Tuesday, June 17th - by Ashley Seitz

Today was the first official day of our mission work. We started off our day by getting up bright and early for breakfast at 7am. After breakfast, we all piled into the vans and headed towards our destination of Peñasco. It was about an hour and a half drive to get to the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, where we would be doing our work for the week. Of course, it is never a boring van ride when you are with our youth leaders. We all enjoyed the beautiful scenery and majestic mountains, as well as the fun conversations on the way. Some of us also took naps to rest up for the big day of work, where others listened to music and enjoyed each other’s company.

When we arrived to the church, I was excited as well as nervous for the day to start. I am one of the characters for the beginning skit of the Vacation Bible School. During the skit, Jim Brown and I explained the theme for the day. Today’s theme was caring and was centered around the story of Moses being found in the basket in Egypt. My character’s name is Starfish and I am this actress who is very bubbly and outgoing in the beginning skits. I basically help Jim Brown tell the story and get the kids involved in it.

After the skit was over we started out the day of Vacation Bible School. Not as many kids came to the church as we anticipated, mostly because one of the other local churches decided to have their Vacation Bible School the same week as the Emmanuel church. Nevertheless, we still had an energetic and interesting group of kids. Most of them were younger, ranging from 4 years old to about 7 years old. There were also a few older kids that helped take some responsibility of the younger kids. Since we didn’t have that big of a group of kids, we didn’t rotate the stations by grade, but instead kept the kids in one big group. The day went fairly smoothly for it being the first day. We started off the day with Story time with Natasha King and Susan Mountz. The next station they went to was Craft time with Karen Williams. There they got to make a baby Moses in a basket along with a fun craft with sea animals, to tie in the ocean theme for the week. The next activity was snack time where the kids enjoyed some cookies and juice. The youth got involved with both of these activities, but what teenager would pass some food and fun with the kids.

Since the entire youth group got involved with the kids, game time was especially fun. After everyone finished their snacks, the group moved onto games with Chad Thralls, Chandler Steffan, and Brandon Lee. When you saw those three were running games, you knew it was going to be a fun time. The first game was limbo, which was a fun start to get everyone involved. Of course the youngest kids were the best at limbo, but it was very entertaining to see the older youth from youth group try and not touch the limbo stick. The next game, you had to keep a beach ball in the air by hitting it. That was a lot of fun as well. The most fun game had to be a classic favorite- duck duck goose. It was a lot of fun with the kids and the youth group getting involved in it. Chad even got really into that game, considering he tripped because he was running so fast. When games were over, the kids went to their last station before lunch time. The last station was music, where I along with Lois Gayman and Nina Brown lead it. We taught the kids two Spanish songs and two fun warm-up songs. All of the kids got really involved in the songs; even the adults joined in. When music concluded it was lunch time, which meant the Vacation Bible School was coming to a close. It was sad to see all of the kids leave and go home, but it just meant that you would see them again the next morning at Vacation Bible School.

While Vacation Bible School was being held, we also had a construction crew working on renovating the church. This crew consisted of mostly adults but also included some youth. They got a lot done in just one day. They worked outside, weeding some of the flowers and even got a window into the one part of the church.

Wednesday, June 18th - by Elyse Lee

Today, Wednesday June 18, 2008 the weather was warm but cool, and gorgeous.  We started off the day with another Vacation Bible School. Today’s theme was “Help”. The crafts and storytelling surrounded the theme of Rainbow Fish. During crafts, the older kids created a “rainbow” fish with tissue paper and aluminum foil. The younger kids did the same with construction paper instead of tissue. They also watched the video of the Rainbow Fish, and learned to share. The number of kids increased to nine, from seven yesterday. More kids were engaging in activities and bonding with the youth and adults. The VBS ended with songs and lunch and was overall a good morning.

Some other members of the church, including Christine, Josh, Pat, Wayne, and Susan made a home visit to Merlinda. Merlinda was a widow who recently lost her husband. The church members talked and spent time with her, and even had a taste of her delicious tortillas. The construction crew placed another window in the building. Others weeded the roads, picked up litter, and an old shed was torn down.

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