VBS

I can’t believe it’s August already, summer has gone by so fast…..okay that’s just a joke because it’s been summer for all but 2 weeks since I moved here in Nov. 2009. : ) For those of you who don’t know our typical weather is about 100° with 60% to 70% humidity. Therefore a cooler day for us would be like 80°, when it drops to the 60’s we are wearing jeans, long sleeves and drinking hot coco. The beginning of this month we had a cold front come in with temperatures down in the 50’s and it lasted 3 or 4 days. During this time I felt like the biggest sissy, but then I stopped and thought about it and that is a 50° difference to what we are a costumed to; and then I didn’t feel so bad. Okay enough about the weather

July 28th was Peru’s Independence Day, so the kids were out of school for like 2 weeks. Since Esther and I have both been dying to work with kids more we agreed this would be the perfect time for a “Vacation Bible School” in 9 de Octubre. But Esther and I knew we couldn’t do it alone, good thing we have an AWESOME “Mother Church” (when Esther and I pull out of 9 de Oct our “Mother Church” will be the ones helping to keep our little group going.). Several of the ladies in the church were very excited about helping us with our VBS.

The VBS was held in a school (the same school we did the project at in June) from July 29th to August 1st 3pm-5:30pm. The first day we had 15 kids, we were going to divide the kids into two groups; ages 3-6 and 7-11. But it was easier to just keep them together and much to our surprise it worked out very well. The second day we had 29 kids, the third 35 and the last day 38 plus some of their family members so on our last day we had over 60 people at the school.

Everyone had a GREAT time, yes, even the teachers : ) I loved getting to play sports with the kids and sit and color with the little ones. On Sunday (the last day) one of the parents came up to Esther and said “Thank you so much for what you’ve taught our kids this week, they have been coming home and telling us all about what they were learning.” The kids asked us every day when we were going to do this again, Esther made the mistake of asking them if they wanted to do this every day, of course they all shouted at the top of their lungs “YES!!!” What a blessing for us to know that not only did they enjoy the VBS but that they were also telling their parents and friends all about it!

We are now having our weekly service on Thursday nights at 7pm (which means we don’t actually start till like 7:30 or 7:45) in Rosa’s house. The Pastor of our “Mother Church” comes every week and gives a short little devotional, Esther usually leads us in a few songs and I read a verse or pray. On a good week we will have 7 adults, it’s hard not to get discouraged by numbers. After all we do live in a world that loves numbers. Last week one of our new contacts came and he (let’s call him Mark) brought a friend with him, we were so shocked; most of the time it takes us inviting 10 times before they will finally come.

The following week when we went to do lessons with Mark and his Mom (Mark is probably in his early 30’s and his Mom in her 60’s) Mark was gone, but we asked his Mom what he had said about the service. We told her how surprised we were to see him there with his friend, and this is when we got the story of how he got his friend to come with him. Mark was on his way to the service when he ran into his friend (we’ll call him Jerry). Jerry asked Mark if he wanted a beer, Mark said “No, I can’t I’m on my way to have some ‘God time’. Jerry gave him a funny look, but said ok. Mark then asked if Jerry would like to come with him, Jerry’s first question was “will there be girls there?” Mark laughed and said yes, but that’s not why I’m going. Again I would guess that Jerry gave him a funny look, but still agreed to go along.

Esther and I were so pleased to hear this story, we were so proud of Mark for saying no to the beer and then for having the courage to invite his friend to come with him. When I hear a story like this or about the parent who thanked us for teaching his children about Jesus, I can’t help but praise God! He really is using us to change lives in 9 de Octubre!

In His service, Bri and Esther