FUN, NOISY, COMPETATIVE are three words that come to mind as i review our first kids club for Kutwanana's Orphans. With the help of 12 volunteers, from 9 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon, 88 children had an exciting 3 days and here are the pictures for you to see.
A lot of prayer was needed for these three day, the volunteers all who are youth from our church where passionate in their prayers and in their involvement with the children.
Volunteers printing "Jesus E Meu Idolo" on the childrens t-shirts. The theme for the holiday club was :who is your role model? and the t-shirts say "Jesus is my role model"(direct translation Jesus is my idol:-)
We had a LOT of singing and dancing, the children just couldnt have enough of it. The team made up a theme song using the music of a very popular mozambiqan musician but with our own words about Jesus being our leader and saviour. hearing the kids singing and dancing to the song was absolutely fabulous.
When you dance you just dont move your legs, you gotta move your touche as well!!!!
Luis showing us how its really supposed to go down! I was always amazed at just how involved the youth where in everything that we did for the children.
We had bible time, where we gave children simple verses to memorise.
One verses was: It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourself, it is a gift from God.
There is a verse in the bible that goes something like: HE (God) will do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ever imagine or think of, and thats what he did for us...
Amongst many other things I had prayed that the Lord provides money so that we could give the children one meal, in the end we had enough money to give them breakfast as well. They had two meals a day.
This is my favorite picture, my children have learned no matter how hungry they are they will patiently wait for everyone to get served and will never touch their plates until we have said thank you to our Father. My hearts desire is to raise children who pray.
Activities where fun, I had planned that the children should do a paper mache bowl that the kids could use to put their stuff in.
Well, some children, like Lina just didnt seem to see the point of wasting a balloon by piling sticky paper on it, she rather enjoyed popping it and playing around with it in her mouth.
Whilst most others got the hang of the whole idea and diligently worked on putting as much paper on the balloon as possible. Sad to say about half of the balloons did not make it:-) oh well next time we know "NO BALLOONS" :-)
The other craft that we did was making a necklace or bracelate with colourful beads that all represent something concerning salvation.
The reason for using beads is to make it easier for the children to remember the whole meaning of salvation. i do pray and hope that what we said stays in their hearts.
The team had prepared dramas for the children. they all revolved around how when a person is a role model, that person is prone to fail you, but when Jesus is your role model, he will never fail you.
apart from dramas we also had stories for the children. i am always thankful to see how attentative my children are as we teach them anything.
Not forgetting the GAMES!!!!!!!!!!! From day one we had divided the children into teams and man, where they competative, even the volunteers would get competitive amongst each other on behalf of their team.
As far as i am concerned in Africa, a kids club is not complete without the "BEAUTIFUL GAME"!!!! even the girls wanted to play and the boys didnt mind at all.
I am known for my sometimes crazy ways, so of course we had some crazy games.
I made sure that the games where not just crazy but....
MESSY!!!
Who can drink coke the fastest????
Poor Maria got it all over her face:)
Cesaria didnt have a chance, by the time Maria was done she was only a quarter way through her coke, but her team still cheered for her!
At the end of the three days, the winning team got their prices, toothpaste and tooth brushes. i quit giving sweets and chocolate a long time ago cos more than half the children have bad cavities.
And the most well behaved kids had special pressies to take home.
In all the time of fun and games, we also had time to comfort and counsel some children. Danilo was one of the most active boys but in the midst of his playfulness i caught a sense of saddness in his eyes. after sitting down and talking with Luis, we found out that he hates his aunt because she mistreats him. God willing this week i will be meeting up with her to resolve this problem.
On the last day, we asked the children who wanted to have Jesus as their role model to stand up, at first 50 children stood up, after talking to them and explaining more about the decision they where about to make 40 children remained.
The children where then put into smaller groups so that we could pray for them individually.Last Words
Jesus was with us, we had an amazing time with the children. it looks like some of the volunteers have finally got a taste of the passion i have for the children because on their own accord they are planning ways they can keep in contact with the children that gave their hearts to Jesus. If i am not too tired in December, we will do another kids club for the other 100 children under our care. If it doesnt happen then, it will happen in January.
We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support.Many thanks to Orphan Hope (Oregon USA), the Westville Assembly in Durban, Gerald and Ursula Maasdorp from Capetown, the McDonalds from the Berario Assembly in JHB and Anderson from the Ferndale Church for the money that you sent to make these three days a wonderful success.
