B.Y.O.B.

 

Yesterday we had a wonderful celebration at Twana Little School.  The teachers thought it would be a great idea to gather all the children and parents together and have a party to recognize all that God has blessed us with this year.  We invited the families of each of the children and had over 200 people at the school for the event.  B.Y.O.B. will hopefully be an annual celebration for the school, where the children and families Bring Your Own Buns and we provided the tea in order to finish out the year with good community fellowship.

                        

The children and their families had free range to go inside the school or play outside.  It took some motivation and encouragement to get the parents up and moving around, but once they did, I couldn’t get them to sit back down. 

 

After some free time, we gathered the crowds to form lines and get their tea, then sit down with their families and eat their buns.  The children were so happy to be having tea and buns, some of the mother’s didn’t come prepared, but they quickly ran to a shop to buy some buns for their children to participate.  It was a beautiful site seeing the smiles on the children’s faces showing off their space to their siblings, moms and dads, having a special treat at their school.

After we cleaned up the tea party, the children got ready to show off their stuff.  The older classes prepared a few songs and then a play.  We sang two English songs and one Tonga song where we all got to dance and get loose.  We even had the parents join in helping us sing and encourage the children in the dancing moments!!  After the songs, the THF class wrote a story about going to the moon.  In the previous weeks, the children worked hard on making space suits, a moon, a rocket, and working out the parts in the story.  They had the most amazing glow in their faces as they were prancing around the outside space acting out their story of going to the moon.

 

The other class, MWF, wrote a story about going on a holiday to America.  They decided the cast of the family, the pilots of airplane, built an airplane, created a zoo, tall skyscrapers in a city, and an American treat of pizza for their lunch.  When they told their story, they were a little shy, but once they got on the airplane, their confidence soared and they finished the play with pride.  Unfortunately it was hard for all the parents to hear with the younger children getting restless and a lack of microphones, but the children had so much fun, which was really what counted!! 

At the very end of the night, we gave the children and their parents a folder with almost all of their artwork from the year.  It was a wonderful moment for a teacher to see the children pull out their drawings, paintings, and other creations, showing them off to their parents with a smile on their face.  To my surprise, the moms offered much praise to their children, returning their joyful glee!!

 

“Clap your hands, all peoples!

Shout to God with loud songs of joy!” 

Psalm 47:1