Yo, I got back in Ottawa a little bit ago.
VBS was kinda really intense. 5 days from 7:30am to 8 or 8:30 in the church. Only 4 teachers. A godsent 5 youth volunteers and a bunch of aunties and uncles. It was a sprint from one thing to the next, but the youth really helped give us some breaks. Whenever we felt really tired, they were there taking our places.
Truly God has been answering prayers all week. We got the 10 kids we needed. I got stretched into doing things I wouldn't have. We had our great weather for the park trip. The church was really encouraged by this VBS. The youth, which are now five kids instead of three are really solid and are all great friends now, so much so that the church is looking for a youth worker so that they can grow.
Last day was good. Finding the day's mission involved popping massive amounts of balloons, so we blew a lot up and a bunch of people (after RL did it first) drew faces and stuff on them. He made them emotionally connect with balloons we were gonna pop. >.< One girl was like 'No. Don't pop the blue one!' and the girl who was currently popping hit that one really hard. >.<
The kids weren't really paying attention during the story.
They answered all the questions during the review game though. Poor FY... He answered all the right answers, but gave away all his points. >.> For a ten year old, he really knows a lot about the Bible. And I love his accent. lol. He did win the game even if it was a close one and everyone got prizes anyways, because the point of the game is not who knows the most or has the most points, but that they all know God loves them and sent Jesus to die for their sins, raising him from the grave and giving us the choice to become children of God.
I'm apparently too good at playing 'graveyard'.
We watched the end of the Incredibles. Then we started filling water balloons. lol. Mine were all full. The girls however didn't really make them big enough. We went to the park for water games. RL was getting pretty angry at anyone who soaked him. lol.
We got back and it was almost time for the open house. They made some fruit kabobs. I gave them their prizes (candy) and then it was time for a summarized presentation to some parents and friends of the kids. Super Cooper had his final showing. Maintenance Mac had a summary of all the missions and Bible stories. The kids all sang and danced for everyone (so cute!). AL did a gospel spotlight / rope trick which went very well. Then we had dinner with everyone although we became slightly segregated. There were four tables and it was mainly parents, kids, youth then Ottawa...
Such great changes this week though. M(?) voluntarily popcorn prayed Friday morning! A(?) prayed for the lunch. The volunteers all really bonded. The kids grew too and we grew.
I think I love Charis EFree Church now. I didn't really want to leave. I wanted to be able to help more with outreach and discipling (not that I know much). But I can't really just drop everything and live in Scarborough. >.>
Modern Family with RL and MC. So good.
Today was sleeping in until 8. Packing. Breakfast. Debreif. Prayer. Lunch. Egg Tart! Playing with Tina who bit me a lot. >.< Then off to the bus station. The bus was significantly late.
Slept most of the bus ride. Read the rest of it.
Grandma made us a lot of Baozi. <3
I'm gonna miss Scarborough.
D.Fa
PS. Pray for my mom. She has basically been a slave to prescription medication and over the counter drugs for a while and since she has been in the hospital to look at her stomach, the doctors, seeing all the medication she was taking looked into it and she had been overdosing. A lot. So she's off all of them right now. A drug holiday, and she is suffering from withdrawl right now. She's a little bit out of it. I know that God got her to go to the hospital for a reason. Pray for her.
Showing posts with label Children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Children. Show all posts
27.8.11
24.8.11
太大了！
So. Brief update because I'm dead tired.
Yesterday was the second day of VBS here in Toronto and it was another good day. A little less organized making me think back to Quebec and how it was always semi-chaotic and tiring, but yesterday was still very good. The volunteers continue to become more involved and take the baby-sitting aspect off our hands.
Yesterday's mission was heroes take action. The message was written on garbage bag capes. Later in the day we converted them into a volleyball net and I thought that it was super cool. I really wanted to play real volleyball, but the VBS isn't for me to be playing, it's for us to encourage and build up these kids. So it means playing for the purpose of giving those other kids the opportunity to play, especially the shorter or less aggressive players in volleyball's case.
Anyways, B(?) is super cute everyday. Getting cuter everyday. She loves balloons. Played with one for over an hour yesterday.
We attempted to make jello with pineapple pieces in it. The recipe book almost definitely wants the jello to set before inserting pineapple. You see there are enzymes in the pineapple that fight the gelatin effectively keeping it from jello-fying properly. So, we put them in the freezer. Today they were kinda slushie like. Most of the kids hacked at them for a while then gave up. lol
Yesterday night me and AL went downtown to the ex to meet up with TL, RW and LA. Problem: we are from Ottawa. Bussing, subway-ing and streetcar-ing was a very trying task. We had to buy bus coins or whatever they are called and it took a really long time to get there. We technically had a curfew of 10:30. We got home a bit after midnight. That time with them wasn't really enough, but it was still a great time. Everything was so expensive. We had a Swiss waffle with ice cream and strawberries as a substitute for funnel cake, we went on a 6$ ride, then we found funnel cakes and had one. We found out why it's a funnel cake. LA is exactly the same.
