awwwww!!! so tired man.. the flight back to Nadi was delayed.. the shuttle pick up made us wait for an hour and the flight back to Sydney started out a real nightmare. Uploading the rest of the pics now.. enjoy.. narrations and updates again tmr...
Monday, January 12, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Fiji Day 6 - Thursday
It's Thursday and we only have 2 more days with the children. It's quite a bittersweet feeling as we are just starting to bond more with them, they are beginning to trust us more and open up more to us..but yet we all are counting down the days to be back in Sydney. New found R-E-S-P-E-C-T for long term missionaries.
It rained the whole of yesterday... and the weather is so cooling now and the skies are still grey. I'm not complaining though...this is heaps better than feeling like we're stuck in a sauna and starting to perspire again as soon as you step out from the shower.
The typhoon/cyclone/weather disaster thingy has passed yesterday. We were very fortunate to only have heavy rains and no strong winds. Apparently the other towns of Fiji (including Nadi where we are flying out of) are flooded.
Ben Li led us in morning devotions today. We continued reading from 1 John 4:19- 5:5 where we learnt about patience and love. Patience whilst dealing with the kids to show them God's Love. and Psalm 72. We then did a round of prayers for the Kid's Program and the Pastors here - Herbert and Esther as their health is not very good.
During Praise and Worship - we tried to teach them how to sing John 3:16 but it wasn't very successful. The songs with actions such as "with Christ in the vessel" were more popular with the children and they were able to pick up the songs faster.
The Theme of Thursday was "God is Alive". Hsien told the story of the empty tomb and of Jesus's resurrection. They were all amazed and listened very attentively to Hsien.
The funniest part of the day was when it came to art and craft time. Today was t-shirt painting day.. so Hsien drew on the whiteboard the design that the kids were supposed to follow. At the bottom of the t-shirt they were supposed to paint their name in green..BUT on the whiteboard she wrote as in for them to insert their name in the space. Kids being Kids... didn't understand.. and half of the t-shirts ended up with "" painted on them. You can see from the picture that Robert or Kelly was very common. it was quite hilarious.
Charades from the day before is really proving to be popular and small Peter kept them entertained during games time with it. Another popular game is the one where they all sit in a circle and there is a leader who changes the actions and the person standing in the centre must try to find out who the leader is.
The invites to the parents have gone out - to invite them to the "graduation" ceremony on Sunday. The children will be dancing and will receive certificates welcoming them into God's Family. We've tried to fancy up the certs by colouring them, giving them stickers and laminating them. Hopefully they will keep them well, look at it and remember everything that we have taught them these past 5 days.
The team is all very excited that we've planted the seeds of the gospel in the hearts of the little kids. A few of the parents (from the provision stores downstairs) have given us feedback that their kids are enjoying the program and return home practising their dance and memory verses just as Grace Choy and Hsien have instructed them to. They are being a very good testimony to their unsaved families and we pray that this will continue even after we leave.
It is very very heartwarming to know that we've impacted their lives in one way or another. The older kids are actually going up to Grace Choy and Hsien to request to be tested in the memory verse of the day. Also, the younger siblings are trying to follow the elder siblings in doing more "serious bible stuff" rather than just colouring and simple stuff..
*update: UGH!! I JUST UPDATED THIS POST BUT IT ALL DISAPPEARED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok ok.. lets see where i stopped... i think i was rambling about the rest of the day after the kids had all gone home.
Debrief session: we were all encouraged when Dr Peter Chen and Pastor Herbert both agreed that we had improved greatly since Day 1 - we all take better ownership of the segments that we are in charge off. Small Peter is also more confident of speaking English to the kids now as he has to explain the games and rules to them every day.
We played a bible quiz game whilst waiting for dinner to be prepared. Hsien wanted to vomit blood at some of the answers given by us. and..guess who our chef of the night was??? DR PETER CHEN!!! Winnie said that he was so excited to prepare the beef and melon stew for us that he didn't even allow her to wash the vegetables. The whole table was full of food... and a church member called just before we were about to begin and provided us with fresh tuna sashimi.
