Saturday June 23

Saturday was our last day at Imani. Our whole team went to Imani B, the older kids house. We spent the morning just playing with all of the kids on the playground and taught some of the older ones how to play hackysack. Then we gathered all the kids and had worship time. Some of the older kids at Imani led us in Swahili worship. Then a few of the kids did a dance performance for us. I was amazed. I was a dancer on company for a long time and I have seen some of the best dancers in America, but none of the dancers I have seen were as naturally talented as these kids. They did several dances for us while a 7 year old boy played the drums. He was amazing as well. I honestly have never met a more talented group of kids.

After the dancing my team led a VBS program for all the kids. We taught them the story of the prodigal son and did a skit that reenacted the parable. We told them all about their Father in Heaven who loves and cares for them and will forgive them no matter what. We told them that there is nothing that they can do that will make God love them any more or any less. The kids listened really well. The concept of God as Father is very important to these kids as they are being raised without an earthly Dad.

When we were done with the skit and Bible lesson we split the kids into four groups to go to different stations. Each station focused on a different color that represented the gospel message. Blue represented sin, red stood for the blood of Christ, green was for new life in Christ, and yellow was for eternal life in Heaven. I taught at whichever station had one of the toddler/preschooler groups at it. The blue station focused on Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." I had the little kids raise their hand if they had ever pushed a friend, they all raised their hands (including me) then I asked if they had ever not listened to Mama Faith or an Auntie or Uncle. Again we all raised our hands. After a few more examples I told them that all of these things were called sin and that doing these things made God sad. Then I had them show me their sad faces. It was soooo cute! Then we talked about how in the prodigal son skit the son sinned when he used all his money for "bad games" and other bad things. After the lesson they covered their hands in blue paint and put their hand prints on a huge white sheet that had Romans 3:23 painted in Swahili on it. At the next station I taught about Romans 10:9 and told them that we didn't need to be sad anymore because Jesus had died for our sins and God has forgiven us just like the dad did in the story. Then they put red hand prints on another sheet. For the green station they learned that they now had new life in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and at the yellow station they learned Revelation 21:4 "and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

After we finished the stations we showed the kids the finished sheets (they hung them up in the orphanage as a reminder of what they learned) and reviewed what all the colors meant. Then we had the kids recite the verses in Swahili.

Later in the day we took the young kids to go play games and took everyone six and up and talked to them about what it meant to have faith and trust in God. We then stacked a chair on top of a table and had the kids climb up one at a time, close their eyes and fall backwards off the chair into Ramsey, Josh, and Jordan's arms. By the time they were done they all had a really good idea of what it means to take a leap of faith. They understood that even though it may be scary to trust God at all times, he is always there for them and won't let go of them. It was definitely a memorable object lesson!