VBS & Lighthouse

The day began with clear, blue skies and two-hundred and fifty students lined up in rows at the end of the school building singing, "welcome to Lighthouse Christian School..." as we got off our bus. One of the team's favorite song from their assembly was "Father Abraham", especially with the African-English accent, so Abraham sounded like Ahbrahahm. 

Praise and worship began with a song in Bemba that Zicki led; she was not hesitant to tell the students if they were off beat. It was great to see her so animated and enthusiastic. Earlier in the week, we had a meeting with her about the VBS, and it definitely felt like we were sitting in the principal's office. She is truly a jack of all trades and well equipped for the many varied aspects of her job. 

Muzungos dancing with some of the students and teachers.

Arms up, elbows out, knees bent, chest out... These songs are complicated!

Jennifer Meng was most impacted by the worship that began and ended the VBS. The following is transcribed from her: 

The kids had so much freedom and joy in their worship. The freedom doesn't come from how they worship, but that they are aware that they have much to worship God for. They are not concerned with "what are people thinking about me?", but they are more in the moment -- not worrying about what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. 

I was also impacted with how safe they feel at Lighthouse. That is probably the safest they feel; there, they receive the most light, the most love. The muzungos were also more free to worship. Shawn was holding a little kid's hand at the end and you could see in their face, because Shawn had entered into their world, their connection to a father figure. (Shawn says, "I am always hesitant to do that kind of stuff because I feel like I look stupid." He ended the day in the tent, worshiping right along with all the kids.) Pasha and Robbie, leading worship, may be some of the only men in their [the kids] lives, and definitely some of the only men they see entering into worship. That's huge. 

During the first sessions, the children learned about being adopted in Christ -- What does it mean to be God's people? They then made a beaded bracelet where each bead represented a part of the salvation story. Green - God made the earth (AND the heavens, the preschoolers corrected us). Black - Sin entered in. Red - Jesus died for our sins. White - We are washed clean. Yellow - We have new life and joy in Jesus. Dawn said it was probably the most impactful lesson for the little ones. Lily said this about that activity:

It was cool to see some of the kids seeing the bracelets on the kids in the shanties the next morning. At the shanties, I saw one of the girls from my class wearing her bracelet and I asked her, "Did you tell your friends?" And she said, "I told my family!" She literally used the bracelet to preach the gospel to her family. That is so cool.

Marianela is La Hefa. She is running the wall crew. :) Her, Jon, and Clyde have worked alongside a few local guys for several days and have really enjoyed getting to know them. Be praying for Victor (the team lead), Robi, Edson, Ephraim, and Mwape. Several are from the shanties and Wilbroad is really working with them to help break the cycle of poverty that they are in.

Teaching English, like usual.

Shawn loves the little ones.

Is anyone surprised that the children are so drawn to Lily?

Look at their smiles!

Ready to start school!

At the end of the VBS, little Theo (a preschooler) came up in front of all 250 students and was able to recite what each of the beads represented on his braclet, which means that he could tell all of his schoolmates about the Gospel. These pictures and the brief quotes say something about the VBS and what we're doing here, but really, little Theo encapsulates the purpose of the entire trip -- making the Gospel known to a lot of children who have no hope outside of Jesus. God loves his people, and that is so evident here. This children are well taken care of and are reaping fruit already from their teaching at Lighthouse.