Our meals for the next couple of days till the end of the trip have all been provided for.
Friday night - Pastor Herbert and Esther will be taking us out for dinner
Saturday night - Our host family will be taking us out for dinner. We offered to take them out for dinner but they insisted as they are the hosts and they said that we are hard at work for the kid's club every day and we are doing GOD'S WORK.
Sunday night - will be spent back at Nadi awaiting our flight back to Sydney in the morning. Please pray that the flood waters would have receeded by then.
The vids i haven't been able to upload cos the files are really too huge. We will share the funny ones with everyone when we are back in Sydney. The boys filmed a new one yesterday when they became "supermodels" and did a catwalk for us.
HOpe to still be able to update daily over the next few days - we will be on the move and internet connection might not be available to us. DOn't worry. we are all safe and healthy and will be back soon. Thank God that he has kept us safe from any harm and that no one has fallen ill. We are so used to the mossie repellant now that we hardly get bitten any more.
Thank you everyone for your prayers.
It rained the whole of yesterday... and the weather is so cooling now and the skies are still grey. I'm not complaining though...this is heaps better than feeling like we're stuck in a sauna and starting to perspire again as soon as you step out from the shower.
The typhoon/cyclone/weather disaster thingy has passed yesterday. We were very fortunate to only have heavy rains and no strong winds. Apparently the other towns of Fiji (including Nadi where we are flying out of) are flooded.
Ben Li led us in morning devotions today. We continued reading from 1 John 4:19- 5:5 where we learnt about patience and love. Patience whilst dealing with the kids to show them God's Love. and Psalm 72. We then did a round of prayers for the Kid's Program and the Pastors here - Herbert and Esther as their health is not very good.
During Praise and Worship - we tried to teach them how to sing John 3:16 but it wasn't very successful. The songs with actions such as "with Christ in the vessel" were more popular with the children and they were able to pick up the songs faster.
The Theme of Thursday was "God is Alive". Hsien told the story of the empty tomb and of Jesus's resurrection. They were all amazed and listened very attentively to Hsien.
The funniest part of the day was when it came to art and craft time. Today was t-shirt painting day.. so Hsien drew on the whiteboard the design that the kids were supposed to follow. At the bottom of the t-shirt they were supposed to paint their name in green..BUT on the whiteboard she wrote
Charades from the day before is really proving to be popular and small Peter kept them entertained during games time with it. Another popular game is the one where they all sit in a circle and there is a leader who changes the actions and the person standing in the centre must try to find out who the leader is.
The invites to the parents have gone out - to invite them to the "graduation" ceremony on Sunday. The children will be dancing and will receive certificates welcoming them into God's Family. We've tried to fancy up the certs by colouring them, giving them stickers and laminating them. Hopefully they will keep them well, look at it and remember everything that we have taught them these past 5 days.
The team is all very excited that we've planted the seeds of the gospel in the hearts of the little kids. A few of the parents (from the provision stores downstairs) have given us feedback that their kids are enjoying the program and return home practising their dance and memory verses just as Grace Choy and Hsien have instructed them to. They are being a very good testimony to their unsaved families and we pray that this will continue even after we leave.
It is very very heartwarming to know that we've impacted their lives in one way or another. The older kids are actually going up to Grace Choy and Hsien to request to be tested in the memory verse of the day. Also, the younger siblings are trying to follow the elder siblings in doing more "serious bible stuff" rather than just colouring and simple stuff..
*update: UGH!! I JUST UPDATED THIS POST BUT IT ALL DISAPPEARED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok ok.. lets see where i stopped... i think i was rambling about the rest of the day after the kids had all gone home.
Debrief session: we were all encouraged when Dr Peter Chen and Pastor Herbert both agreed that we had improved greatly since Day 1 - we all take better ownership of the segments that we are in charge off. Small Peter is also more confident of speaking English to the kids now as he has to explain the games and rules to them every day.
