Good, Good Day...

Today was the second day of VBS out at the Fountain of Hope school. We started with P1 and P2 this morning because we weren't able to get to their classes yesterday. The story we did today was about how born-again people make up the body of Christ and we used pillowcases with body parts drawn on them to help illustrate. The catch, we put each pillowcase over a kids' head and had them stand there being the body part. They absolutely LOVED this! The kids were laughing and giggling so hard. Since we were in the young classes the story telling went slowly because every sentence had to be interpreted. But we were ok with that because that meant that none of the kids would miss out on the meaning of the message. We also sang the same song with them today that we did yesterday and they loved it just as much if not more! Well we were just finishing up with the P3 class when it started to rain. Rained hard. Everyone else on the team besides me, Pat, and Carissa were down at the field playing the Awana games with the kids but they made it back up to the school before they got too wet. Since the buildings have tin roofs, it is impossible to do any kind of teaching when it is raining like that. 

So we waited. The teachers were eating lunch and Peter had brought us Rolexs to eat. Megan decided it was too quiet in the room so she started to play some of the worship music on the iHome and some of the teachers started dancing for us!! It was soo fun! They taught us some Ugandan dances and we attempted to teach them some American dances but we failed miserably. By the time the rain had stopped it was lunch time for the kids, so we had to wait some more. But it gave us the chance to really just hang out with some of the kids and to get to know them. Dani and KayDee have already fallen in love with a little boy Megan and I introduced them to. They are thinking about sponsoring him through Grace Giving International. Megan and I got to connect with the 2 siblings that we and the other college kids from the NW Pacific team are choosing to sponsor. In all, it was a very good lunch break. 

However, since we had to wait around for so long we were starting to get a little crunched for time so Robert asked us if we just wanted to do all of P4, P5, P6, and P7 together. Well, that is a bunch of kids and they didn't think we would be loud enough to be heard so they set up the sound system for us! Once they had it all set up, we plugged the iPod in and started playing the "Come On In" song from PowerHouse. As soon as all the kids heard they music blaring from the speakers, they swarmed to the building! Every single kid packed into that one long building! It was just a solid mass of little bodies and faces staring at us full of excitement! So, Megan and I led them in the song and then I started the story. I "preached" from the seat of one of the benches our previous team made. (Good job on that, by the way! They look great!) Sera Sityo interpreted for me and  everything went great! Before I had started though, she had warned the kids that they had better listen because she was going to give them a test afterwards. 

And so, after we finished with the song Robert came to the front and said, "Now, who can tell me what the teachers have taught you today? If anyone can give me the correct answer, I have a gift for you." Well none of them really raised their hands and I started to get a little depressed. But once again, Robert asked them what they knew and assured them that he would have a gift for them if they were right. Well, finally a boy from P4 raised his hand and the microphone was passed to him. He started to try to answer in English but was having a very hard time of getting the words and Robert was about to move on to another kid when I said, "Let him answer in Luganda and you can just tell us what he says." So that's what happened and the kid had no trouble giving the correct answer! So just like Robert promised, he gave the boy a prize. A prize of 2000 shillings!! He asked another kid where I had talked from and that took a while before anyone gave the right answer. But the kid who answered it right also got a prize of 2000 shillings.

Since the kids were doing such a good job with today's stories we told Robert to see if they remembered anything from yesterday. So he asked what one of the stories was and what do you know! Jeffery, who is Grace the Cook's boy, raised his hand and got the microphone and gave the exact lesson that I had given in his class! Almost word for word! It was about the time that Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem at the temple where he preached to the elders of the church. He even talked about the examples I had given them! Robert had to stop him and then turned to us and said "Now you see! He has become a preacher!!" We were SO proud of him. He also got the standard prize. Well Robert asked about another story we had told, and the little boy I had chosen to be Jesus in the P6 class stood up to give the answer. Again, he gave the exact story I had using the same examples as I had! This time it was about Jesus going to the desert where he fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights and how he had been tempted by the devil. He told us about each time the devil had tempted Jesus but never said what Jesus' response was. So after he finished with the 3rd test, I told Robert to ask the boy how Jesus had responded to each test. He answered with the exact verse for each one of the tests!!! I was SOOOOOOO excited about that! I just wanted to jump for joy! That boy also got the standard prize. 

 By that time we were needing to leave, so we packed everything up and left. On our way into town, we passed a wrecked. Well actually we stopped at the wreck. A taxi and a truck had side-swiped each other during the downpour and they both ended up in ditches. The taxi driver, conductor, and 2 passengers were killed. Talk about putting a damper on the day... Everyone was shell shocked for the rest of the ride home. Well we got home and most of us went to change into shorts because we were supposed to be going somewhere to teach some kids basketball. But Paul walked in and said "I'm going to the hospital. Peter's little girl, Precious, just got admitted with pneumonia. I just wanted to let you all know in case anyone wanted to go with us." Well obviously we all wanted to go. So we piled back into the taxi and off we went to the hospital. It was so depressing seeing the kind of care they get here. The only thing the hospital provides is the medicine and doctors, everything else like food, sheets for the bed, and cooking supplies has to be provided by the patients family. We all gathered around Peter, his wife, and Precious and prayed for them. It was good. We left shortly after because she was sleepy and scared of us. We went downtown for a bit to shop then came home to a wonderful meal of fish and chips. We got to hear Jimmy and Helen's story tonight too but I'm running out of room so maybe I can get someone else to blog about it tomorrow! So that is all, sorry about the lengthyness of  this!!