Armour Fun

Dave suited up

Last week at Gap we went through the Armour of God - this seems to be a running theme in my life at the moment.  I asked Dave Oxley, one of the elders to come and share his story with the kids, which I almost forgot to ask him to do in all the excitement.  The Armour of God is one of my favourite sections in the bible and I LOVE to teach it because there is so much you can do with it. 

Huggi and I ready for battle

As I described each piece of the armour I got Dave to put on a piece of it until he was fully dressed in the armour.  He was a little bit confused about the pink slippers as the "shoes of the gospel of peace", but he went with it.   After I had described the armour I gave an illustration of putting two naartjies in a jug of water.  With their peels on the float, I then started peeling the one and saying, "he forgot his helmet today, he forgot his belt this day..." until it was completely peeled.  Once peeled the naartjie sinks.  I then explained how without the armour of God we drown in the craziness of our worlds and that we need God and his armour to keep floating and walking through life.  

After the talk the kids got a chance to make armour for Huggi and myself.  The boys were horrified that i took the slippers and used them as my shoes and the girls never made shoes. they refused to listen to my reasoning of there being four boys against one girl and were convinced that we cheated

With the designers

Hot Chocolate

Emilio, Arthur and Oscar with their hot choclate in Vida

Today I took these three boys for hot chocolate after work. We arranged it a week ago that I would pick them up at the circle at the police station.  When I got to the circle they were ready and waiting for me.  While they climbed into my car they were all chirping, "why did you take so long." I laughed and said, "I'm on time" and they were like, "We've been waiting since 5pm." I laughed again and told them I said I'd pick you up at 5:30pm because I only finish work at 5pm. We then drove to Vida and the conversation flowed about my car and if it was fixed.

When we got to Vida, Emilo was hanging back and I asked him what was up, he asked if he had had to pay for the hot chocolate. I told him, no it's my treat. He then looked more concerned and asked me if it was expensive. I told him not to worry about it.  I was blown away by this. I totally did not expect that.

We made a mad dash in the rain to the entrance of Vida, ordered the hot chocolate and then had a wonderful hour filled with laughter and discussing whether my Adidas takkies were fake or real. After I got my mom to send me pictures, we established they were fakes but I was safe from judgement because I was me. This made me laugh, especially when they told me not to be sad because they are fake and I spent a lot of money on it.  We even had a moment of serious talk when Oscar asked what it means to have Jesus in your heart. The conversation swirled around that for about 10 minutes before more laughter followed caused by Arthur sharing something funny.

The one thing I never planned on was the sugar rush that would follow... especially with Gap being right after out hot chocolate hour. They were on a super sugar rush, but so were all the other kids.  I think Huggi and I did well in zoning in their attention and using their energy constructively.

At the end of Gap we were doing prayer requests and Oscar's request for Jesus to come into his heart. He said he'll pray it when we go around the circle.  Huggi and I started prayer and then some of the kids prayed and the Oscar asked Jesus into his heart. It was an incredible moment. God is totally awesome and works in crazy ways, and tonight Oscar opened his heart up to God. 

I really enjoyed spending time with the Gap boys this evening. It was a lot of fun and I feel super blessed by them. I also feel super blessed after Gap tonight, God did something in the crazy.

xKx

. . . and then God took over

The topic at Gap last night was how God is always there for you on ALL situations, no matter what. Ivan, one of the elders came and shared a bit of his testimony with the kids, specifically about a time when things were tough and God was there.  After his testimony I followed with the talk and illustration before I ended the evening with prayer.  

During worship I had a feeling that I should end the evening with prayer instead of small groups and give the kids an opportunity to come forward for prayer, to ask Jesus into their lives or to ask the Holy Spirit to fill them.  When I had this thought I was like, "God this is crazy - they will never sit still for longer than two minutes, let alone be quiet for longer than second", but God was like "Just do it" and I was like, "okay..." 

So... at the end of the talk I gave them the chance to reflect on the talk and then put up their hand for prayer. While they were reflecting I quickly ran to my laptop and put on a song.... and God just took over. It was incredible. 

The kids actually sat and reflected and then slowly they put up their hands and come for prayer.  We prayed for about 6 of the 9 kids who were there. It was as though the holy spirit just fell on the hall last night and God worked in the kids hearts.  

At the end we had 5 minutes left and when I gave them the option of a game or worship they all chose worship.  I let them choose the songs and they all got really into it. 

God was super incredible last night. 

xKx

Gap - Hiding Your Sins

Last week Wednesday at Gap we spoke about how we cover up our sins. 

I told the kids the story of David and Bathsheba, (2 Samuel 11 - 12). When it was time to tell them the story and give the talk, I sat on the floor with them and then told the the story using puppets as each person in the story.   At the end of the story I went into the talk by explaining how David had covered up his sin by killing Bathsheba's husband and how this made God angry. 

I used ice-cream, salt and caramel sauce to illustrate how when we cover up a mistake we  end up with a mess.  I put ice-cream in a bowl, and added salt.  I asked the kids if they liked salt on their ice-cream and they all said no.  I then said, the salt is the mistake we make.  When we steal something, cheat, or like David commit adultery.  When we want to cover up the fact that we did something wrong and sinned, we often hide it by doing something else.  I added the caramel sauce to the ice-cream and covered in salt. 

I then asked if any of the kids wanted to taste it. Two brave kids came and tasted it and they both ran out the room very quickly to spit it out.  

