Jansen Bible Church’s Awana Program Celebrates Sixteen Years

August 2011 - On Wednesday nights during the school year, the population of the town of Jansen, Nebraska, appears to nearly double in size. The reason? Jansen Bible Church’s Awana program.
A non-denominational Bible church and home to one of the area’s largest Awana programs, Jansen Bible Church has been running a successful Awana program for the past 15 years and is gearing up for its 16th season, beginning soon. According to Pastor Paul Carpenter, another exciting year of Awana is slated to begin on September 7th. “We are excited to embark on a new year of Awana at Jansen and look forward to seeing familiar faces as well as some new ones,” according to Carpenter.

Awana is a non-denominational kids program for ages pre-kindergarten through 8th grade that focuses on teaching children the Word of God in a fun and entertaining environment.  The kids learn Bible verses, hear interesting stories, play exciting games, sing songs, and earn prizes and awards every Wednesday night from September through April. The vast majority of the Awana leaders are members of Jansen Bible Church and parents themselves and many have been with the program since the very beginning. John Ensz of Beatrice, who is participating in his 12th year in the program at Jansen, has stepped into the role of Commander of the club for the 2011-2012 season.   

This year, to help out the parents and encourage regular attendance, the church desires to implement a transportation program to establish pick up and drop off points in the towns of Fairbury, Plymouth, and the surrounding areas. “We don’t want transportation difficulties to be the reason a child cannot attend our Club and want to make it as easy as possible for kids from the surrounding areas to join us,” according to Ensz. The church also offers a Bible study for adults led by Pastor Carpenter at the Jansen Legion Hall so that parents can just stay in town while their kids attend Awana.

The kick-off celebration of this year’s Awana program is scheduled for Wednesday, September 7th beginning at 6:30 p.m. with a free ice cream social at the Jansen Bible Church fellowship hall, located at the north end of Broad Street, the main road in Jansen. Parents are encouraged to come and enroll their children, meet the leaders and see what Awana is all about.  “We really hope that parents will bring their kids to this fun event so we can meet them, get their kids signed up and figure out transportation needs,” Ensz added. 

The founders of Awana derived the Awana name from the first letters of "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" taken from II Timothy 2:15 of the Bible. Today, more than 12,000 U.S. churches sponsor Awana programs in all 50 states and abroad.

For more information about the Awana program at Jansen Bible Church, call John Ensz at (402) 239-9923 or log on to www.JansenBibleChurch.org/Awana for program details.