It’s nothing but excitement here in the DR as we are all in the final preparations for our school starting next Monday and carrying out all of the activities in Rio San Juan. With the transition out of groups Jordan and I have still had quite the showing of children and teens in our ministries. Monday nights have been our Princesas and Pescadores time. These are kids ranging from ages 10-17. Our kids love to have fun. Our desire for this time was to create a kind of environment, but also with something more. Our official kickoff ‘meeting’ with them went really well. We all had banana splits with every random topic you could think of. We also played some games and really enjoyed the fellowship and company of another. The next week we presented them with a paper stating the expectations we were holding them accountable to and how the attendance system was going to work. The expectations basically states that we are holding them to the standards the Jesus left for us, commanding us to love the Lord first and foremost, then to love others as ourselves. This paper also stated specific ways they could live out both of those commandments. The reason why I felt the need to go into such detail on these items is because I want our kids to see these 2 commandments as reachable goals. We want them to be able to really practice loving the Lord first and loving others second. These specific expectations and guidelines for our program also show them that we are trying to hold them to a higher standard. Jordan and I want them to feel ownership over this program and really participate in the things we do together. I would say they took all of this information very well. They were very excited to see all the fun things we had planned for the rest of the year.
Monday we started our P&P time by hanging out, then playing a dangerously competitive game of Steal the Bacon. We had the whole group split up, with 10 kids on each side, and race to the middle to try and steal the bandanna and get it back to their side. It was fun watching them get so into it, however the losing team took their loss pretty tough. After the game we had announcements then Jordan took the boys for their lesson and I had the girls. As we are trying to keep our Club Chiquito lessons and P&P lessons in sync, we both spoke out the story of Adam and Eve. With the girls we each got a Bible and read Genesis 3. Each girl would go around and take 2 verses. Then we talked about Eve’s temptation to eat the apple that God had forbidden her to eat. I had the girls get a marker and a piece of paper and write down 3 temptations they had. They did really well following instructions. I was really blessed to have my fellow teammates/ great friends (Jill and Rachel) there with me to help me keep them focused and calm down. The girls went around and shared their temptations and each one listened to the other. Then I told them we were going to spend 30 in silence to talk to God about our temptations. Keeping these children quite is a much greater feat than you would believe, but they did exactly what I had asked. There was completely silence as they all spoke to God in that moment. I felt so proud to be sitting there with them and just asked the Lord to please hear their prayers. I know He did.
Thanks to all for reading and taking such an interest in what is doing here in our Monday night ministry and ALL the areas flourishing here with Manna in the DR. We are incredibly blessed to be a small piece of God’s plan for these people. Continue to pray for us and that our individual walks stay strong and unwavering.
Blessings,
Audrey
No comments:
Post a Comment