back to normal next time, I hope!)
Hi friends! We had our first VBS on Tuesday and it went sooo well!
We had 35 kids come, which was more than we were ever expecting.
This is a village where not many people let their kids hang out with the
"Christians"so this was a big deal for us. We had a great time telling stories,
singing songs, having fun with puppets, eating and coloring.
The kids were so excited about little things that it reminded us how hungry
for the Word they really are. They were happy just being with us.
It was a wonderful day and the youth that helped us were awesome. They were all ready
at 8:00 (which is a miracle in itself!) and we drove and hour, then we worked until about 2:30,
then drove home another hour. Then they decided to reward themselves with a movie so they
drove another 45 minutes to the movie theater and saw Ice Age 4 and finally arrived home about 9:30pm. It was a long day for all of them but we were thankful to have their help!
There were a few kids that especially touched our hearts. Of course you should all know Chata
by now. She is the 15 year old who Rachael and I have been sharing with and she is also Estella's daughter. (my house helper) Well, Chata decided she wanted to go with us, which was a huge
blessing because she speaks the indigenous language and so do all the small kids. There were
these 3 small kids walking on the street when we arrived and Chata got out and invited
them to come. They ran to ask permission and showed up soon after. The oldest one,
Marlyn was 7. She was clearly mama to her 3 year old brother, Andres, and 1 1/2 year
old sister, Kristina. They hung on her and cried for her and would not leave her side.
Finally Chata, knowing how hard her little life was, decided to intervene so that
Marlyn could have some fun. So Chata took care of the little ones and Marlyn came to life.
It was fun to see and we enjoyed helping them have a fun day. Both of their parents
were working, their dad was on a farm and their mom was cleaning out stables. They were pretty pitiful. This is so common to see, little mamas at such a young age.
We also enjoyed seeing 15 year old girls have fun just coloring. Boys of course had fun
sliding down the big wall of rock and the youth seemed to enjoy watching the kids have fun
learning more about the Word of God. It was all in all a perfect day! Thank you so much for
praying for us. We cannot do this without you. Please keep praying, we have more VBS on M, T, TH,F and S. It could be a very long week! Love you all! Missy
This was on the way to where we were having our VBS. Wish he could have come too!
I had to go to our friend's home and pick up the food. When I got there I was greeted by our
old dog. We had given her away 4 years ago and I hadn't seen her since. I was shocked when
she ran up to me started going potty from excitement and knew me like it was yesterday.
It was hard to leave her. She was so sweet! Love our Coco. This first picture was the last time we saw her.
The kids were a little timid at first.
Then they started singing songs and got a little more energized. Of course, Alex (jumping there) was a big motivator!
Learning a memory verse.
Hearing the story of Jesus calming the storm, and then acting it out.
This was when they were acting it out, and the girl in pink was spraying them with water
b/c they were on the boat when the storm came.
Boys and rocks.
This is Icho, it was his land we were on. He is the leader of our group in SL.
This is his wife, Barbara.
Annie and her old friends.
The youth singing songs.
Alex running in a relay.
Passing a rock relay, they loved this game!
Egg toss.
This is Alex's best friend, Carlos. He and Alex were REALLY enjoying the egg toss.
They won!
Saying a verse with hand motions.
Awesome group!
Great friends for 6 years now! God is so good!
Taking the kids home.
Day is done!