Anyways, TL took the subway with us and then his dad gave us drives. So good! Thanks! Anyways, problem: I don't know where I live. lol. I knew we turn right, go up a slight incline, turn right again and then it's the house to the left, but ya... lol. It was funny. I'm really glad I didn't have to bus home. I'm also very very glad AL didn't have to bus home.
Today started on time. I woke up and thought 'I want to sleep. Five more minutes. No. Will not work. Just get up.' So much more efficient. After like 5 hours of sleep for both me and RL (because he was skyping/ I made him stay up so I could get into the house) we were dead tired. Baozi.
Camp. Posters keep falling and more tape keeps going up. Another awesome day. We were going to go to the park in the afternoon, so we prayed for good weather. Terrible weather was forecast. It rained a bit in the morning, but dried up for the afternoon and it was sunny and nice when we went. I got to meet some new kids who were also at the park. This one four year old was so funny. He liked swinging, so we did that for a while. B(?) didn't want to go in the little swings because 'they are for babies', but wanted to go higher on the normal swings. We didn't think it was really safe, so we had to convince her otherwise. RL attempted to get into one of the little swings and I pushed him. lol. He was too big, so I told J(?) 'tai da le' with the little mandarin I have learned and he laughed so much. lol. So we kept laughing and pointing at RL for a while. xP I also got to talk to another couple kids. They are so cool. lol. One was asking about the VBS and when it was. He apparently goes to a 3 hour-a-day golf camp that cost like 300$ or something. I'm sure he could join us in the afternoons. I hope he does. We played grounders. It was a lot of fun.
Anyways, we get back. Oh! Before the park we watched a veggie tales movie. It was really funny. lol. My first veggie tales movie! So we got back and turned on a movie. Everyone was lying on the floor exhausted.
Time for P Mall!!! Pacific Mall in Markham. I'd been hearing all about it for a couple years and was so excited that we got to go. We wandered around for a while and in the end met several of AL's CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) friends. They were all really cool people. It was a great dinner. TC drove us to AL's host family through the pouring rain and thunder!
Prayer meeting. Sweet. More rain and lightning. Warning for hurricanes and thunderstorms in Toronto apparently. Thank God for giving us good weather for the park!
My mom went through a surgery today to figure out what the deal was with something and it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. I sent out a text to my EAP family to pray for her the hour before. Keep praying.
Pray for RL.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS. lol
Yesterday was the second day of VBS here in Toronto and it was another good day. A little less organized making me think back to Quebec and how it was always semi-chaotic and tiring, but yesterday was still very good. The volunteers continue to become more involved and take the baby-sitting aspect off our hands.
Yesterday's mission was heroes take action. The message was written on garbage bag capes. Later in the day we converted them into a volleyball net and I thought that it was super cool. I really wanted to play real volleyball, but the VBS isn't for me to be playing, it's for us to encourage and build up these kids. So it means playing for the purpose of giving those other kids the opportunity to play, especially the shorter or less aggressive players in volleyball's case.
Anyways, B(?) is super cute everyday. Getting cuter everyday. She loves balloons. Played with one for over an hour yesterday.
We attempted to make jello with pineapple pieces in it. The recipe book almost definitely wants the jello to set before inserting pineapple. You see there are enzymes in the pineapple that fight the gelatin effectively keeping it from jello-fying properly. So, we put them in the freezer. Today they were kinda slushie like. Most of the kids hacked at them for a while then gave up. lol
Yesterday night me and AL went downtown to the ex to meet up with TL, RW and LA. Problem: we are from Ottawa. Bussing, subway-ing and streetcar-ing was a very trying task. We had to buy bus coins or whatever they are called and it took a really long time to get there. We technically had a curfew of 10:30. We got home a bit after midnight. That time with them wasn't really enough, but it was still a great time. Everything was so expensive. We had a Swiss waffle with ice cream and strawberries as a substitute for funnel cake, we went on a 6$ ride, then we found funnel cakes and had one. We found out why it's a funnel cake. LA is exactly the same.
Anyways, TL took the subway with us and then his dad gave us drives. So good! Thanks! Anyways, problem: I don't know where I live. lol. I knew we turn right, go up a slight incline, turn right again and then it's the house to the left, but ya... lol. It was funny. I'm really glad I didn't have to bus home. I'm also very very glad AL didn't have to bus home.
