Summer Holiday Clubs

During the summer in Thailand...

hmm...

Actually that statement "summer in Thailand" doesn't make much sense... There isn't really a "summer" here--in fact there aren't even four seasons--there are three: Cold (November-February), Hot (March-June), and Rainy (July-September). And yes, the hot season could be summer--but it's not the same period that I'd call summer at home. What I would call summer back home is actually the rainy season... though, as noted in the last post, it hasn't really been that rainy this year.

However, I am digressing (Can you digress before you've even started?--I'm sure you can.)...this post is supposed to be about the Kids Clubs we helped with in July and August...not the weather!

July and August were busy--but fun! We had three separate kid's camps to plan and run. One was for 4 1/2 days with 10 kids, the next was for 2 1/2 days with 30 kids, and the other was the 10 Sundays throughout the summer with between 12 and 40 kids!

During the first conference we focused on some of the parables. We had great fun exploring the parable of the two houses by building sandcastles on the beach, discussing the parable of the leaven by baking bread, and learning more about the parable of the mustard seed by examining actual mustard seeds. We sang songs, played games, studied the Bible, and generally had a great time. The first picture in the post shows our yeast experiments that we did when we talked about the parable of the leaven. We were trying to help the kids visualize what yeast actually did in bread dough so we added warm water, yeast, and sugar to water bottles and put balloons over the top to catch the gases.

One of our favourite moments was when one of the three-year-old attendees was explaining the parable of the two foundations to the adults during our presentation. He saw pictures of what we had done come up on the powerpoint and his eyes lit up and he stepped up to the mike and explained the whole story. It went something like this: "There was a man. And he built his rock up on a rock. And then it rained and the house was okay." It may have been this picture that triggered his memory! We were checking to see what happens to a sand house when water is poured on it. After watching the house collapse, we all decided that sand would make a bad foundation.

The second conference was more challenging not only because there were more kids, but also because not all the kids spoke English. During that conference we decided to focus on just one Psalm--Psalm 148. We read the psalm, and then over the three days we explored how awesome God's creation is! We tried to keep things really visual so that even kids without much English would still understand. We talked about volcanoes--and then made some. We discussed stars and planets--and then did some experiments with gases. We learned about sea creatures--and then painted out own pictures of them. The program worked really well with the group--and we had lots of fun learning about Psalm 148 with the kids. The picture shows one of the activities we did. We were talking about how diverse God's creation was and how he created some animals with amazing camouflage. Then we put gloves on and tried painting them to match a picture to see how camouflaged we could make them.

Our third club wasn't so much a club--it was a special Sunday School program for the summer. As in many churches, many families are on vacation during the summer, so there were a lot fewer kids around. So, we joined the five classes at the church together and did a special program based on the stories about the Israelites' journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. Each week focused on a different story--and each week focused on a different attribute of God. So, the first week we looked at the story of the Call of Moses and remembered that God is holy, another week we talked about the parting of the sea and remembered that God is our protector. Like the other programs, we had a brilliant time planning and running this Holiday Club.

It really is so much fun working with kids! Often they teach us more than we teach them. On the last week of the Journey-themed club, we were talking about how the Israelites finally reached the Promised Land and then we talked about our Promised Land--heaven. Their activity was to paint their view of heaven. While they were doing that, Amanda asked one of the younger groups of kids, "Who do you think we will see in heaven?" One little girl's eyes lit up and she waved her hand in the air and said, "Me!!"