New Children's Bible Class

On July 14th, I started a new project: a Sunday School class for the kids!  We have a worship service for the students every Sunday morning, and there's a Bible class after, but it's geared towards the high school students.  I started noticing last term that we've got several elementary-school-aged kids around now (mostly children and grandchildren of staff).  Several of them participated in the high school class, but would really enjoy something just for them.  And so here we are!

We started today with seven kids (Beth's son Jackson, Lewis and Tammy's daughter Deborah, the headmaster's triplet daughters Glory, Grace and Gladness, and the granddaughters of the girls' dorm mother, Irene and Brightness) and two high school students (Prisca and Glory) as helpers.  We are studying the parables of Jesus over the next several weeks, so it should be fun! First on the list is the story of the wise and foolish builders, so I taught them the song today. 

It's been a few years since I taught kids this age (and it was in Italian when I did); I'm trying to remember all the songs I once knew.  They already know the Hippo song, at least, but not Blue Skies and Rainbows.  I'm sure it'll all come back to me soon! 

Couchful of Friends

When I sat down on this couch, I was alone and plenty of personal space.  That did not last long.  Good thing they're so cute. :)

VBS at Kisongo

The church of Christ in Kisongo (the town halfway between Monduli and Arusha, which also has the Andrew Connoly School of Preaching associated with Bear Valley) has quite a few children both who already attend there and in the neighbourhoods around it, so children’s activities and outreach have become an important part of their ministry.  They hold ‘Children’s Seminar’ which is similar to a one-day VBS as well as week-long VBS, which was going on this week. Tammy, Beth and I took the kids one day.

There were one hundred and twenty-five children there that night, and one of the missionaries who works there told us that they were up to one hundred and sixty by the last night.  It was beautiful to hear so many children singing and learning Bible stories.

The grass and sticks are on the floor because the lesson was something about birds and there was a nest-building competition.

Here's a video of the singing!