Keep in Touch with Irregular Class Attenders
God has created in the Florida Keys a wonderland of some of the most beautiful sights to be found anywhere. But what you don't see can be dangerous, even fatal. I discovered that once while diving in the Keys.
I'm normally a very careful diver, but for a brief moment I lost concentration. Suddenly, I heard that little voice that warns there is danger present. I discovered I was approaching a large plastic tube in which a large eel was hiding. With teeth bared, the eel was about to protect itself. I almost was badly hurt by something I could not see.
The same can be true, in a different way, by what (or who) we don't see in Sunday School. The people we don't see very often may go weeks, even months, without seeing new faces or hearing from loved ones and friends.
Use the principles in Finding Them, Keeping Them for help in outreach to the following list of people we need to make sure we "see."
Homebound Adults
These people, in particular, may face days of isolation. Sunday School teachers should make regular, intensive efforts to discover homebound people in their communities to see who needs a personal touch. We normally think of senior adults, but what about senior high football player who has sustained a broken leg or a knee injury? He's homebound as well. What about an expectant mother whose complications with pregnancy has been ordered to bed by her doctor? We need to "see" all of these homebound people.
Families on Temporary Assignment
Now more than ever, business people are given tasks that take them out of town for two or three months at a time. They may or may not take their families with them. Are you checking on them when they are out of town with a card or a call? Or if a husband is working out of town and has left his family behind, are you checking to see if their needs are being met?
College Students
Plan regular ways to keep in touch with your college students. Care packages, complete with cookies, inspirational cards, vitamins, movie passes, etc., are great items to send your college students to let you know you are thinking about them. Give them regular calls and letters as well.
People Who Are Grieving
Families or individuals who have lost important people in their lives may be absent from your class for long periods of time. The pain may be too great for them to come and share with the people in their Sunday School class. Don't wait for them to come back. Make regular contact with them, whether they are out of town taking care of arrangements or back in town privately grieving and recovering. You may never know the incredible loving impact a card, flowers or, in particular, a phone call can make in a grieving person's life.
Parents of Newborns
Offer to give the new parents an evening out. Be a listening ear for them. Offer to go to the doctor with them when their child is sick. Whatever you do, don't ignore them and assume they're getting along all right.
What you don't see can be fatal to your Christian witness and your Sunday School ministry.
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