I wrapped up by saying that we don't have to cover up our sins, because it makes if worse than what it is.  God wants us to go to him and to ask for forgiveness and then he cleanses us of our sin.  sometimes we have some sin that has been there for a very long time and we think that God can't forgive that but he can.  It's like a glass that has dried milk stuck in it, (I held this up) when we put it into hot water the milk comes loose, (I dunked the glass into hot water).  God is like the water, washing our dirty dried sin away.  

I had asked one of the elders from our church to come and do communion with the kids.  He explained the story so well to the kids and had them all captivated by what he was saying. It was AWESOME.  We then went into a time of silence and the kids were invited to come up and receive communion.  They were given bread and then had to dunk it into grape juice. 

After communion we prayed and then went off to small groups. 

I don't know how to explain what happened at Gap on Wednesday, but it was literally like the Holy Spirit just fell over the room and kids were soaking it up.  They were so attentive during the talks.  I was completely blown away.  

I really praise God for how He is working in their lives, even when we don't always see it. 

xKx

Gap kids and anger...

Last night was the first Gap of the term and it was A LOT of fun.

The evening started off with musical chairs/jump on each other. This is their own version of our normal musical chairs game.  We explain how musical chairs works, we play the music, they run around the chairs and when we stop the music for some reason they all have to jump on each other to sit down.  We don't understand why, but this is what they do. They also think they're all out, but there's usually a few chairs still open.

We just kind of go with it...


After the game came worship and then the talk. The topic at Gap last night was anger.  I focused on how we get angry because people hurt us and how it's not okay to explode and just "klap" someone.  I thought that, that would work best with the Gap kids because they come from a community where it's okay to just "klap" someone, stab them or do any type of harm to someone who makes them angry.

I started off the talk by sharing a story of where a friend once made me really angry and how I exploded.  During the story I used an illustration of adding bicarbonate of soda to a mixture of vinegar and water to show how I was only a little bit angry and to show I was super angry and then exploded by raising my voice at my friend,  I added a spoon of bicarbonate of soda to neat vinegar. The mixture bubbles over like mad, (I had  put a tray under the glasses to catch the water to prevent a mess).

From that story I went on to explain how in life people hurt you  and often we express that hurt by getting angry. When I asked the kids what they do when they're angry because someone hurt them they all responded by saying they would smack the person.  We even had some role play where I thought I was going to really get a "klap" for telling someone I never liked their shoes. After she had stood up and I had screamed and ran away, she said she was getting into the example and thought she would act it out. 

I then told the story of how David had the perfect chance to kill Saul, when he came into the cave to relieve himself.  David chose not kill Saul in the end, but cuts off a piece of his robe. He then goes to Saul and tells him that he isn't going to kill him because he's gods anointed one.   The story is in 1 Samuel 24:1-13.  The point I used from the story was how David could have acted out in anger towards Saul, who didn't like him and wanted to kill him, but chose not to. We then discussed how you can't just go and get revenge just because people do wrong to you.

In small groups, I asked my girls what they learnt from the story and they all gave good answers, "Not to hit people, not to take revenge, not to take your anger out on someone else, etc"  I then asked them if they are going to do all those things and they all said no and told me that they are still going to hit someone or beat them up if they hurt them or talk badly about them.

While I was driving back to the church after I had dropped some of the kids at home last night I started thinking about the kids and where they live. I came to the conclusion that in their immediate community in IY that's how they deal with things.  Their parents, friends, extended family etc, all react to hurt and anger with violence. It's the only way they know how to deal with things.  They some how have a culture built up in them of this is the way to deal with things.  When we come along and present an alternative solution it takes harder to change or for them to even fully grasp.  They understand the theory behind it but when it comes to practice they still think to hit someone is better that walking away or talking to them. 

I think this is our biggest challenge at Gap.  How do we teach them about living as a Christian and how Jesus wants us to live our lives, when so much of it is the opposite of how their world tells them to live. It's a way that is different to the way their community models dealing with things and living life.  How do we minister cross culturally and teach them to live a cross cultural life where they don't do the "bad" things but still embrace their culture. 

So many questions... but they are all questions that only God can answer and reveal to us as we continue to minister to the kids at Gap.

 

xKx

I LOVE MY KIDS

I lead youth on Wednesday nigh at church. I lead Gap, which is made up of the grade 6's to 7's, basically 12 – 14 year olds. I absolutely love my kids, there's a bout 10 of them who come regularly and they drive me batty some nights or leave me laughing hysterically other nights.

Tonight was one of the nights where I laughed like a loon most of the time.

Things Kids Say

I arrived at 6:35pm and handed my laptop to Huggi, (he leads with me), so that he could set up worship. A few of the kids gathered around him as he chose the songs. I walked past to go and fetch something as Arthur asked if Huggi would play “God is disabled” We looked at each other and I quickly ran out of the room laughing as Huggi said, “no we can't play that but we can play God is able, which is what the song is called”

Excitement Over A Game

I then went to fetch hula hoops for the game we were going to play later. Arthur then asks me if we are going to play a game. I said yes, the hula hoop one. He got so excited about it and then ran off. 10 minutes later he asked me again and when I said yes he got sooooo excited again. He asked me about 4 times if we were playing a game and go super excited all four times.

The Race

Emilie came to Huggi and told him that he could run faster than him. Huggi was like no after about 5 minutes if this Oscar joined in and they planned a race. Somehow I ended up involved and the next thing I knew I was standing on the balcony at church getting ready to race two boys. I lost by a long shot, I was half way when they were finished. They then raced Huggi and he won, much to our surprise.

Tonight was a random night of fun at Gap, which made me appreciate these kids so much more and love them even more.

xKx