That was our first day of VBS (Vacation Bible School) in Mogollon (pronounced mo-go-yon). We showed up to the church and started blowing up balloons, making signs, decorating, getting prepared – Pastor Manuel left in his truck and brought back a load of children, so we start making introductions and getting to know the kids a bit and we realize that he has just returned with another car load. Just wait, there’s more, he went back out and got a third round of kids…total we had around 75 kids yesterday! We decided to split them up into two groups, 9 and under and 10 and over. Today I think we’ll attempt to split them into three groups…the little kids were pretty manageable, but the older kids were WILD!
It was chaos! But I LOVED it, Robin, Lauren, Rachel and I all worked with the little kids and had them drawing and coloring then acted out the story of Jesus’ birth. I was Mary, Robin was Joseph, Lauren was the Angel and a wiseman, Rachel was the narrator and one of two (of the original three) wisemen. Unlike Shakespeare, we worked under an all girl cast. We had a great time and the kids loved it…after we talked about the story a bit we took them outside to play Duck, Duck, Goose. In the end we went back in with the older kids and started teaching them the memory verse for the week…of course, John 3:16 – in Spanish…
Today should be a continuation of the adventure, but hopefully we will be able to maintain some semblance of control. The lesson I’m learning through this isn’t to NOT plan, it’s a lot easier to fall back on a plan than on nothing, but the true lesson is to learn to trust in what God wants us to share with these kids. Some of them have heard the Bible stories over and over again, what they really need is to see people living it…so we will do our best!
Also, last night as a team we went to tacos for the first time while here in the Dominican Republic…have mercy…DELICIOUSNESS thy name is Dominican tacos with picante sauce and berry juice!!
P.S. If you have ever enjoyed juice in your life, be prepared to have all of your preconceived notions of what juice should taste like ROCKED by Dominican juices…they don’t even call it juice here, it is NECTAR – I would offer that all other foods pale in comparison to juice. If I could exist on a combination of fruit nectar, (think strawberry-passionfruit, pear, peach, pinapple-guava, cherry, berry, apple…) yogurt, chocolate milk (for some reason also much more delicious out of a resealable cardboard container), and empanadas (fried half-moon-shaped pastry filled with meat and cheese)…believe me I would!! But instead we throw in a few American staples like spaghetti, oatmeal, & PB&J…