We played a bible quiz game whilst waiting for dinner to be prepared. Hsien wanted to vomit blood at some of the answers given by us. and..guess who our chef of the night was??? DR PETER CHEN!!! Winnie said that he was so excited to prepare the beef and melon stew for us that he didn't even allow her to wash the vegetables. The whole table was full of food... and a church member called just before we were about to begin and provided us with fresh tuna sashimi.
Our meals for the next couple of days till the end of the trip have all been provided for.
Friday night - Pastor Herbert and Esther will be taking us out for dinner
Saturday night - Our host family will be taking us out for dinner. We offered to take them out for dinner but they insisted as they are the hosts and they said that we are hard at work for the kid's club every day and we are doing GOD'S WORK.
Sunday night - will be spent back at Nadi awaiting our flight back to Sydney in the morning. Please pray that the flood waters would have receeded by then.
The vids i haven't been able to upload cos the files are really too huge. We will share the funny ones with everyone when we are back in Sydney. The boys filmed a new one yesterday when they became "supermodels" and did a catwalk for us.
HOpe to still be able to update daily over the next few days - we will be on the move and internet connection might not be available to us. DOn't worry. we are all safe and healthy and will be back soon. Thank God that he has kept us safe from any harm and that no one has fallen ill. We are so used to the mossie repellant now that we hardly get bitten any more.
Thank you everyone for your prayers.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Fiji Day 5
Mid week Wednesday....the usual hot morning sun.. and we arrive at Church again sweating like pigs and covered with mosquito repellant.
The morning devotion was led by Hsien and we meditated on 1 John 4:7-18. What seems like a simple passage about the Love of God might not seem to simple when you have to comfort someone in pain or grieving. Of course we know that God is love and we should love each other but what do you say without sounding superficial? there is no correct answer....and that left me pondering for the rest of the day.
The kids arrived and started off playing games.. we came up with this "evil" plan to make them play lotsa running games in the morning so as to tire themeselves out by the afternoon. Ha ha.. use up all the energy.. cos they are so hyper. half of the time the evil plan doesn't work. BAH. so round and round they went chasing after each other in the game. they are so cute to watch though.
Today's session was teaching them on how Jesus paid the price for them. We did a short skit to portray how someone else took the punishment for something wrong that they did. In a nutshell - Peter and I are friends but I took Peter's bag to throw into the girl's toilet(!??!!?? - where on earth does Grace Choy get ideas like that????) and I was sent to the principal's office to receive punishment (3 strokes of the cane on my palm). However, when I reached there, the principal informed me that someone had already taken the blame for me and received the caning on my behalf. "WHO WOULD HAVE DONE SUCH A THING FOR ME??? WHAT AN AMAZING FRIEND!!". Then Peter walked out with heaps of red ink and purple ink on his palms to make them look raw and hurt. Even though the kids knew it was just ink, they all understood the notion that God took their sins and died on the cross for them.
One interesting thing that we noted though... when some of the youth leaders were standing in front waiting for our parts in the play, Grace Choy was doing the introduction. When she was explaining about the caning part, she used a long plastic ruler and kept on using it to hit the table. Of course with Grace Choy's brutal force, each whack produced a long sound. We noticed that one of the older kids was cowering away in fear. He was covering his ears, his eyes and just squirming in his seat. After the play, Grace Choy unintentionally did the same action again.. and he was so jittery and did not even dare to look in front. That was really odd and it really looked as if he would have just pee-ed in his pants if Grace Choy had continued hitting the table. We will inform Herbert of our observations at the end of the Kids Club as we suspect that his phobia might stem from the way he's treated at home?? we're not very sure either.
For lunch we had fried chicken and stewed eggplant and bacon slices. Not surprisingly the kids hardly touched the eggplant and during the debrief comments were passed that the colour of the eggplant was like snails (YUCKS) or drowned corpses fingers (PUKES). Not that we didn't finish the food though, we were all so hungry that we finished everything on our plates. The kids had to line up and wash their own plates (Child labour.. ha ha!) and you know what?? They did - and they knew how to do it. Even though some of them were just 5 years old. Well trained. I'm very amazed, so I've made up my mind that my kids will start washing their own plates at 4 years old.
