Sunday, May 18, 2008
Journal Entry for Nias Mission Trip : Day 4 - Children Camp Day2

Day 2 started at 9.00am, with children who stayed overnight at Yayasan, singing their morning devotion with Uncle Famachoi. It was all set for a new day.

For the whole morning, we taught the parable of the house on the rock/house on the sand. We taught them how to make a 3D house, and even asking them to decorate it with their own drawings on the outside of the house. The attractive thing about the house was the roof, which brighten up the whole house when everyone joined the houses together forming the word "I Love Jesus" (Interestingly, this was not part of the plan, but when it was executed, it remained perfect). As the individual groups come out with their cheers and team spirit, you could see the excitement and joy of all the kids. It was simply amazing. For Singaporean kids to do such an activity, many will brand this as boring, some even complaining, but the Nias Children were so engaging, eager and ready to try new things. We later performed a skit and the kids enjoyed it very much, some even volunteering to be involved in the skit when Zh called out to them. We also taught them a new song "Wise and Foolish Man". The kids loved the hand-actions and the melody of it, but more importantly, they were all interested in learning English, which was very crucial to us. We've got to thank the translators in our midst, who were always there to translate the meaning of the song into Bahasa Indonesia.

After lunch, as the heat took its toil on the day. We gathered all the kids to the room and asked them to quieten down. Many of them were very active, and if we do not contain them, they may be dehydrated from the heat. Spending quiet time was a very impromptu decision, and Zh was given the task to lead them in quiet meditation, he had to come out with something on the spot. He soon starting a story, talking about the beach, the sand and a white bird. Things started to go wrong when the white bird became the main highlight. We could tell that Zh was pressured to come out with something out of nothing, and when the white bird started talking, I knew we were pooped. At that point of time, I started praying, praying that the situation can be saved. Then the story of the footprint hit me. It was the perfect story to talk about, especially when it was at the beach! I waved my hands frantically at Jessica, the only person who could have executed it correctly as Zh continues on his dialogue on the white bird. First i tried mouthed out the word "Foot prints", but to Jessica it looked like "Foo bi". Thank God I started pointing at my feet and mouthed "Father and son" before Jessica finally got it. I pointed to her and mouthed out "You do it", just in time when Zh told all the children to "open their eyes" and shortly after telling them to close their eyes again. Jessica then took over the whole thing and it went flawlessly.

We had team-bonding group games in the afternoon. The rubber band game was a major hit for most of the kids, each trying eagerly to transfer the rubber bands from one straw to another. We also played a balloon game where the kids passed the balloons from one end to the other end. After all the activities, it was some indoor activities in the room. We taught them the AJ slap, and boy were they addicted to it. I had no idea how many times I did it, but it was something that kept them entertained even till the end of our mission trip.

The day ended early at 7pm, and many of us felt exhausted, but satisfied from the chain of events that took place. We felt closer to the children and God was working in our lives. There were also more translators in the scene, so talking to them wasnt as tiring as before. We could see our efforts paying off as the last day of the children's camp draws closer.