Monday, June 18, 2007

I woke earlier than Carol and Vonda. I tried to get my stuff so I could brush my teeth and do my devotions while I waited for the rest of the team to wake, but I wasn’t very well organized. I kept making enough noise to disturb Carol. While I was doing my devotions, I realized I didn’t have my pen or my reading glasses, so instead of disturbing Carol and Vonda AGAIN, I used it as prayer time. My daughter was traveling to New Jersey, and my son and his wife are getting a divorce, so there was no shortage of prayer material.

Dilio found me trying to practice “Alabare”, so he helped me get the words right. Throughout the rest of the trip, he and Nataniel and I sang it pretty often!

After breakfast, we headed to the work site. TeAnni was there, along with several other children, to greet us. TeAnni speaks some English, so she helped us carry on conversations with the children.

The VBS team went on home visits. The first day, Sarah, Lynn, Talia and I were on the home visits. Dilio translated, and Luis and Nataniel, the youth workers with FH, determined which homes we’d visit, and helped us find them!

We visited Lynn’s and Talia’s sponsored child first. Lynn and Talia hadn’t gotten to see their child in six years, so it was pretty exciting! Talia speaks Spanish quite well – she was home schooled, and her Spanish tutor is from Peru – so she was able to talk directly with their child. Their child is right next door to Maria, whom we sponsored for many years. During the course of the visit, we learned Maria had married an older brother of the child we were visiting. At each home, we ask if there is anything they’d like prayed about. Isobel would like us to pray for her husband, who is straying from the faith.

After lunch, we got ready for Vacation Bible School. Sarah prepared the lessons, and it was obvious she put a lot of work into the planning and preparation. While we were waiting for the children, I shared that the previous night, I dreamed we had 50 children on the first day of VBS. I pointed out that I don’t usually have prophetic dreams, so it was probably just a dream, but wouldn’t it be cool if we had 50 or so kids come?

Lynn and Talia opened with the singing. I mostly sat by the open door – I was feeling a little wobbly. (The temperature in the church is typically about 95°F, and it always takes me a day or two to get to where I’m drinking enough liquids to handle the heat.) I enjoyed watching Lynn and Talia teach the children the motions to “Pharaoh, Pharaoh”. Lynn is always so graceful in everything she does.

One kinda neat thing I noticed: When we do that song at our home church, there are almost always a few 4th or 5th grade boys who come up in the front to “strut their stuff”. Some things are universal – there were two boys today up front doing the motions. I had to smile! J

This week’s theme is Moses – how he answered God’s calling. Dilio told the story for the first lesson. He’s very good with children, his teaching experience certainly showed through. He kept the children engaged, attentive and involved.

Today’s craft was coloring a picture related to the story. We had Dilio emphasize to the children that we would distribute the paper and crayons and they were to stay seated, and share the crayons. It went very well – and the children enjoyed showing us their coloring.

Sarah did a head count, and was tickled to find we had 53 children on our first day!