The games session after lunch was charades. Another classic game that entertained the children to the max!!! We gave them really hard ones like Christmas, Cinema and Pen Ink. But a few smart ones managed to guess it correctly. Hsien's cricket actions became "Golf" according to Little Peter and the little boy who had to act out "Grace Choy" made scolding and pointing actions. ha ha ha.
Memory Verse of the day was John 3:16 - the most basic verse. So proud of them when all of them took it very seriously and could recite it within 15 mins.
Art and Craft for the day was them creating a cross and Jesus on the cross with modelling clay. all the kids did a very good job of it and worked hard on their craft.
During the debrief session, we had fresh tuna sashimi, watermelon and ice cream. What a wierd mix but hey! we're in Fiji!! Even Dr Peter Chen and Winnie were happily eating the ice cream!!
When we reached home.. water was back on!!! WOOTSSSS!!!! but another adventure of the night when I broke a metal chair (the leg fell off) ha ha ha.. the worst part was I fell off when i was adjusting my butt whilst telling a story so everyone was already watching me. Grace Choy was in shock for the next 5 mins and pretending to be nonchalent about a black flying cockroach that decided to end its life by flying into our living room at night. Thank God for Little Peter and his cockroach killing skills.
Some interesting snippets of what happened today during Kids Club:
1. Hsien spent 45 mins building a helicopter for a little boy. He was amused with it for 5 secs and then instructed her to take everything apart so that he could use the parts to build something else.
2. Grace Pan (feels so wierd talking in 3rd party) had to clean the bums of 2 little girls today in the span of 15 mins after both of them did a poo. EEEEWWWWW....
3. Ben Li has his knee licked (LICKED!!!!!!!!!!!!) by a little girl!!!
Speaking of Ben...Sorry about the Ben dancing video.. I couldn't upload it as the internet connection is so slow it timed out. I'm still attempting to upload it and will update as soon as I can.
The morning devotion was led by Hsien and we meditated on 1 John 4:7-18. What seems like a simple passage about the Love of God might not seem to simple when you have to comfort someone in pain or grieving. Of course we know that God is love and we should love each other but what do you say without sounding superficial? there is no correct answer....and that left me pondering for the rest of the day.
The kids arrived and started off playing games.. we came up with this "evil" plan to make them play lotsa running games in the morning so as to tire themeselves out by the afternoon. Ha ha.. use up all the energy.. cos they are so hyper. half of the time the evil plan doesn't work. BAH. so round and round they went chasing after each other in the game. they are so cute to watch though.
Today's session was teaching them on how Jesus paid the price for them. We did a short skit to portray how someone else took the punishment for something wrong that they did. In a nutshell - Peter and I are friends but I took Peter's bag to throw into the girl's toilet(!??!!?? - where on earth does Grace Choy get ideas like that????) and I was sent to the principal's office to receive punishment (3 strokes of the cane on my palm). However, when I reached there, the principal informed me that someone had already taken the blame for me and received the caning on my behalf. "WHO WOULD HAVE DONE SUCH A THING FOR ME??? WHAT AN AMAZING FRIEND!!". Then Peter walked out with heaps of red ink and purple ink on his palms to make them look raw and hurt. Even though the kids knew it was just ink, they all understood the notion that God took their sins and died on the cross for them.
One interesting thing that we noted though... when some of the youth leaders were standing in front waiting for our parts in the play, Grace Choy was doing the introduction. When she was explaining about the caning part, she used a long plastic ruler and kept on using it to hit the table. Of course with Grace Choy's brutal force, each whack produced a long sound. We noticed that one of the older kids was cowering away in fear. He was covering his ears, his eyes and just squirming in his seat. After the play, Grace Choy unintentionally did the same action again.. and he was so jittery and did not even dare to look in front. That was really odd and it really looked as if he would have just pee-ed in his pants if Grace Choy had continued hitting the table. We will inform Herbert of our observations at the end of the Kids Club as we suspect that his phobia might stem from the way he's treated at home?? we're not very sure either.
