Paul amongst the kids (KidsGames Day 2)

Whew, it has been a busy few days. Once again I have to restart the writing engine. Fortunately, or rather by God's grace, the old-er engine is still in mint condition. :)

So where were we? ... Ah, Kidsgames Day 2. Ok let me try to recall what happened. Haha.

So, day 2:

The children arrived very early that Saturday and it was a crisp, sunshiny day. I was informed by the Dwelling Place prayer committee that as they were finishing their prayer for the morning, the children were already there, and that was at about 7.30 - 8am. Wow. Talk about enthusiasm. Praise the Lord.

The programme for the day started at about 9am with Welcome and Games. Talking about games, wow, anything you put to the kids they would play with, they would have oodles of fun with. You will see what I am talking about. Welcome included singing the, by now, very familiar KidsGames song and doing the Kidsgames Cheer. When voices of children, of excited children are raised in song or praise, the roof trembles. :) After welcome, we proceeded to games. We had two in store for the kids:

(i) Toilet flushing game (giggle) - essentially a game of tag - you're it, only that the tagged person has to sit-squat like a toilet bowl with his/her arm lifted up like a flush. To be saved, another person would have to sit on the bowl and pull the flush. We released all 160 plus children into the hall and had all the helpers be 'taggers'. You can imagine the scene that ensued.

(ii) Monster - a variation of the AEIOU game. For those my age and above, you would remember the game and how it works. The 'monster' stands in the front of the hall while the villagers (or children) start from behind. Once the music plays, the villagers make their way to the monster who is asleep. Once the music stops, the monster awakens and nobody (children) can move, they are frozen. Any giggle, laugh or movement of any kind would be detected by the monster and they would carry the children away. Basically it is in the monster's best interests (haha) to get the children/villagers to laugh, move, etc without touching them. Let me say I underestimated these children. Even with a few monsters, those children were as still as statues.

Must be experience from 'perhimpunan'.

After the games, we proceeded to break into the four colour teams for Experience It!, a portion of the Kidgames' curriculum that provides experential games for the children. What happened is that we allowed the children to play a series of games where they would experience difficulty, only 'overcomable' by effective teamwork. After the games, the children are sat down and their situations were discussed. 'Being positive' was the word for the day. The kids enjoyed it so much that the next agenda - a scavenger hunt, had to be put aside for lack of time.

Following that, the first of two parts of Paul's story with the people of Iconium and Lystra was acted out by the A Plus Kids of Dwelling Place (from the book of Acts), telling the children the story of Paul's experience in spreading the Gospel in Iconium and being faced with opposition and after that in Lystra, where the same group of Jews stirred trouble. In all this, Paul was bold, courageous and steadfast for the Lord (... You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ... 2 Timothy 3:10-12). Point to the children is, put your trust in our Lord Jesus Christ and He will be with you through anything, no matter how bad, in life. Amen. The story stopped halfway and continued after lunch. Good job kids.

(ring) Lunch Time! - a meal of KFC, burgers and nasi lemak.

During lunch, there was a huge number of children clamouring for face painting - as done by our lovely sisters Yung Ling, Jia Hua and Charmaine. They were assisted, eventually, as demand overwhelmed supply, by a few other kind people from Dwelling Place. Flowers sprouted on children's faces, the sun dawned on some and a few other pictures (I hope this is the nearest these kids get to tattoos, haha) decorated the arms and cheeks of delighted children. The lines were 'mile-long'.

After some order had been restored, Paul's story continued. The teachers and helpers (some of us) then led the children through some activities based upon what they had observed during the play, including the memory verse "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power." (Ephesians 6:10). Amen, something I need to remember always. Board games and questionaires, including prayers were done in groups, all to God's glory. It was God who kept the children attentive and interested.

After Paul, it was time to travel to a field nearby (or relatively nearby) to demonstrate the waterbucket challenge (whee) and to practice yesterday's relay. Oh were the children excited at the prospect.

The sun was hot, the field dry and children restless. Thank God there were shady trees though.

Under the mid day sun, we set up the relay track and allowed the children to run the race (as it were). Such great kids, they understood what to do, and they wanted to do it twice! It was as if the heat did not bother them, oh well, twice it was.

The waterbucket is something everyone in KidsGames looks forward to. I mean, they even have the world championships and all results from around the globe are posted on the KidsGames website. It works like this. One bucket full of water is placed on one end of the line of children (standing shoulder to shoulder within 5 metres) and at the other end, an empty bucket. At the whistle, the first child scoups water in his/her cupped palms and passes it, only using palms, to the next and so on until it eventually drips (uh huh) into the end bucket. This madness goes on for 3 minutes and there should not be any pauses in between. Woo hoo. All in preparation for the big day: day 3. The children enjoyed it so much and FUN is all I can say.

Slices of watermelons, cakes and drinks were given to the children to end the day. And after all that I needed to get some 'zzzzz'.

Day 2 had come to a close.

KidsGames for Christ's glory.

God bless you and all the children.