Yesterday at church was the Primary Children's Program for our ward's sacrament meeting. Since I'm in charge of the Primary, it's all I've been thinking about for the past month! My first counselor (and great friend) Jenny and I started creating a script/outline back before Halloween. I typed all the kids' parts up and gave each parent a letter explaining what their children were supposed to do and how the parents could help. Then I did follow-up calls and reminders every Sunday to make sure everyone was getting ready. Jenny put together posters for all the songs, and we both made some visual aids to go with the different speaking parts and songs.
Our theme for the program was "I Will Trust in Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ: Their Promises are Sure." We keyed in specifically on "Promises" and talked about the promises the Lord gave us through the scriptures, the promises we have through the prophets, and the promises we have through the Saviour. I felt pretty good about the content, but I was nervous about the kids actually pulling through and not getting too rowdy. (We have a bit of a reverence problem, most Sundays).
Well, last Sunday we had the "dress rehearsal" in the chapel. In a few words... it was a nightmare. Brian said it went okay, but I was reeeeaaallly frustrated by the time it was over. (To give an idea, we ended 20 mins early and just let the kids go outside and run wild so that I didn't have a meltdown. not good.) It was especially hard because we were short-handed. Jenny had to work at the last minute, our assigned piano player ended up getting sick (thankfully Brian was able to fill in, bless him), one of the two teachers we have was out of town, and the mother who was going to help had to teach the adult Sunday School. So, we had one child throw a full-on tantrum on a bench, one child cried through two or three songs, with her mom holding her in her seat, two kids yelled "NO" really loudly every time we asked them to do something, and another kept getting out of his seat and running around the chapel. We only have 9 kids total, so this was pretty much the whole crowd acting manic. Needless to say, I was disheartened going home, wondering if we could pull it off in the real performance.
Well, yesterday was the big day. And....
It was GREAT! Seriously! I never even imagined it would go so well as it did. We had three kids who didn't end up being able to come, but we just excused them and read their parts for them anyway. Even though there were just six kids up there, they sang really loudly and knew all the words to the songs. When it was their turn to give their parts, they all spoke clearly and said everything just right. We had the bishopric sing along with us for part of "Follow the Prophet", and the audience sang along with a new song, "Prophets and Apostles." I could not believe how smoothly it all went -- no crying, no tantrums, no running around... Just sweet, innocent children, sharing their testimonies about the scriptures and the Saviour. It was a beautiful day!
4 comments:
MARVELOUS, my Kamber girl!! I'm DELIGHTED that all went well with your Program!! Ours was yesterday, too, and I was VERY impressed with how well it went. Of course, we had 6 times more kids than YOU did, so it's good to know that YOUR'S went well with such limited participants!!
I am loving to watch (over and over)the darling little videos of our Sammie girl walking and talking on the telephone....(the next entry down). Now that you know how to enter videos, I was just thinking how fun it would be if you had been able to take a video of the dreadful experiences of your PRACTICE Sunday! Wouldn't that have been a HIT??!! :)
(Aren't we pleased that Prayer works so well, eh??!!) Love, Mom
Great story. I wish I could have seen it - the chaos day and the great performance day. Good job on not melting down. I'm sure all of your hard work and care and concern paid off in many ways.
Congratulations on a program that went off so well! I know it's hard work and takes a lot out of you. It sounds as though it went well.
I live in a town outside of Seattle, Washington and I believe we have about two hundred children in our primary. It's insane and the Primary program went off quite well for them as well. I've lived in much smaller wards as well and I'm still trying to decide which I like better. Sometimes I think the smaller wards are better because you really get to know the members. Here, it's easy to fall between the cracks sometimes.
I have been in at least 4 primary programs since I have been married. I totally know what you are talking about with the planning, the irreverence, and the stress of whether it will go well or just be a total joke. I must say it has gone Wonderfully everytime I have seen or been involved in a program. It is amazing to me every year. I am glad that you were able to have the same experience. :)
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