Sorry it’s been so long since the last update! Things have been so crazy the past week and a half. Julie and I have been preparing to start our summer camp with the kids at CIO. And let me tell you — it is a lot of work!
So our three main focuses are English, public speaking, and bible study. The days always start out with worship, prayer, and scripture. After that, the children are split into two groups: older and younger. Julie is with the younger kids for public speaking and English and with the older kids for bible study. I am with the younger kids for bible study and with the older ones for English and public speaking.
It continually amazes me how God placed Julie and I together. We are the perfect team. Wherever I am lacking, she thrives and vise versa. It’s a beautiful thing.
Besides those three main classes, there are several smaller classes we put together for the kids. In the afternoons, after the main classes, they have the choice of which activity they’d like to do. Every day we offer two different activities. We’re teaching guitar, sewing, baking, art, song writing, music theory, and soccer drills/skills. (yes, you read that right. I am leading the soccer “skills”. Humorous, I know.)
We are also, as one big group, putting on a final talent show/showcase of what the kids have learned over the course of our summer camp. They can choose any skill, talent, art, or whatever to show everyone at our final showcase.
Our first day of summer camp was last Thursday, but Monday was actually our first full day of camp. It was so much fun!
Julie and I were both extremely nervous. We prayed God would give us the words to say and the actions to give the kids the most out of our camp.
I’m so happy that the camp is teaching the kids so much and giving them opportunities to do activities they wouldn’t normally be able to do, but my favorite thing about it, which maybe makes me a little selfish, is that I get to spend so many of my hours out of the day just focusing on the kids.
It can be hard, exhausting, and sometimes just not possible to spend the whole day with the kids everyday, but with the camp, we have to spend all our time with them. And it’s the only time that we can ever get allll the kids together at one time. It has been awesome being able to give attention to each and every one of them, when otherwise, it’s just not possible.
Yesterday was the perfect day of camp. I was teaching English and public speaking with the older kids. I was teaching the older kids different verbs and how to change them to for each pronoun. For every verb they had to act it out to show me that they understood. These kids are such goofs. And they’re very good at English! The entire forty-five minutes were filled with smiles and laughter.
When we stopped for lunch, Ruth stayed back and had me help her with the homework I had just assigned for them. She then pulled out a folded up piece of paper and told me she had written something for me in English. I had to hold back the tears because I didn’t want her to see me cry. She had written me the sweetest letter I have ever received.
I am constantly being reminded of how lucky I am to have been given this opportunity and how thankful I am God gave me the gifts He did. I am so humbled because God is using me to reach these children through these special bonds. There are times that I just sit in awe at how He can use me when I don’t even realize it. I can’t help, but to cry because I’m so overwhelmed by God’s goodness. Whoa.
I pray everyday that God would protect my heart and these kids’ hearts when I leave. The other day I had to tell them that I bought my ticket and that I’m leaving on the 18th of August. Julie had to complete my sentence because all I could get out was, “I bought my ticket back to Michigan..”, before the tears started to fall. I know I’ve said this a million times before, but I don’t want to go back to Michigan. Like Ruth said in her letter, “I want you to come and stay with me forever.”. I would in a heartbeat.
After lunch we had the first public speaking class and that was when the silliness really started. My cheeks hurt sooo hard from smiling and laughing so much. At one point, out of nowhere, Veline yells, “KENDY, YOUR FLY IS OPEN.”, in perfect English. I about peed my pants. I could not stop laughing. Israelson had to ask me to leave the class twice because I was being to disruptive. Hahahha. Man. I love my life.
So we had a first VBS this past Saturday in Ka Maurice! Pastor Denny was nice enough to take us to his church to do VBS with the children in the community. It was quite the hike up the mountain to the place we were having it, but it was such an amazing experience.
We had probably 80 kids and around 30 adults there. We used colors to teach them the Gospel. Each color stands for a message in the Gospel. We also did lots of songs and dancing, of course. And we finished with asking the kids to come forward and help us act out bible stories. We had them act out when Jesus calmed the storm, when He healed the 10 lepers, and when He fed 5,000. The kids just soaked it up. At the end after a group prayer, Julie and I offered to pray for whomever wanted to be prayed over.
Normally, I would never do something like pray over someone. I am so self-conscious when it comes to praying in front of people, but the Spirit was moving me to offer myself to pray over people and I am so happy that I listened. God gave me the courage and all the words to say for the women I prayed over. I was so entirely blessed by the experience.
I am so proud of my best friend. She is such a warrior for God and always looking for opportunities to share His love with others. She just lets Him use her. The Spirit is so clearly seen through her and it was a beautiful thing to watch in Ka Maurice. I know all those people were so blessed by her words. I can’t wait to see all God has planned for her.
There was some time at the end when I was completely surrounded by kids. I was trying to teach them how to do the hand clapping game that the girls at CIO taught me, but they weren’t getting it. But there were TONS of giggles while we tried. When we decided that wouldn’t work we just sat and talked. And yes, it was about 120 degrees being surrounded and touched by all those kids, but I didn’t care. All I could think while I was sitting there was how I didn’t want it to end. That’s where I am supposed to be: surrounded by children, laughing, smiling, and sharing God’s love with them in every action.
God is teaching me so much. My relationship with Him is being taken to a whole new level and I’m loving every minute of it. It hasn’t always been easy, but I just want to live to please my Father. And I am happier than I ever have been before. There are moments when all of a sudden I notice I’m smiling like a loon when I didn’t even realize I was smiling. I am a haaaaappy girl.
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