God & Country

God & Country is a religious awards program, offered by the P.R.A.Y organization. This program helps young people to develop a deeper relationship with God and to understand how God is active in their lives and in the world around them. The God & Country series offers 4 separate courses for school age children. The classes include God & Me for grades 1 - 3, God & Family for grades 4 - 5, God & Church for grades 6 - 8, and God & Life for grades 9 - 12.

Our Cub Scout Pack, Pack 220, is very proud of offer this program to all of our scouts and any siblings who are involved in Girl Scouts. Six of the boys in my Webelos Den recently completed the God & Family class.

The class runs for 7 weeks. During the 7 weeks the kids learn how their families can grow together in God's love. The class compares family to pizza. A very interesting way to break down the family structure.

In week one the kids learn that all families need a crust or foundation. The foundation is built on God and God's love. All of the kids choose a favorite bible verse to write on their crust. They also drew a symbol in the center of the pizza to represent Jesus.

In week two the kids learned that the sauce on the pizza represents their family and spiritual heritage. They added strips of red and orange construction paper to the pizza to represent the sauce. On the strips they wrote the names of people who had helped them grow in their Christian faith.

Week three had them add toppings to the pizza. The toppings represent the talents, gifts, and strengths that we get from our families.

Cheese was the next ingredient that was added in week 4. The cheese represents rules that we all need to follow. The boys wrote the Ten Commandments on their strips of "cheese." The melting of the cheese tells the kids that God will always love them even though they may occationally break rules or make mistakes.

In week 5 the kids baked their pizzas. The baking represents that being a member of a family and having God in our family helps us when things are tough. The kids made paper oven mitts to represent the protection that God gives us to get through the tough times.

Finally in week six the kids shared the pizza. Their assignment for the week was to decorate their pizza boxes, make coupons for their pizza and think of ways that they could share their pizzas with others. The lesson learned... How can I share the word of God with others?

This is a great series. I really enjoyed sitting in on the class and working through the booklet with CJ. I highly recommend this series of classes to any scouting organization that would like to promote "duty to God" to their scouts.

For more information about the P.R.A.Y organization go to http://www.praypub.org/.