VBS in Monjas

•    So, on Sunday, we drove up to the mountain community and passed out invitations for VBS. We had to walk up to strangers’ houses, which was scary for me. 
• We were separated in 3 groups... In one of the other groups, 2 little girls received the invitation and started HUGGING and JUMPING UP AND DOWN because they were so excited. (VBS used to happen here but it hasn't in the past few years.) Gah, I wish I would have seen that! 
• VBS was held in a little one-room church that the James Project had helped plant a few years back. There were about 50 or 60 kids each day. 
• Monday we talked about how God listens to us and we read a Psalm and painted reminder rocks with the kids. 
• Tuesday we talked about how we need to listen to God and we acted out the story of Jonah and the fish and made pipe cleaner fish. 
• Wednesday we told the story of Jesus dying on the cross and made Juan 3:16 bracelets. 

NNo, the crafts we made were not special or fancy by any means. But those little angels took their time and worked hard on them! Tell an American kid to put beads on a pipe cleaner and bend it to look like a fish and he'll ask you when it's time for snack. I mean, I vividly remember thinking that the best part of VBS by far was those ring cookies that you could put on your fingers. 

And they played! They played and played without reservation. Whether they were 5 or 12, girl or boy, they didn't care. They wanted to have fun and enjoy themselves. It made my heart very glad to see children still being children. I hate when little ones think they're too grown to be kids. A lot of children I know are so hurried now. They want to look like adults and act like adults and it breaks my heart. So I praised God when I saw the older boys and girls singing the song and actively doing the motions to the song about the Frog who has a Frog friend who has a friend named Jesus. 

It reminded me of camp worship! Because basically, for 3 days straight, we got to do worship with a stinking hot room full of kids! And I wanted to tell them a thousand million zillion times how much God loves them and how very valuable they are. 

Funny Story

When we made the Juan 3:16 bracelets, one boy, probably about 5 years old, asked me to write his little brother's name for him. We'll call the big brother Herman. I asked Herman what his little brother's name was and he said Guillermo. Or at least that's how I think it's spelled. So, I wrote Guillermo on the bracelet. Herman took it from my hand, looked at it, and laughed. I said, "No correcto?" He shook his head, giggled, handed it to Guillermo, and said, "Ingles, hermano. Ingles." 

Also Guillermo wiped at least 16 boogers on me earlier in the day.