Trinity Lutheran Church, Grand Island, NE
My first week is under my belt now...I mainly worked with the group of 7 adults that was here from Grand Island, NE. They had a 2-hour VBS curriculum prepared that they performed at a different mission site in Mexico from Tuesday through Friday. Monday they spent the day getting their craft supplies and goodie bags and stuff ready and running through their program one last time, and then it was off to Santisima Trinidad on Tuesday, Cristo Rey on Wednesday, San Francisco on Thursday, and Anapra on Friday. Their theme was "Jesus is our Friend," and they had music (complete with a saxophone and a recorder), the Bible story about the friends of a paralyzed man lowering him through the roof so Jesus could heal him (Luke 5:17-26), a reenactment of the Bible story (they even brought costumes and they let one of the kids be the paralyzed man), crafts, snacks, and goodie bags at the end. Through it all they tried to get across the message of how Jesus is our friend and how we can therefore be a friend to others and to Him. Total they were able to serve 391 kids and 92 adults.
(You might be wondering how this worked with school...the kids only have to attend half a day. They either go in the morning (like 7:30-12:30 or something) or afternoon (starting at 1:30), and it's just divided randomly, not by age or anything. So they would either do the VBS in the morning so the kids who had school in the afternoon could come or vice versa.)
I thought I was going to have to interpret but since one member of their team was a fluent Spanish speaker, I was freed up to be camera woman for this one guy who wanted a gazillion pictures of EVERYTHING...and the driver. I successfully drove to Mexico and back 4 times (with lots of direction from Chris)! I am definitely getting used to the handling of the big vans, now it's just a matter of getting used to crazy drivers in Mexico and learning to navigate everywhere. The drives this week were pretty uneventful--no insane bridge lines or anything--but I did freak out yesterday when we got randomly stopped on the way to Anapra by the Mexican police. They made me park the van and then we all had to get out so they could search it...it was scary!!!
Seeing lots of kids that I recognized at Cristo Rey (they recognized me too...they even asked me if I got my hair cut!) and the kids from the family that I helped build a house for a few summers ago was pretty cool and it is something that I will look forward to since I'm going to be around for awhile. Chris has been here for around 7 months and he gets a lot of this...the kids at Cristo Rey had a bunch of signs made to welcome him and his group and they didn't do it this time, but apparently one of their favorite games is "climb the Chris tree." I liked going to new places too though; in 5 years of coming here I had never been to Santisima Trinidad or San Francisco. Santisima is one of the more well-off of the Mexican congregations (that is a relative term of course but they have pseudo-stained glass windows, nice wooden pews with hymnal racks, "chandeliers," and this huge room where we did VBS with a kitchen and bathrooms) and it is served by Pastor Hernandez. San Francisco is not so much a church as a person's home where services are held on Saturdays; Pastor Hernandez serves here as well, and at another site called Martin Lutero, too. He and his congregations are quickly growing on me, though--I adore the way he works with the kids. He would always do a welcome and a prayer, and then help with corralling them (they actually listened!), as well as do things like praise their artwork and joke around with them (as in, "Raise your hand if you're still sleeping,"). He also is an amazing self-taught guitarist and he totally gets the kids into singing, especially the ones at San Francisco. After VBS the day we were there, they piled out into the street so they would all have room to dance and performed their rendition of "El Pato y el Sapo." I took a video and I was going to post it on here but it was taking FOREVER!
Other than VBS I have just been doing little projects in the office, playing a lot of Scrabble with Chris (I taught him well...he is currently schooling me for the 3rd time in a row), and enjoying the 70 degree weather that's pretty much been around all week and is supposed to stick around through the weekend. This week there's no group so Krysia is going to show me some more of what I'll be doing in terms of handling all the servant event stuff, and I want to run some errands like printing off some of my Europe pictures, run by the library and see if they'll let me get a library card, and order a bridesmaid dress for my best friend's wedding in August.
Well that's about all I've got, and this is long enough anyways as Chris has pointed out several times, plus we need to get working on a letter so we can solicit donations to be used as door prizes at the volunteer recognition dinner next month. So enjoy the pictures and until next time, blessings!
Here's me driving the 15-passenger van for the first time!
We made it to the gas station, then took it on the freeway for like 1 exit and then did some manuvering around in the parking lot.
On to VBS...here's Rick playing the sax to the opening songs at Santisima on Tuesday.
