Extension 23 ACTS Family Church and J-Life 6 Week interns

Last week was a fabulous week for Grace and me. We got to help out at a local church that partners with J-Life quite often. We also got to work with the six week interns that are here with J-Life for 6 weeks of the summer/winter depending on your hemisphere. We started off the week with about 95 kids and ended the week with almost 200! As word spread we were there giving a Holiday Bible club the more kid came. It was such a great time to see our J-Life young adults take charge in an unfamiliar environment as well as to watch Grace work with them.  We had about 8 young adults from the church helping with us. They were a tremendous help because many of the kids, especially the little ones, don’t speak English. 

The daily schedule was to gather the kids. The first few days we walked the streets to get the kids letting them know we were at the church. Next we would circle up and have warm-up get ready games as everyone was arriving. Then we moved the kids into age groups. Then we would take turns at each station, being games, crafts, music, and such. Then we would gather them all into the church for singing. It was loud and beautiful! Young people and kids praising the Lord were beautiful. Then a lesson for the day would be given and interpreted, of course. Then we broke up into groups again to do a main craft for the day. Then snack time which consisted of chips or oranges.  One of the days the kids got oranges one of our interns noticed the kids were kicking the oranges down the street. She asked if they were being ungrateful or not liking the fruit. But our leader said no, the kick them to make the juice more so they can open a hole at the top to drink it. Just a difference in cultures. This is a small example of ways that people are different. The Lord loves us all.  After snack, the kids would go home. We would debrief the day and have lunch.  It was such a terrific week. Tiring but terrific. We saw the Lord work in kids through just loving them. On the last day, we presented the gospel with the gospel bracelets for craft.

Pray that fruit will bear out of that time. Most all of it was done by our young adults from the church in Zulu so the gospel would be clear and understandable. We were so blessed to be there last week.