For lunch we had fried chicken and stewed eggplant and bacon slices. Not surprisingly the kids hardly touched the eggplant and during the debrief comments were passed that the colour of the eggplant was like snails (YUCKS) or drowned corpses fingers (PUKES). Not that we didn't finish the food though, we were all so hungry that we finished everything on our plates. The kids had to line up and wash their own plates (Child labour.. ha ha!) and you know what?? They did - and they knew how to do it. Even though some of them were just 5 years old. Well trained. I'm very amazed, so I've made up my mind that my kids will start washing their own plates at 4 years old.
The games session after lunch was charades. Another classic game that entertained the children to the max!!! We gave them really hard ones like Christmas, Cinema and Pen Ink. But a few smart ones managed to guess it correctly. Hsien's cricket actions became "Golf" according to Little Peter and the little boy who had to act out "Grace Choy" made scolding and pointing actions. ha ha ha.
Memory Verse of the day was John 3:16 - the most basic verse. So proud of them when all of them took it very seriously and could recite it within 15 mins.
Art and Craft for the day was them creating a cross and Jesus on the cross with modelling clay. all the kids did a very good job of it and worked hard on their craft.
During the debrief session, we had fresh tuna sashimi, watermelon and ice cream. What a wierd mix but hey! we're in Fiji!! Even Dr Peter Chen and Winnie were happily eating the ice cream!!
When we reached home.. water was back on!!! WOOTSSSS!!!! but another adventure of the night when I broke a metal chair (the leg fell off) ha ha ha.. the worst part was I fell off when i was adjusting my butt whilst telling a story so everyone was already watching me. Grace Choy was in shock for the next 5 mins and pretending to be nonchalent about a black flying cockroach that decided to end its life by flying into our living room at night. Thank God for Little Peter and his cockroach killing skills.
Some interesting snippets of what happened today during Kids Club:
1. Hsien spent 45 mins building a helicopter for a little boy. He was amused with it for 5 secs and then instructed her to take everything apart so that he could use the parts to build something else.
2. Grace Pan (feels so wierd talking in 3rd party) had to clean the bums of 2 little girls today in the span of 15 mins after both of them did a poo. EEEEWWWWW....
3. Ben Li has his knee licked (LICKED!!!!!!!!!!!!) by a little girl!!!
Speaking of Ben...Sorry about the Ben dancing video.. I couldn't upload it as the internet connection is so slow it timed out. I'm still attempting to upload it and will update as soon as I can.
Long Zhuan Feng
Ok..maybe not so drama mama.. but we've just been informed that a massive typhoon is going to hit Fiji - probably tomorrow or Saturday.
Please pray for our safety and that our electricity/gas and water will not be disrupted. The locals are already a little jittery and saying that this one will be rather big.
It has already started raining since yesterday night and even though it's very cooling we are very worried.
Please pray for our safety and that our electricity/gas and water will not be disrupted. The locals are already a little jittery and saying that this one will be rather big.
It has already started raining since yesterday night and even though it's very cooling we are very worried.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Fiji Day 4
Day 2 of the Kids Holiday Program and the morning was the usual – taking turns in the toilet and making sure that no other water outlet was being used whilst someone was showering. Coffee and freshly baked toast (only $0.90 per loaf!!) and fried eggs with tomato sauce (which doesn’t come in a bottle btw – in a can which we have to open and pour out the contents entirely).
Today’s devotion passage was Isaiah 60:1-6 on which we reflected upon to pick up 1 word that we were most fearful of and another word that would provide comfort to our fear listed. Most of the team mentioned – Darkness. The darkness of the unsaved in Fiji and the urgency that we’ve seen for God’s word to be brought to them. How we are in the light and as a result on this STM everything we do is closely inspected and scrutinized. We are supposed to be a good example for them as a lot of Chinese here are very skeptical of the Christians as they do not show godly behavior (as informed by our host when she was explaining to us the culture of Fiji and a brief history of the church). This is one of the main reasons why the church in Fiji is finding it hard to grow. We are very conscious of our actions in Fiji as we know everyone is watching us – but how about when we return to our comfort zones in Sydney?? This was the challenge posed to us.
