the Awana Homepage
To find a club in your area visit the Club Locator.