On Thursdays at WCA the preschool and elementary students join our chapel Conductor, Pastor Colleen, on the Rocky Mountain Railroad along with her trusty helper, Scruffy. The students have come to know and cherish worship and the consistency that it brings. Each week chapel includes sing-alongs with hand motions to songs like "We trust in you, Jesus" and "This Train is Bound for Glory".
In one lesson in particular, Scruffy helped the students learn about the importance of obeying by sharing his own shortcoming that week... having gone outside without a coat poor Scruffy had the sniffles. Scruffy learned that his mama was right and even though he didn't want to wear a coat, he should have obeyed his mom. Pastor Colleen queried the students, "Who else doesn't do the right thing?", to which one student quickly responded "my mom!". "Sometimes we all mess-up and don't do the right thing", Pastor Colleen responded, "but it's important to do the right thing and obey God".
Social distancing and hand washing were used as examples of doing the right thing; and when asked how far to distance from each other on the playground, one student chimed in, "70 feet!". As Scruffy's lesson concluded, another student spoke up, "God always does the right thing".
This relatable analogy helped the young students digest the the lesson from Genesis where Noah was told by God to build an ark - and Noah obeyed even though it didn't make sense and he was made fun of for it.
Further advancing the lesson, the 3rd and 4th grade students performed a skit (practicing their drama skills!) of the story of Noah for the younger students.
Each week Scruffy and his friends learn valuable lessons, practice important skills and most importantly spend time worshiping Jesus.