So the kids arrived and they started by playing games with Grace Choy and Little Peter whilst the rest of us set up the registration table and the projector for praise and worship.
The first game played was how to create a circle out of a single piece of paper. The kids cracked their brain on how to achieve that and were amused when the solution was showed to them. (The next day – a kid actually showed Peter a circle that he had gone home to make with a big piece of paper. That was so cool knowing that they actually remember what we teach them!)
Today the kids learnt 3 new songs with Ben:
1. With Christ in the Vessel
2. I Love you Jesus Deep Down in my Heart
3. I’ve got peace like a river
Somehow or rather our own Sunday school songs are being recycled. I guess this is what you can call “evergreen”. I can bring myself back to the days and picture myself doing exactly the same actions and singing with the same amount of gusto when I was their age. How wonderful to be able to pass this down to the next generation.
Day 2’s theme was “We all say NO to God” and Hsien used the whiteboard to draw a massive diagram to show how God created everything in the 7 days and how Adam and Eve sinned as a result we all have said “No” to God. The kids understood the idea and successfully memorized Romans 3:23 – We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Hu Die did a great job of preparing the craft work and the kids enjoyed their coloring session. We also started the rehersals for the final dance presentation item on Sunday. The elder kids are dancing to “My Redemeer Lives” And the younger ones are dancing (very happily) to “This Little Light of Mine”. They all get so happy at the chorus whilst “shining” they just jump around and yell so innocently.
Most parents came a little later to pick up their kids and we decided to start showing “Prince of Egypt”. They were soooo engrossed in it and didn’t want to leave even though their parents were waiting at the door.
During the debrief session, we all agreed that Day 2 ran more smoothly and the kids are respecting us more and I feel have let their barriers “down” a little more. This is the result of taking the suggestions on how we could improve the Kids Program into consideration and preparing what we would be presenting/singing/the workshop materials the day before. In this way, we all knew what was going on and could step up to the Leadership role and take control of the kids.
We all went separate ways with Peter, Ben and myself heading to a local swimming pool to swim and Hsien and Hu Die doing grocery shopping for dinner. Grace Choy stayed in church to prepare her presentations for the next day. However, we were all in for a rude shock when we gathered back home.
THERE WAS NO WATER.
Oh great. God had answered my prayers about not giving us any more cockroaches at home but now we had no water. We couldn’t cook dinner…we couldn’t shower… we couldn’t wash the dishes…we were all sticky and smelly from the whole day out + the fiji hot and humid weather. A very kind church member had given us 2 fish for dinner and we were really looking forward to it. We had no choice but to use the drinking water cooler that our host had provided and really ration the water.
Hu Die and Hsien did a fantastic job with the lack of water, and despite the rice being a bit hard, we still had a delicious dinner of fried eggplant, cucumber and chilli fish. The whole shower issue was solved when we tagged along with our host family to head back to church to bathe.
We filled up 7 water bottles to bring home too (this morning the dirt in the water had all settled at the bottom of the bottles and looked like sand). Quite gross but better than having no water at all. See, simple things like that we have taken for granted in our normal everyday lives.
I hope you enjoy the photos from Day 2 of the Kids Holiday Club program and a hilarious video of Ben dancing.
P.s: This morning we had water trickling from the tap. There is enough for us to wash our hands and brush our teeth with, but not enough for us to bathe with.
Day 2 of the Kids Holiday Program and the morning was the usual – taking turns in the toilet and making sure that no other water outlet was being used whilst someone was showering. Coffee and freshly baked toast (only $0.90 per loaf!!) and fried eggs with tomato sauce (which doesn’t come in a bottle btw – in a can which we have to open and pour out the contents entirely).
