Saturday

When planning our trip to Ecuador I knew I wanted to work with kids in some capacity.  

After lots of planning it worked out great for me to partner with the Missionary Alliance church in Portoviejo.  This is the church that the Fellers attend and is connected to La Vida clinic.  

When they found out I worked in Children's Ministry they booked my schedule full of different events wit the kids.

On Saturday morning my mom and I had the opportunity to lead Oansa for children in the church. This is similar to Awana in the states.  About 100 chidren showed up to the bible club.  

We started the morning off with a very big relay

 And I brought my most trusty children's activity, the parachute.  I have made it a point to always purchase a parachute when I go on missions trips, because kids LOVE them! It really can provide hours of entertainment, especially for kids like these who have never seen anything like it! 

 

After playing a few games, we gathered all 100 children under the tent to do the bible lesson.I decided to do a visual example of the Gospel.  I used several children to represent man, sin, God, and Jesus.  The girl in the green shirt was my sweet translator for the week.After sharing a Gospel presentation and talking about our need for the Gospel,  I talked about missions and how as Christians we are called to be ambassadors for Jesus.  We then made puppets (that they were supposed to make to look like themselves) and put Mark 16:15 on them "Go unto all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation"With one of the sweet little girls.  She latched on to me all morning and wanted to help me do everything.  It was really sweet! One of the local NYC souvenier stores gave me a discount on all kinds of NYC goods to take with me to Ecuador.  I gave all of these children postcards, which they loved!  One of great thing about being from NYC is that kids from all over the world have heard of the city  There is a bond that is formed when you are from a city that they have seen on tv or heard about in some way.  I love how easily kids will latch on to you and then of course they want a photograph with you! There is a sweet innocence and love that you experience when you work with children, especially in a 3rd world country.  Along with puppets, the older kids made the Gospel story bracelets.  I wanted them to have a visual reminder of the Gospel for themselves and so that they could share it with others.  

While my mom and I taught the Oansa club at church, my dad had the opportunity to teach a couple different seminary classes to young men and women in the church.  

It was neat for all of us to be able to use the gifts the Lord has given us to minister to the people of this congregation!  

Stay tuned for more...