Every week at church, my two daughters (six and four) head upstairs to have fun and learn about Christian stuff with all of you.

That’s fantastic and something my wife Amy and I are very grateful for. But we don’t really know exactly what you do, as you teach and care for our children. We’re off in another part of the church listening to today’s reading or singing a hymn set to loud drums.

Updates about what happened at Kids Church can be patchy at best from our girls.

For the past few weeks, though, we’ve been watching you and what happens at Kids Church.

Due to lockdown conditions, the church@home situation has naturally extended to Kids Church. Your connecting with our family via video meeting means Amy or I have to be around to help our girls with technical support.

While this development has increased our daughters’ abilities with Zoom – yes, holding down the spacebar does unmute the mic. Yes, ‘unmute the mic’ is a new expression for us all –  it also offers us a window into the amazing world of (what used to be known as) Sunday School.

Seriously, you guys do a fantastic job. The amount of preparation and thought you have put in beforehand is evident, as you each take turns to lead different sections in a deliberate but engaging order.

The games are working well remotely, especially when our family smashed that round of ‘Guess Who’ last Sunday. How good were we?

Sorry, where was I? Oh, that’s right – back to you and leading Kids Church.

Given you have a range of ages and stages of children who are tuning in, you should be proud of how you are modifying information and interaction across the spectrum. And the fact you keep being willing to invite the youngsters to contribute is laudable, as anyone knows who has attempted to not lose their patience with overlapping discussion or unstable connections during video conferences.

The biggest thing I want you to know is how much we value your investment in the spiritual development of our young girls. We want our girls to grow up loving Jesus but we are their parents, so of course, we will want that. But you want the same thing for them AND you are donating your time, energy, concern, enthusiasm and prayers to that end.

Wow. Seriously, you guys are such gifts to the faith life of our entire family. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Your brother in Christ, Ben.

PS: Can we play ‘Guess Who’ again this week?