Today started on time. I woke up and thought 'I want to sleep. Five more minutes. No. Will not work. Just get up.' So much more efficient. After like 5 hours of sleep for both me and RL (because he was skyping/ I made him stay up so I could get into the house) we were dead tired. Baozi.
Camp. Posters keep falling and more tape keeps going up. Another awesome day. We were going to go to the park in the afternoon, so we prayed for good weather. Terrible weather was forecast. It rained a bit in the morning, but dried up for the afternoon and it was sunny and nice when we went. I got to meet some new kids who were also at the park. This one four year old was so funny. He liked swinging, so we did that for a while. B(?) didn't want to go in the little swings because 'they are for babies', but wanted to go higher on the normal swings. We didn't think it was really safe, so we had to convince her otherwise. RL attempted to get into one of the little swings and I pushed him. lol. He was too big, so I told J(?) 'tai da le' with the little mandarin I have learned and he laughed so much. lol. So we kept laughing and pointing at RL for a while. xP I also got to talk to another couple kids. They are so cool. lol. One was asking about the VBS and when it was. He apparently goes to a 3 hour-a-day golf camp that cost like 300$ or something. I'm sure he could join us in the afternoons. I hope he does. We played grounders. It was a lot of fun.
Anyways, we get back. Oh! Before the park we watched a veggie tales movie. It was really funny. lol. My first veggie tales movie! So we got back and turned on a movie. Everyone was lying on the floor exhausted.
Time for P Mall!!! Pacific Mall in Markham. I'd been hearing all about it for a couple years and was so excited that we got to go. We wandered around for a while and in the end met several of AL's CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) friends. They were all really cool people. It was a great dinner. TC drove us to AL's host family through the pouring rain and thunder!
Prayer meeting. Sweet. More rain and lightning. Warning for hurricanes and thunderstorms in Toronto apparently. Thank God for giving us good weather for the park!
My mom went through a surgery today to figure out what the deal was with something and it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. I sent out a text to my EAP family to pray for her the hour before. Keep praying.
Pray for RL.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS. lol
22.8.11
I'm in TO!!!
Hey everybody!
I didn't have time to blog yesteray before I passed out exhausted, so I will make up for that now in this post.
Yesterday started with me shoving way too much stuff in my suitcase. I definitely have enough stuff for a 6 week trip somewhere (aside from toiletries anyways) I may actually end up only wearing my orange shirt all week and nothing else. >.>
Then I went to church with my luggage and we had service. It was a pretty great service. It was a small congregation due to the BC trip (which gets back tonight) and PE was preaching. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it. It had gospel to the core and had historical ties, it was educational and slightly funny.
I like this recent praying for each other at the end of service. It's sweet.
Anyways, me and SW had a good man hug then EC and I immediatly got a drive out of town by EC who lives hours away from the church by the way. It was a really long drive, but it was nice. I kinda planned to practice telling Bible stories the whole way. At 1 I started. At 5 I had written 6 pages about Naaman and the servant girl, but I had actually left out God's love and anything about the girl being a servant. It was also a tad choppy and discontinuous which is cool for a movie and stuff, but I don't know how well telling a story to children like that would work.
Anyways, EC said that we'd be in TO by 4 or 4:15. She said we were on schedule up until a certain point. It began pouring and thundering and then there was even hail for a few minutes. I enjoyed it. lol EC was pretty scared of it a couple times.
Next thing we knew we were at the church here in Scarborough decorating for a VBS! We were introduced to our three youth volunteers. They helped put tape on things and decorate. There were also a few kids who were just hanging around after church.
After the decorating we went and had a quick breifing and prayer time upstairs in this room whose windows are really low, which made me feel really tall. >.>
Digress. We had an awesome asian meal back at our host family's house. They have two boys who are going to the VBS. Also their parents are in town, so there are 8 of us in this house right now. We (me and RL) actually kinda displaced the kids from their bunkbeds. >.> This family is so nice. They do everything for us. They are even all planning to throw us a thank you breakfast on Saturday.
Today was really a little nerve-wracking going into it, but everything came out way better than any of us could have expected. I mean we all had hardly practiced all together and training really was only a week of cramming and long-term memory is way better, but the kids are awesome. The volunteers are awesome. The parents are awesome. Our team is awesome. God is more awesome!!!!
Did I mention how he answered our prayers for ten children? Yesterday afternoon after the church service another 3 children registered and now we have the minimum that we prayed for. Awesome!!!
