For me personally, the time we had with the children in Embangweni was the best part of the trip. I have to say as a parent it was rewarding beyond words to see our children helping lead bible school in Embangweni. The warm welcome, smiling faces, and respect helped them feel comfortable in stepping into a leadership role to teach songs, act out bible stories and lead small groups with the crafts we brought. I have to brag on the knowledge and experience our children pulled from in order to teach. The many years of Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, "It's Elementary!", Tweens, and choir had prepared and given them confidence. Thank you to all of teachers here at WPC along with Barbara Stoop, Steve Phillips, and Mark and Kelly Kemp. If you taught a lesson, assisted in choir practice, coordinated VBS, or patiently helped as a Sunday School Shepherd, you can be assured that you helped make our trip a success. Another thank you to our Dominican Republic Senior High mission team, especially Emily James and Suzanne Meece who shared their overall bible school plans, what worked, what could have been improved for the June 2012 trip. Finally, a thank you to Pastor Henry Mvula and the adults from Embangweni who coordinated the children and helped us each day. The bible knowledge of the children AMAZED us as well as the behavior - they were absolutely wonderful.
Our first bible story was the birth of Jesus found in Luke 2. We shared the tradition we have of decorating a Christmas tree and brought examples of Christmas cards. Because Christmas occurs during the summer in Malawi, we learned that one tradition is to go to church and pray until midnight. The next day may include a celebration meal or enjoying a Fanta drink.
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| Teaching the song "I have peace like a river..." |
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| Teaching us a song |
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| The girls teaching Boom Chick-a-Boom Baby Style a big hit! Thank you Mrs. Reed from Stone Academy for teaching this fun song to Ellis. |
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| The children repeating Boom Chick-a-Boom Baby Style |
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| Trey with his small group working on Christmas Tree craft following the story of the birth of Jesus |
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| Cara and Ellis with a small group working the Christmas trees |
The second bible story we shared was when Jesus called the disciples to be "fishers of men." A fabric backpack was our craft to be a way of collecting or holding special things to represent a net. Sharpies were used to add color to the picture on the backpack of Jesus with the words "He Lives!" We loved seeing the backpacks being worn around town in the following days. For the younger group in the afternoon we had about twice as many children as we had planned for, so some made the backpacks and some colored puppets and made a laced glove to hold the puppets.
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| Ellie and Ben with a small group working on a back pack craft - a BIG hit! |
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| The finished back pack |
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| Coloring the puppets - God's creatures! |
The stories of Jesus performing miracles gave us time to discuss how God will always be with us and provides for us. We asked if they wanted to share what they were thankful for and heard, family, food, clothes, water, friends, and many more of the essentials in life. Trey, being a big fan of superheroes, helped make the leap to our craft of super hero head bands. He described super heroes and many if not most of the children knew what he was talking about from Spider Man to Bat Man. Jack chimed in, "and Robin too!" Trey and the Dubose children taught the "Superman Blessing" which goes to the Superman tune, "Thank you God for giving us food. Thank you God for giving us friends. For the food we eat and the friends we meet, thank you God. Amen." Stay tuned to the blog... I have a video of Trey teaching this song.
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| The super hero craft |
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| Super Heroes! |
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| Teaching how to play the game of jacks at the end of bible school time |
Our third bible story was from Mark 2: 1- 12. This was the story of the paraplegic man who was lowered by his friends through the roof to see Jesus. We made friendship bracelets after the story and gave each child an extra bracelet to make and give a friend. When asked if they knew a friends who did not know Jesus, the all answered, "yes." We asked, "how do you know?" to which they answered, "they do not come to church!"
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| Ben about to become the paraplegic man using Lydia's chitenje as the stretcher |
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| Ben being lowered through the roof on his stretcher by Ellie, Trey, and Cara to be healed by Jesus |
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| Ellie (from England) helping lead a group making friendship bracelets. |
The afternoon group colored blow up beach balls so that we had plenty of supplies for all. The beach balls were a BIG hit too! A ball is universal in bringing joy and fun to children.
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| Our final craft, making a cross necklace to remember that Jesus died for our sins on the cross. They sang a beautiful song titled, "Jesus died on the cross for me." |
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| Wearing the crosses that day and every day we saw them until we left Embangweni. |
The left over supplies like markers, glue, and paper from bible school were donated to the School for the Deaf. Headmaster, Mr. Hara, was very thankful for the donations to help them start the school year.
