at the club

The leaders of the village asked us to prepare a Bible Club for 150 children,

 the first Bible Club ever in their village, 

and in the language of their heart 

(as well as in the national language.)

Then, on the eve of our family's departure from Davao, when I had all of our supplies packed, the leaders suggested that we open it up to additional villages, adding 100 more children.

Wow.  

I rapidly worked to get more supplies together, at least for some of the crafts and activities, so that everyone could participate. But I wasn't worried.  I was confident that God was in charge of this turn of events.

In the end about 150 children attended after all, so we had extra supplies to share with Sunday School teachers!

The Club was to start at 2:30 Monday afternoon.

Leanne and I arrived at the church just after 1 o'clock,

 

...and several excited children were already there, waiting for us.

All of them were dressed up.

And many of them had Bibles with them.

  

Sunday School teachers arrived and helped us to push back all the pews in the spacious church

 

and children came inside to wait quietly

while others waited not-so-quietly! (can you find Michael?)

The teachers were excited to each get a packet with supplies for the day

The teachers were dressed up, too,

in a sort of Sunday School Teacher uniform.

Ibu makes a list of the group names

The teachers asked if they could name their groups for the club.  

Of course!  This was THEIR Bible Club!

So they chose to name each group after a fruit or a vegetable.

:) 

The club started each day with singing; 

in their own language, in the national language, and in English, too!

All the children were barefoot - they left their shoes at the door

Excited to begin

Next, two teachers taught the same Bible story -

each of them in one of the two languages.

Then the groups split off to discuss the story together.

Lots of serious discussion seemed to be going on,

in a buzz of language we weren't able to fathom!

Children practiced and memorized lots of Scripture,

and some of them recited for the whole group.

Parents and village leaders watched and listened from the sidelines

Each day of the club was blessed in some special way.

We wish we had more time and space to tell the stories!

But we'll let the photos do most of the work.

More of the Bible Club in the next post!