Kids Club has Kicked Off!!!!

Fiji Day 3

WOO HOO!!! Monday is finally here!!

We had a simple breakfast of bread (not toast), butter, fried eggs (thanks to Grace Choy) and tomato sauce. With staples of coffee (did someone say Good Morning?) and Hot Chocolate (brought in by Peter just in case).

Hailing a taxi to the church was easy this morning.. and we gathered back with Dr Peter Chen and Winnie for a short morning devotion where we read 1 John 3:11-24 where we learnt about Love and Psalm 100.

The first 2 children – Mindy and Kevin that Hsien had to give them a piece of paper and a craft punch to keep them occupied. AND THEN… EVERYONE ARRIVED. Like MASS arrived. Poor Hu Die and I were trying to keep up with all the kids – name tags, registration, money collection etc. everyone was running amok.. some kids only spoke English, some spoke Chinese and some only responded to Cantonese. Like a simple question – “how old are you” had to be repeated to the kid 3 times before we obtained a response. Plus they were all so excitable and eager to join the other kids in playing games.

A few of the parents lingered around before leaving – back to tend their provision shops. Ben kicked off the program with 3 songs…1. Who’s the King of the Jungle? 2. The B-I-B-L-E and 3. This little light of mine. The kids happily sang (shouted) and danced along.

Next up was the workshop by Grace Choy who “created” an aquarium universe as a analogy to God creating our world and our universe. The kids were pretty amazed and participated in “creating” the aquarium world too.

After that, the kids were split up (by age) into 3 groups to do bible learning and a little bit of craft time. The bible passage they studied was the 7 days of creation. However, the age group 5 and below were a little too young and showed that they were more interested in the colouring sessions and toys around. The other 2 groups of ages 6-8 and ages 9 and above were having fun exploring the verses with the leaders and did well in memorizing Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

After a delicious lunch, there was another sing-a-long session and then bible verse memorising time... Grace Choy was taunted the whole night by Ben cos she wrote "God created heavens and the earth". opppsssss....

They did pretty well i must admit and it was time for the parents to come and pick up their kids. One poor gal almost walked out of the gate to walk home herself cos her parents forgot to pick her up. Luckily Winnie spotted her and we called her dad who came round to pick her up. YIKES.

During the debrief session, we then listed out the good points and the bad points of the day's activities.

Good points:
1. The kids paid attention thanks to the rule nof listening to the leaders
2. Talk sessions were closely related to the workshops and so the kids understood the concept of God creating the world.
3. Participation to get the kids involved during the talks and workshops
4. Praise & worship time - all leaders showed a good example by doing the actions
5. Lunch was good & organised
6. The "forcing" of the kids to recite the simple memory verse

Bad points:
1. Grace Choy's grammar!!!
2. Not very prepared for the day's activities - had to rush to photocopy extra colouring materials for the kids as there weren't enough copies
3. Ben had to use bigger hand actions to show the kids
4. Clearer directions have to be given by the leaders when communicating with the kids

Dr Peter Chen and Herbert also commented on our performance which was good overall...just that we would have to be more prepared for our talks and materials. But they were very encouraged by the number of children who had attended.

We then headed home to cook dinner (Thanks Hsien and Hu Die) - a simple meal of fried rice. Our hosts were very nice and obtained a brand new water dispenser for us - so that we wouldn't have to waste money buying a carton of fiji water. The sorta dispenser that has cold and hot water tap options. and they carried 2 huge water "tanks" upstairs for us. They have certainly gone out of their way as hosts and we are so thankful for their hospitality.

Slideshow pics of Day 3 below. We hope that you guys are keeping "cool" in Sydney cos it's really warm and humid here!! :)