May 8th - Saturday (MIKE)

Today was the second day of the session, it is the day where they work at putting into practice all that they have learned on the first day. Rick refreshes everyone’s memory of Friday. Basically he taught them that we are to love God and love others. That is the most important commandment. Therefore, the foundation of children’s ministry is loving children through relationships. This is more important than program. When teaching children, it is important to reach them at the level that they are at. In order to do this, the lesson should involve hearing, seeing, speaking and doing. Although this all seemed very elementary to me, in a culture that does not at all have men interacting with children, to get them to intentionally care and love children is not easy, especially since many of them are older and seem to have forgotten what it means to be a child. During the first break, the pastors are split into groups to prepare a children’s lesson to lead when we gather back together. The first group presents, and I think they do pretty well, they get 2 out of the 4 parts, and it is fairly engaging. However, it was seriously down hill from there. In fact one group just went up and read their verse, they didn’t explain it, they didn’t have a game/skit/drama/memory verse or nothing (which is what Rick had JUST spent 2 days telling them to do). It is unreal how little they seem to have comprehended (our translator’s English is clearly not strong, so that doesn’t help either). The rest of the groups do poor, but Rick encourages them with what they got right, and we take lunch break to allow them to work on another children’s program.

The pastor training seminar includes lunch both days for the pastors, which consists of rice and goat which looks kinda scary. However the pastors clearly are really enjoying it. During this time on Friday, there are at least 50 children that are waiting patiently for the pastors to be served to see if there is any left over food. There is enough for each to receive about a tablespoon full of rice, it is so hard for me to watch them literally fight as if we are in a mosh pit to get that small amount of rice.



Today is also the day for the Orphan program that Rick & Heather run. This tiny village has 40 orphans with no parents, and another 17 that are considered orphans because of their difficult situation. Today all of them receive food, and again I can’t believe how many of them have swollen bellies and this meal is clearly amazing to them.



In the afternoon back at pastor training, the group slowly starts making progress, I’m very impressed with everyone by the end of the day as on the 3rd try they all put together a lesson with all 4 parts! Rick had a special treat for them that they didn’t know was coming, he has Bibles in Senna, their local language! Not even all these pastor’s have Bibles in Portueguse, which is their 2nd language that only part of their congregations speak. However, Rick tells them very clearly that these Bibles are for their children’s ministry leaders, the people who were suppose to be at this seminar (but the pastors just come instead).


I’ve started to play soccer with some of the older local boys which has been great for building some relationships, but I got a big blister on my food, and I’m not suppose to get it infected, so I will have to take a few days break from soccer (infections can be pretty serious out here).

Marie-Eve painted a few girls nails and they LOVED it.