Today is the start of the children's program in our city. Our team consists of Eugene, Nancy, Daniel, David and Bess with Eugene leading. Our activity was sponsored by Ac*ess Children's Center formerly Compassion International. We were expecting about 60 students, most of whom if not all, were sponsored children by Ac*ess. As of 10:30 am, we had 50 registered students, ages ranging from 3 years to 18 years of age. There were 31 girls and 19 boys. Ac*ess provided us a classroom space in the first floor of their building, big enough to accommodate our children with enough space for a reasonable size stage and wide enough space for group activities. The school kitchen was adjacent to our room. Children were served their lunch in the courtyard big enough for laying out 3 long durable plastic runners where the children sit down cross-legged to eat their lunches. We the teaching staff ate along with them.
We were supposed to start at 9am. However, our activity was also in conjunction with the local Hindu festival where most of the families were attending in the nearby location. Most of the attendees trickled in by 10 am and so we proceeded with the program. There were four pre-kindergarten children who came herded by their older female siblings. One thing very admirable about these teens was that the girls take charge of registering the attendance on their own initiative. The female teens were very adept in helping out the young ones with their crafts and as well as writing things for them. What was remarkable also was that there seemed to be no age gap sensibilities since the teens naturally assist the young ones in doing the latter's work. These teen girls also were not embarrassed to do the motions of the activity songs together with the young ones. But one thing that Bess noticed was that the boys and girls sat separate from each other; there was no mingling. I did not see the boys interacting with the girls and vice-versa. The Ac*ess staff coordinating the collaboration between SFI and Ac*ess were present to watch the activities.
Our schedule for the VBS was as follows:
10am - 10:15 am -----Introduction and VBS Songs
10:15 - 10:30 am -----2 Games
10:30 - 10:45 am -----Snack break
10:45 - 11:05 am -----Story about Gideon
11:05 - 11:15 am -----B Verse
11:15 - 12:00 noon---Crafts
12:00 - 12:20 pm -----Sing and Play
12:20 - 12:35 pm -----Retell the story per group
12:35 - 12:40 pm -----Verse Recap
12:40 - 12:50 pm -----Distribute the completed crafts to participants
12:50 - 1:00 pm ------Prayer and Announcements
At 2 pm, Eugene, Daniel, David and Bess planned the activity schedule for tomorrow. We also incorporated in the discussion the evaluation of today's program. Instead of the VBS staff making the memory verse for the participants, we will assign each group to write the verse, color it the way they want and then present it to the entire group as they all recite the verse together. Each group will take turns doing this One advantage of this is having an additional craft activity lessening the time of preparation from the VBS team.
M*'s report as of April 29, 2018
Made it safely here. Finishing preparations for 200 kids program tomorrow. Heard beautiful stories of redemption already, saved lives from death. Please ask for big hearts and stamina for our team. Will write more tomorrow after program.
The following is M*i's report as of Monday, 4/30:
We had a good start to the first day with the addition of Blessie, who is an excellent dancer and a great help in the children's program. Even though we didn't sleep well and there were some adjustment issues, we got the ropes down.
After waiting for a car we got set up in the morning and started with our program. The children and teachers are lovely and our team did a good job teaching songs, stories, games and crafts for about 200 kids. The high-light was the good team cooperation with helping the children to complete the craft whales. Lynn had prepared a tasty lunch for us in her office and after waiting for rides we finally got home.
Please remember us for continuing good team cooperation, adjustment & health that we can truly be a blessing for the children!
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