Today's post is a trip back to the archives and a test of my memory recall. That's right, we're going all the way back to Thursday! Things have been absolutely crazy and it seems like any minute we're not out and about is spent trying to catch a little sleep. Needless to say the blog has fallen a little behind :(
Thursday morning was the team's "trial run" of the program we were hoping to run at the shoeshine boys camp on Friday. The plan was to run a similar program in a low income slum of San Juan called Guachupita. The area was definitely one of the more materially poverty stricken areas I've seen. When we arrived in the barrio (neighborhood) we met up with a local missionary from Adventures in Missions named Miguel. He and his wife have been ministering in San Juan for the last five years and have had quite an impact on Guachupita. We all unloaded our supplies in a local building owned by the Catholic church that the community uses as a general public meeting place. On our arrival there were only a few kids gathered around the building so we split up into small groups and walked around the barrio asking kids if they wanted to join us. It didn't take long for us to realize this neighborhood was packed with kids! We went from a handful of children to 85+ in a matter of an hour! We divided up the kids into four groups according to their sizes.
We started off by gathering everyone into our main meeting room (a challenge in itself). Tammy and a few of the team members did a fantastic job teaching the kids a couple Christian songs. The smiles on the kids faces were just about enough to melt anyone's heart. They really liked singing "arriba, abajo, acentro, afuera" (I'm in right outright upright downright) and it was hilarious watching the rest of our group try to keep up with the ever increasing tempo. When we finished up the main group session we divided off into our different colored teams. We had four teams with about twenty kids in each group. The groups traveled to four different stations doing various activities at each station. The first station was bubbles and face painting. Mary Krueger and Justina Johnson were the brave souls in charge of the bubble bucket. Quite a lot of fun as children slung bubbles far and wide. Heather Cechner and Cindy Swift armed themselves with paint and brushes to design baseballs and flowers on the arms of children. Station number two was the energetic and hectic game station equipped with our enthusiastic team members Travis Johnson and Matt Kuivenhoven, and Sam Derkin. Cora Hunse and Erin Lowe devoted themselves to story time with puppets and hygiene talk. Stephanie Meyer and Lotte Somsen diligently managed the craft station enduring the intense moments of children rushing their station. Peter Krueger, Claire Reinhart, Daniel Krueger, and Becca Everson had the ominous job of "team leaders" and moved the children from station to station.
Following the stations we gathered everyone together again and sang some more songs. Then we performed our Zacchaeus skit (see post about Weds. for more details). The kids were all eyes and ears, as we ate our breakfast, brushed our teeth, climbed the tree, told the story of Jesus coming to Zacchaeus' house, and shared with the children about Zacchaeus' repentance. Everything seemed to go smoothly. Once again the whole team pulled together and worked as one body united in Christ. The kids seemed to grasp the gospel message and we pray that our conduct and actions demonstrated God's love even more! Pray that God would continue to bring other Christians into these children's lives who can help nourish their spiritual lives.
Later on that evening we were booked to perform our dramas once again in a local church. Keeping with "Dominican schedule" it rained that evening so we didn't head out to the church service until 7:30. the church was located on the edge of town in a very small building. Later, Cora told us that the church had been constructed of wood from an old church that had been torn down. The church was no wider than 10ft and had a very, very small stage. What made the setting for our dramas even better was the single light bulb, powered by a propane tank, that lit the room. After, the dramas Juan Ernesto, the Dominican pastor whose been working with our group gave a powerful gospel presentation and encouraged believers to re-devote their lives to the Lord. It was a long day but nothing in comparison to the hectic schedule Friday brought us! More to come about the Friday later on tonight...
Peter (for the team)
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