Thy Kingdom Come: June 2012

June 18, 2012

Beads with Moms

A large part of our school program here at Mission of Love Preschool is to incorporate the parents and community as much as possible by creating ways for them to get involved. There are several opportunities for the parents to do this; one way is for them to come to school with their children for special art projects and just last week the moms were invited to come. Medis and I thought it would be a lot of fun for the moms to come and made clay beads with their children, in which the children could paint the beads and make a necklace to give their moms.

Like everyone in the school, we want the moms to feel appreciated and loved by their children and the class. Each child was given the chance to draw a picture of their mom and then tell the teachers one thing they really enjoy doing with their mom. After all the children had finished with their art work, we were able to display it on the walls for all the moms and children to look at and admire.

The moms came to school not knowing what to expect, but had a very joyful attitude about spending time with their children and their friends. We had to split each class into two groups to fit them around the art table where their creativity would take them away. While one group of moms and children were busy working together in the art studio, the rest of the moms and children were busy working in other areas of the classroom exploring magnets, puzzles, dolls, cooking, writing, reading, construction, and anything else they could get their hands on.

Over in Art Studio, the table was filled with everything needed for the activity: In the middle of the table was the recipe cards, ingredients, and measuring tools needed to make the clay. The moms had to work together with each other and their children in order to complete the task at hand…they did an excellent job helping their children along in measuring the flour and salt, then mixing it all together with water. Once the clay was the exact texture and consistency it needed to be, we split it between all the children allowing them to make up to 5 beads to save and paint later. The moms and children really enjoyed creating different shaped and sized beads, as well as ones that were all the same.

Next week the children will get to paint their beads any color they want to and give them to their moms as a thank you for coming to school to learn with them. I can’t wait to see the look on the faces of the moms and grandmothers who receive these unique gifts with all the hard work the children (and moms) put into them.

June 14, 2012

A Third Language??

For some reason it seems the weeks are flying by much faster than they did in the first term. I do not know how I managed to write about the children’s progress each week last time, but this term it seems like Friday comes and before I have a chance to breathe I am back at the school again Monday morning. Well of all the things the children are learning, I must say the one that is the most exciting to teach is sign language. As most of you know, TONGA is the children’s native language and with them coming to school, being taught in English, the hope is that they pick up enough English to jump start them into primary school. Well children are capable of learning way more than we give them credit for, so I decided not to stop at just teaching English, but I thought teaching sign language would be an excellent way to assist in teaching English and for the children to have another means of expressing themselves. The children absolutely LOVE sign language and they are picking up words left and right. The older children probably have a vocabulary of at least thirty words and often use them to communicate when Tonga and English are not an option. I can give them commands in sign language like “sit down”, “stand up”, or “jump” and without saying any words the children know exactly what to do. Last week we learned some emotions and without any prompting this week, the children were working together to remember the signs I taught them last week! Sign Language is also a great tool in teaching the children the alphabet…each week we learn a new letter and we sign all the letters from “A” to the one we are learning so the children get used to hearing the letters in order and understand what letters are!

In addition to learning their third language, the children have been very busy measuring maize in the discovery table. A few weeks ago, some of the parents donated maize to the school so that we could open the discovery table with maize inside to support the children’s learning. As soon as the table was full, the children dived right in and began working with measuring cups, bowls, funnels, and trays measuring out various amounts of maize often pretending they were going to town to sell whatever they measured out for the day.

Along with everything else the children naturally explore, investigate, and discover in the school, one other things sticks out from these past few weeks about the children’s learning. The children have been preparing to have their moms come to school with them this term. They have been busy drawing pictures of their mothers and telling the teachers all about the things they enjoy doing with their moms. The vision is to put up the pictures of the moms with the children's words written underneath for the moms to enjoy when they come and visit the school to do a special art project with their children. The children can’t wait to bring their moms to school to see their art work, show them around the classroom, and make beads with them. The teachers are thrilled about the moms coming and being a part of their children's learning…what a wonderful experience for everyone!!

As for bible lessons this term the children are moving into the third part of the Trinity. We have spent time in learning about God the Father and God the Son and now we are learning about the third part of God…His Spirit. As we learn about God’s Spirit, we will be encouraging the children to recognize where God’s Spirit is already working in their lives, as well as, in the community. I am most excited about this since we will soon be moving into the fruit of the Spirit and teaching the children that if they claim to be a Christian, than their lives will be marked by God’s Spirit of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, gentleness, faith, and love. Out here it is so easy for a person to claim Christ, but to truly be saved by Christ is a rarity among these people. Please pray that the Spirit moves in the hearts of all the children who are hearing these truths in the coming weeks and that those who truly believe in Jesus Christ will begin bearing fruit in His name, acting and looking different than those who do not believe in Jesus.

June 11, 2012

Never Ending Blessings…

God is sooooo incredibly good to know what we need and when we need it. One of the things I have struggled with the most since I have been in Zambia is loneliness and not having anyone to share struggles with, joys with, and things like that! God sustained me through my first year with visitors here and there, but mainly through quiet times with Him and moments spent in His word. This year it seems God has decided to bless me with several friends visiting to help me feel not so alone. May has started the influx of people around here and it won’t be until next year that all the volunteers will be going home…Praise God, he is blessing me fellowship and companionship through the end of this year!!

At the end of May, God sent three wonderful people to us to spend some time in our ministry here. Two of them are brother and sister hoping to start their own mission organization supporting missionaries they meet out on the field. Amber and Stephen started their journey in Kenya, then came by us, and Stephen even went on to Cambodia making connections with missionaries that are already on the field looking for ways their organization can help out by sending teams, supplies, and whatever else God opens the doors for. Amber and Stephen were only here for a short week, but enjoyed helping out around the house, cooking, working with Amber and Jako, and even coming up to the school and playing games with the children or supporting them in their learning for the day! They both enjoyed being out here and we loved having them and being encouraged by them…any time God sends people out here it is a huge blessing to us. We pray and hope that we will see them out here again, but until then we wish them well and for God’s will to be accomplished through their calling to start up this organization!!

Our other visitor is a friend of mine from GBC in Maryland…Rachel! This is her first time to Africa and her first time being out on a mission trip without a team of peers coming with her. She came the same week as Amber and Stephen, but is staying until the beginning of August. Rachel knew that God was calling her to give up her summer to serve Him oversees and He opened the doors perfectly for her to come here and support the many things that God is doing here. Her first week was a bit of an adjustment being two hours from any sort of town and still trying to get her mind around the fact that she is going to be here for over two months, not any easy thing to swallow in just a few days…and her first week happened to be the week I had to send Medis to town to get her passport and injection for yellow fever, so I was short staffed at the school unable to take time off to properly welcome Rachel and introduce her into the bush!! Thankfully, God sustained her through her first week and we had plenty of time on the weekend to get settled in and acquainted with the ministry out here, the school, and the orphanage. Since there is so much to do around here, Rachel has decided to split her time between working at the school and helping out Amber with orphanage duties and MOL administrative tasks. I think now that Rachel has a loose schedule and purpose for each day, she is much more comfortable around here and now looking forward to her two months she has with us. I surely enjoy having her around as a friend and roommate.

As the summer goes on, we have a couple teams coming out to serve here and some other individuals, some who have been before and some who have not, so please keep them all in your prayers and the impact they are making for God’s kingdom by coming out to serve here!!