THE WHOLE GROUP!

Here is the whole church group on Friday, Nov. 16th (the last day of our VBS).  As you can see, we had quite a crowd!  The picture includes all leaders, teachers, translators, and youth helpers.  We were around 120+.  All in all, such a fun time!

A FEW MORE PHOTOS

Here is what it looked like at Los Limones (our outdoor site) the day the kids had a chance to paint.  These are really cool things that come with a paint palette.  With wet Q-tips, the kids are able to paint their pictures.  This is the first time we ever attempted this, and it worked out pretty well.  You'll notice that the kids are kneeling on the ground and using their chairs like a desk.  Doesn't seem too comfortable to me, but they didn't complain a bit!

 

Enjoying a few minutes of quiet in my classroom at the church, after the kids have left for the day!  Hanging in the background is the unity chain that the kids made.



CONFIRMATION SUNDAY

Sunday Nov. 11th was Confirmation Sunday in Gualan.  11 youth made their confirmation, and there was quite a celebration!  Beautiful flowers decorated the church, the youth were very dressed up, and afterwards there was a luncheon attended by many people.  All in all, it was a great celebration!  Pastor Jasinto is great with the youth and really knows how to get them motivated.

 

GUATEMALA - THE LAND OF VOLCANOS

It was great fun to take these volcano pictures from my balcony of the Barcelo Hotel in Guatemala City.  It was a little surreal!  They are active volcanos, and fortunately at this time they weren't erupting.

 

MORE VBS FUN

Cheryl's "little guys" enjoyed decorating cardboard figures that represented themselves.  On the first day, we like to have the kids decorate something and put their names on it.  These came out great and were really colorful in her room.

 

Here is a 3-time VBS-er, Gary Tate, working on balloon animals to pass out to some of the kids.  We were surprised to find that our translator (Renato) had also had experience with balloon animals.  Together they made a variety of balloons to pass out at the church site and at Los Limones ( our outdoor site).

 Gary is also our puppeteer.  Here he is with one of our favorite friends, "Bluesy".  Their awesome sunglasses were compliments of the Eyeglass Team.

2012 VBS A SUCCESS!

We had a great VBS with our small team of 4 people from the U.S. Our local Guatemalan helpers went above and beyond the call of duty, and it was a great thing to see the youth of the church step up and become better and better leaders.  A Guatemalan translator in each classroom completed our powerhouse team!  Taking pictures is hard to do when things are happening so quickly and the teams are so small, but here are a few images to start!

Here are the runners that my students colored.  The sub-theme of the VBS was an Olympics theme, and the VBS was "Champions of Faith", published by Concordia Publishing.  The lessons were all very enjoyable and teachable, and it was fun to see the kids being challenged and growing in their faith.

 Everyone in my class decorated a notebook.  The kids get really into this and enjoy using all different types of markers and foamies which are things that are not readily available in Guatemala.  They were then able to use their notebooks to record the daily Bible verses and mini assignments that they had in class.  The highest number of kids in my class was 38, and it was pretty chaotic to have that many in one room at the same time!  The above picture also shows a cross that kids decorated with "jewels" and glitter glue.