TANZANIA, Thursday--July 11

Today we were up to 90 children at the younger VBS and 30 at the older!  We are growing each day! We played Chui, Chui, Simba! (leopard, leopard, lion!), the Swahili equivalent of Duck, Duck, Goose!  We also had a balloon relay where the children had to run and pop their balloon on the grass.  Oh, the giggles!  It was lots of fun!

CHUI, CHUI, SIMBA!

 

 POP THE BALLOON!

 

Each day the team has had a dramatization of our story--the Birth of Jesus, the Miracles of Jesus, etc.  Tim is doing a great job of playing the part of Jesus!

 

Today we dramatized the event in Jesus' life when parents tried to bring their children to Jesus; the Disciples pushed them away, but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, for us such is the Kingdom of Heaven."  He touched them, blessed them, and loved each of them. 

JESUS BLESSING THE CHILDREN

Cynthia talked to the children about how we use our hands for many things; Jesus used His hands to show His love for the children.  She shared with them how God loves each of us individually. The verse we used was "Yesu ananipenda," meaning "Jesus loves me."  The children painted two hand prints and a heart on a piece on construction paper which said Jesus Loves Me, to remind them of His love for them.

JOHANNES TRANSLATING THE STORY

 

For the older children we are doing the same story and dramatization each day, but changing up the songs, games and crafts to make them more interesting for the older kids.  Nicky has taken the lead in the older VBS and is doing a great job!

Evelyn (our resident artist) had a few more complex crafts for them to do like watercolor painting and making homemade paper, using a blender purchased by the team as a gift for the orphanage.

MAKING PAPER WITH EVELYN

WATERCOLOR PAINTING

 

THE KIDS LOVE THE PAINTING!

 

 

BEAUTIFUL WORKS OF ART!

These were very exciting activities for the children, and the results looked amazing.

A teacher from the boarding school which is just adjacent to the orphanage site came and watched us for a while.  He was very interested in all that we were doing with the kids, especially the paper making.  We are happy to have a connection with the school where many of the children go, and we are blessed to be able to meet some of their material needs with our left over supplies we brought with us.  We will give these to him tomorrow on our last day.

A BAG FULL OF SUPPLIES READY FOR THE SCHOOL!

 

Afterwards a few of the team members played a bit of soccer with the older boys, and they really liked playing with us even though we were rubbish at soccer!  We had heaps of fun!

 

Before we left the site for the day, we gave baseball caps to each of the workers who are working so hard on the foundation. They were very happy to have them!  It was precious to see their big smiles and to know that we helped put it on their face.

 

THEY LOVED THEIR NEW CAPS!

 

All in all, it was a fabulous day!  We are building to the important last day when we will share the death and resurrection of Jesus!