The whole group in costume (Lois, Gerry, Panchita, Ken, Jon, Rick, and Joyce) and the kid they used as the paralytic at Santisima.
Crafts...
More crafts...
Pastor Hernandez singing with the kids at Santisima.
One of the signs welcoming Chris and his group to Cristo Rey.
Fernanda y yo...she is one that I remembered from the VBS that my group did this summer and sadly, she told me she is moving to Guanajuato so she can go to school and her parents can find work, so she won't be around at Cristo Rey anymore :(
Tania...Cristo Rey's little supermodel.
(You might be wondering how this worked with school...the kids only have to attend half a day. They either go in the morning (like 7:30-12:30 or something) or afternoon (starting at 1:30), and it's just divided randomly, not by age or anything. So they would either do the VBS in the morning so the kids who had school in the afternoon could come or vice versa.)
I thought I was going to have to interpret but since one member of their team was a fluent Spanish speaker, I was freed up to be camera woman for this one guy who wanted a gazillion pictures of EVERYTHING...and the driver. I successfully drove to Mexico and back 4 times (with lots of direction from Chris)! I am definitely getting used to the handling of the big vans, now it's just a matter of getting used to crazy drivers in Mexico and learning to navigate everywhere. The drives this week were pretty uneventful--no insane bridge lines or anything--but I did freak out yesterday when we got randomly stopped on the way to Anapra by the Mexican police. They made me park the van and then we all had to get out so they could search it...it was scary!!!
Seeing lots of kids that I recognized at Cristo Rey (they recognized me too...they even asked me if I got my hair cut!) and the kids from the family that I helped build a house for a few summers ago was pretty cool and it is something that I will look forward to since I'm going to be around for awhile. Chris has been here for around 7 months and he gets a lot of this...the kids at Cristo Rey had a bunch of signs made to welcome him and his group and they didn't do it this time, but apparently one of their favorite games is "climb the Chris tree." I liked going to new places too though; in 5 years of coming here I had never been to Santisima Trinidad or San Francisco. Santisima is one of the more well-off of the Mexican congregations (that is a relative term of course but they have pseudo-stained glass windows, nice wooden pews with hymnal racks, "chandeliers," and this huge room where we did VBS with a kitchen and bathrooms) and it is served by Pastor Hernandez. San Francisco is not so much a church as a person's home where services are held on Saturdays; Pastor Hernandez serves here as well, and at another site called Martin Lutero, too. He and his congregations are quickly growing on me, though--I adore the way he works with the kids. He would always do a welcome and a prayer, and then help with corralling them (they actually listened!), as well as do things like praise their artwork and joke around with them (as in, "Raise your hand if you're still sleeping,"). He also is an amazing self-taught guitarist and he totally gets the kids into singing, especially the ones at San Francisco. After VBS the day we were there, they piled out into the street so they would all have room to dance and performed their rendition of "El Pato y el Sapo." I took a video and I was going to post it on here but it was taking FOREVER!
Other than VBS I have just been doing little projects in the office, playing a lot of Scrabble with Chris (I taught him well...he is currently schooling me for the 3rd time in a row), and enjoying the 70 degree weather that's pretty much been around all week and is supposed to stick around through the weekend. This week there's no group so Krysia is going to show me some more of what I'll be doing in terms of handling all the servant event stuff, and I want to run some errands like printing off some of my Europe pictures, run by the library and see if they'll let me get a library card, and order a bridesmaid dress for my best friend's wedding in August.
Well that's about all I've got, and this is long enough anyways as Chris has pointed out several times, plus we need to get working on a letter so we can solicit donations to be used as door prizes at the volunteer recognition dinner next month. So enjoy the pictures and until next time, blessings!
Here's me driving the 15-passenger van for the first time!
We made it to the gas station, then took it on the freeway for like 1 exit and then did some manuvering around in the parking lot.
On to VBS...here's Rick playing the sax to the opening songs at Santisima on Tuesday.
The whole group in costume (Lois, Gerry, Panchita, Ken, Jon, Rick, and Joyce) and the kid they used as the paralytic at Santisima.
Crafts...
More crafts...
Pastor Hernandez singing with the kids at Santisima.
One of the signs welcoming Chris and his group to Cristo Rey.
Fernanda y yo...she is one that I remembered from the VBS that my group did this summer and sadly, she told me she is moving to Guanajuato so she can go to school and her parents can find work, so she won't be around at Cristo Rey anymore :(
Tania...Cristo Rey's little supermodel.
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