Today’s devotion passage was Isaiah 60:1-6 on which we reflected upon to pick up 1 word that we were most fearful of and another word that would provide comfort to our fear listed. Most of the team mentioned – Darkness. The darkness of the unsaved in Fiji and the urgency that we’ve seen for God’s word to be brought to them. How we are in the light and as a result on this STM everything we do is closely inspected and scrutinized. We are supposed to be a good example for them as a lot of Chinese here are very skeptical of the Christians as they do not show godly behavior (as informed by our host when she was explaining to us the culture of Fiji and a brief history of the church). This is one of the main reasons why the church in Fiji is finding it hard to grow. We are very conscious of our actions in Fiji as we know everyone is watching us – but how about when we return to our comfort zones in Sydney?? This was the challenge posed to us.
So the kids arrived and they started by playing games with Grace Choy and Little Peter whilst the rest of us set up the registration table and the projector for praise and worship.
The first game played was how to create a circle out of a single piece of paper. The kids cracked their brain on how to achieve that and were amused when the solution was showed to them. (The next day – a kid actually showed Peter a circle that he had gone home to make with a big piece of paper. That was so cool knowing that they actually remember what we teach them!)
Today the kids learnt 3 new songs with Ben:
1. With Christ in the Vessel
2. I Love you Jesus Deep Down in my Heart
3. I’ve got peace like a river
Somehow or rather our own Sunday school songs are being recycled. I guess this is what you can call “evergreen”. I can bring myself back to the days and picture myself doing exactly the same actions and singing with the same amount of gusto when I was their age. How wonderful to be able to pass this down to the next generation.
Day 2’s theme was “We all say NO to God” and Hsien used the whiteboard to draw a massive diagram to show how God created everything in the 7 days and how Adam and Eve sinned as a result we all have said “No” to God. The kids understood the idea and successfully memorized Romans 3:23 – We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Hu Die did a great job of preparing the craft work and the kids enjoyed their coloring session. We also started the rehersals for the final dance presentation item on Sunday. The elder kids are dancing to “My Redemeer Lives” And the younger ones are dancing (very happily) to “This Little Light of Mine”. They all get so happy at the chorus whilst “shining” they just jump around and yell so innocently.
Most parents came a little later to pick up their kids and we decided to start showing “Prince of Egypt”. They were soooo engrossed in it and didn’t want to leave even though their parents were waiting at the door.
During the debrief session, we all agreed that Day 2 ran more smoothly and the kids are respecting us more and I feel have let their barriers “down” a little more. This is the result of taking the suggestions on how we could improve the Kids Program into consideration and preparing what we would be presenting/singing/the workshop materials the day before. In this way, we all knew what was going on and could step up to the Leadership role and take control of the kids.
We all went separate ways with Peter, Ben and myself heading to a local swimming pool to swim and Hsien and Hu Die doing grocery shopping for dinner. Grace Choy stayed in church to prepare her presentations for the next day. However, we were all in for a rude shock when we gathered back home.
THERE WAS NO WATER.
Oh great. God had answered my prayers about not giving us any more cockroaches at home but now we had no water. We couldn’t cook dinner…we couldn’t shower… we couldn’t wash the dishes…we were all sticky and smelly from the whole day out + the fiji hot and humid weather. A very kind church member had given us 2 fish for dinner and we were really looking forward to it. We had no choice but to use the drinking water cooler that our host had provided and really ration the water.
Hu Die and Hsien did a fantastic job with the lack of water, and despite the rice being a bit hard, we still had a delicious dinner of fried eggplant, cucumber and chilli fish. The whole shower issue was solved when we tagged along with our host family to head back to church to bathe.
We filled up 7 water bottles to bring home too (this morning the dirt in the water had all settled at the bottom of the bottles and looked like sand). Quite gross but better than having no water at all. See, simple things like that we have taken for granted in our normal everyday lives.
I hope you enjoy the photos from Day 2 of the Kids Holiday Club program and a hilarious video of Ben dancing.
P.s: This morning we had water trickling from the tap. There is enough for us to wash our hands and brush our teeth with, but not enough for us to bathe with.
Monday, January 5, 2009
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!! :)
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!! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
