VBS

If you read the post below you'll already have an intro into what we did today. We went to one of the daughter churches of the church we go to and did VBS today. They've been going for a few days, so today our team went and did the service for them. It was great seeing a new area and kids eager to learn more about God. We had just over and hour, but it was packed out with songs, skits, Bible stories and fun! At the end we gave out the Book of Hope to every child. It was nice looking through the streets afterwards and seeing a book about Jesus in every child's arms.

Alex took on the role as sound technician and Maggie was working on learning the moves to all of the songs. They both helped us pass out the Book of Hope. It's great to see the kids finding a spot in ministry when we are out doing evangelism.

We were very popular at the end when everyone from the smallest child to a very elderly lady was asking us to take their picture. They were fascinated with having their pictures taken and seeing themselves on the camera.

We had a bit of an adventure afterwards, though, when the children's pastor's car decided it didn't want to start and several of the boys were pushing it through the maze of streets in this area. We had 11 packed in our car following them around. It was quite a spectacle and all we could say at the time was, "Yup, this is definitely an experience in the making." After a long time we finally made our way out of the barrio and back to the city. Even with car issues, it still made for an incredible day!
~Tona

It's My Birthday!!

Today was scheduled to be a pretty normal one. We had a VBS scheduled with the children's workers from our church to go to a small church on the edge of town. Adding to an already slightly rough morning, they are repaving the roads outside of our house and everyone decided to park outside our gate, making it impossible for us to leave on time. We arrived nearly 20 minutes late. I felt terrible and was apologizing to David, the children's pastor. We went in the church to get everything we needed to load in the cars. As we went up into the children's church area David was showing me things that needed to go and then guided me towards the "backstage" area. I assumed we were grabbing more stuff from there. As I walked behind the curtain I opened my mouth to ask what he needed me to get when the lights came on and I was showered in confetti! I was stunned! I also think I ate a handful of confetti. I felt so special. They sang to me in Spanish and then in English. They had a cake and everything was just so sweet! They gave me a poster that says "Enjoy happily the life that with love God gave you" and they wrote messages to me on the back. One of the guys gave me a traditional Colombian decoration and one of the girls gave me a special chocolate and strawberries candy bar. They made me give a speech and then several of them gave me encouraging words. We had cake and laughed a bit before heading off to do VBS. The love and connection I feel for these special people made me proud to be in Colombia on this day. I am blessed to have them in my life and I can't think of a cooler way to spend my birthday! I also need to say a great big thank you to Corey set it all up! I have an awesome husband :).
~Tona

Sunday Morning

Here's a glimpse at last Sunday morning. Children's church isn't usually outside, but this week was a special treat for the kids to get out and run around a little bit. This was at the 8AM service, so if you lived anywhere in the area and had decided not to go to church, well, church came to you! Hillsong United recently released their United We Stand album in Spanish and the kids are loving it! The video above has short clips just to show you how much they get into singing their songs! It was a really easy-going day after coming off of a powerful VBS, but still time to talk to the kids about reaching their neighborhoods. These kids are just awesome! They come from very poor backgrounds and many are refugees that moved to the city after violence removed them from their homes. After talking to some we found out they had never eaten a hamburger or had a banana split until they went to Kid's Camp a few weeks ago. It was their first time! Here's some more pictures below for you of the kids singing and goofing off. You can see from both the video and pictures that Alex has no problem getting in the mix! Oh, and just so you don't think Corey is a stick in the mud when you see him in the video, we taught an adult missions class on Sunday so he came dressed really nice and the lot was a mess so he couldn't run around with the kids. Normally we dress nice but casual so we can play no matter the situation!
~Tona

VBS

Summer is just clicking on by and we are having a blast! This week we worked with La Gran Comision, the church we normally attend, for Vacation Bible School. Overwhelmed does not even begin to explain what I felt when we walked into the church on the first day and there were kids everywhere! We've worked VBS before with pretty small groups but there were roughly 300-400 kids there the first day. The second day they divided them into "small" groups of about 30 kids each! Saturday was the third and final day with special guest Clavelito - the clown that was at our last kid's camp outing. On Saturday the church was packed out! I've heard ranges from 600 - 1000 kids and I'm not sure we'll ever know exactly how many were there, but it was amazing to see that sanctuary packed with kids! The focus was on power to evangelize. If you remember the first kid's camp we went to, this is the same group. They've kept the theme going all summer of first "The Holy Spirit Is My Friend" and now "The Holy Spirit helps me tell others about Christ." The kids were taught about key Bible figures like Paul, Phillip and Peter who were missionaries and evangelists in thier time and used them to inspire the kids to spread the Gospel in their towns. It was pretty amazing! One cool part of it all was the distribution of the Book of Hope or Libro de Vida in Spanish which tells all the key things about Christ and basic Christian fundamentals. Every kid left with one. God is doing amazing things in the children of this church and it is so exciting to see!
~Tona