I thought I was doing really badly for the Bible story today. I thought I was rushing and forgetting details here and there. Not to mention the oatmeal slowly dripping and drying on my arm really made me nervous and distracted. (Oatmeal arm ='= leprous)
The kids really enjoyed everything. I love them all. Such a great group of kids. Two of our (now five) volunteers are really new to church, like they came yesterday and liked it so they are back. Today they were asking a bunch of questions and I really hope God can answer them through us this week.
Pray for all these kids that God really speaks to them and inspires them to live their lives with Jesus walking beside them. Most of the children go to church, but they are children, so whether it's their faith or not is something we will have to find out. It seems that they are really awesome though.
I use the word awesome way too much.
Oh. After the story, during review game I asked vaguely what today's story was about and this kid (the cutest kid ever with the best and thickest accent) says it was about how Jesus came to save us from our sins, or something to that effect. He also answered the question 'what did Jesus do' with by his blood we are washed clean. Best kid ever. He also memorized the memory verse in like 10 seconds and said it back with his accent!
Anyways, I need to sleep. Looking forward to the rest of the week and being able to talk more with these children.
So blessed to be here.
Pray for RL!
D.Fa
I didn't have time to blog yesteray before I passed out exhausted, so I will make up for that now in this post.
Yesterday started with me shoving way too much stuff in my suitcase. I definitely have enough stuff for a 6 week trip somewhere (aside from toiletries anyways) I may actually end up only wearing my orange shirt all week and nothing else. >.>
Then I went to church with my luggage and we had service. It was a pretty great service. It was a small congregation due to the BC trip (which gets back tonight) and PE was preaching. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it. It had gospel to the core and had historical ties, it was educational and slightly funny.
I like this recent praying for each other at the end of service. It's sweet.
Anyways, me and SW had a good man hug then EC and I immediatly got a drive out of town by EC who lives hours away from the church by the way. It was a really long drive, but it was nice. I kinda planned to practice telling Bible stories the whole way. At 1 I started. At 5 I had written 6 pages about Naaman and the servant girl, but I had actually left out God's love and anything about the girl being a servant. It was also a tad choppy and discontinuous which is cool for a movie and stuff, but I don't know how well telling a story to children like that would work.
Anyways, EC said that we'd be in TO by 4 or 4:15. She said we were on schedule up until a certain point. It began pouring and thundering and then there was even hail for a few minutes. I enjoyed it. lol EC was pretty scared of it a couple times.
Next thing we knew we were at the church here in Scarborough decorating for a VBS! We were introduced to our three youth volunteers. They helped put tape on things and decorate. There were also a few kids who were just hanging around after church.
After the decorating we went and had a quick breifing and prayer time upstairs in this room whose windows are really low, which made me feel really tall. >.>
Digress. We had an awesome asian meal back at our host family's house. They have two boys who are going to the VBS. Also their parents are in town, so there are 8 of us in this house right now. We (me and RL) actually kinda displaced the kids from their bunkbeds. >.> This family is so nice. They do everything for us. They are even all planning to throw us a thank you breakfast on Saturday.
Today was really a little nerve-wracking going into it, but everything came out way better than any of us could have expected. I mean we all had hardly practiced all together and training really was only a week of cramming and long-term memory is way better, but the kids are awesome. The volunteers are awesome. The parents are awesome. Our team is awesome. God is more awesome!!!!
Did I mention how he answered our prayers for ten children? Yesterday afternoon after the church service another 3 children registered and now we have the minimum that we prayed for. Awesome!!!
I thought I was doing really badly for the Bible story today. I thought I was rushing and forgetting details here and there. Not to mention the oatmeal slowly dripping and drying on my arm really made me nervous and distracted. (Oatmeal arm ='= leprous)
The kids really enjoyed everything. I love them all. Such a great group of kids. Two of our (now five) volunteers are really new to church, like they came yesterday and liked it so they are back. Today they were asking a bunch of questions and I really hope God can answer them through us this week.
Pray for all these kids that God really speaks to them and inspires them to live their lives with Jesus walking beside them. Most of the children go to church, but they are children, so whether it's their faith or not is something we will have to find out. It seems that they are really awesome though.
I use the word awesome way too much.
Oh. After the story, during review game I asked vaguely what today's story was about and this kid (the cutest kid ever with the best and thickest accent) says it was about how Jesus came to save us from our sins, or something to that effect. He also answered the question 'what did Jesus do' with by his blood we are washed clean. Best kid ever. He also memorized the memory verse in like 10 seconds and said it back with his accent!
Anyways, I need to sleep. Looking forward to the rest of the week and being able to talk more with these children.
So blessed to be here.
Pray for RL!
D.Fa
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