Thursday, January 21, 2016

Vacation Bible School

I'm a little late in writing this blog, but that's how the holidays get!

In Colombia, the tradition for the Lutheran Church is to have the annual Vacation Bible School during the children's Christmas break. During the week of 14 of December I helped lead the VBS for one of the mission congregations in the south of Bogota, Caracoli, at Luz y Vida (Light and Life).

Here are a few of our craft projects throughout the week. I really worked with a great group of kids. 

I was in charge of teaching the 'little ones' ages 3-6. Zulma taught the children age 7-10, and Hebert the oldest kids ages 11 and up. We used the material that I blogged about here (Walking in the Grace), created specially for the Lutheran Church of Colombia, by the Lutheran Church of Colombia. The week was, like most VBS's, filled with songs, crafts, games and of course Bible Study.

Zulma leading a game with the two of our classes combined
The VBS week ends with a Christmas program. One of the parts of the week is to learn the songs for the program as well assign speaking parts. The children spent a long time practicing, but in the end it all came together and was amazing! 

Here are all the children practicing for the program. On the right is my mom, who lead all the music. 
And here is the Christmas program! The children all looked adorable, and did an absolutely wonderful job with the program. The large picture in the center is the whole group...the whole program was put on hold for a quick photo shoot by the parents. Second row(left to right): my Dad preached and Zulma translated; the next photo is a group of the youth dancing, they prepared a dance for the program after VBS every day, the third is the three wise men, on the far right is Maria, she completed the nativity with her bunny costume. On the bottom row (left to right): Mary and Joseph, the youngest boy and youngest girl from VBS traditionally are Mary and Joseph. Second & third are shots during the program, and in the middle you can see our live baby Jesus. Fourth is the youth dancing again.

As you can see, wonderful Christmas Program and a wonderful week at VBS. What a great way to finish 2015! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year too!