God so Loved the World

The last few days the team worked hard implementing an Awana soccer camp in Marare. We condensed a 5 day program into 3 days. Allan led the Bible lessons, Sarah Vilay the soccer drills, and Luke the soccer games.

The soccer part (or should I say ‘football’) was appealing, as that is the game they love. They play it with passion and skill and enthusiasm. We really couldn’t teach them much new, but everyone simply enjoyed the interaction and connecting together.

The Bible lessons focused on key elements of biblical truths: heaven * sin * Christ * trust * grow. Allan was effective in teaching and connecting with the children, and even the teachers said “they love the Bible lessons”. Him and Pastor Bob worked together, learning to communicate via an interpreter using narration and drama. Pastor Bob was transformed into John the Baptist, and Marare was “turned into” the Garden of Eden. It’s hard to imagine, considering the amazing beauty of Marare, how beautiful Eden must have been.
We closed the 3 days with a word stick to help the children remember the key points of the lessons. This created some interesting challenges: how to move the children through effectively and efficiently, how to ensure all the children receive just one stick, and how to monitor it overall. We came up with 5 stations set up along the outside church walls. Each station had one color of the word stick. The children would come out of the Bible lesson in groups of 6, would have their hand marked with by a sharpie to remind us they received a stick, and then they were to smoothly move through the stations. That was easier said than done.

The first group managed the first two colors well, and then they turned the corner on the church building to find me, trying to manage three color stations as no one else was available at that time to help. In no time I had 20 or more children asking for a color, with many of the children now coloring their arms and especially their finger nails. A number of times Jesus words, “Let the little children come to me” echoed through my mind. The excitement among the children was high. It was a huge sense of relief when I saw one of the Marare parents approach to help me out.

Even so, the children were excited with their project and the Bible truths reinforced to them this week.

My favorite was a little girl who was sitting on the side with her stick NOT colored. I was told she “wouldn’t be able to participate”, but thought I would try with her anyway. I helped her color the first 3 colors, and could see the smile forming on her face. She colored the last two sections on her own, and the big smile on her face said it all.

The second was a boy of about 13 who had cerebral palsy. He was standing back from the group of children but focusing on the activities for quite some time. He didn’t make any effort to approach us for one of the word sticks. After watching him for a bit, I ask him if he was interested in coloring a stick. His response was a BIG smile, and "yes, I would like". We talked about each theme, and he colored his stick was a lot of precision, thanking me so much.

We had many children come to us and say "thank you so much". Even today many were holding them, treasuring them. We pray that God's message of love will also be treasured in their hearts.