Day 6 - Friday 18th August 2017
Today was the last day of the Children's Camp, so we all had mixed emotion from the minute we woke up. We prayed for the children, their teachers and the coming day ahead over breakfast with the rest of the team, which set us off on the best foot for the day ahead.
As we arrived down at the school house, it was so lovely to see all the children's smiling faces - it really showed the developed trust between the team and the children compared to the timid children the very first time we met them, to the warmest, loving, playful children we experienced today. The session started off with 3 worship songs which we're the favourites from the week - The Camp Song, Hallelu, Praise ye the Lord, and Who's the king of the Jungle? As in England, we chad competitions between sides to see who could sing the loudest!
We then heard the story of Feeding the 5000. Using a 'magic trick' Emma demonstrated how Jesus had originally 5 loaves and 2 fishes, and how through his miraculous work managed to feed 5000 people. And at the end, each child had a bread roll to eat!
We then split up into our coloured groups and had a colouring sheet to fill in, and each child in our group wrote what their favourite thing of camp had been from the past week. Whilst this was happening, each child was pulled out of the group and had a surprise waiting for them around the corner of the school house. Each child was given a new pair of shoes in which the joy on their faces was one of the highlights from my time this week. To see the expression on those children's faces and the pride they took in their new pair of shoes was so humbling to see. Once every child had received a new pair of shoes, they all went outside and played a massive game of Zambian Netball - I'm still not really sure what the difference between 'normal netball' and 'Zambian netball' is, but they all seemed to be having a great time playing it!
Now it was time for our last activity - PARTY TIME!!! With over 100 balloons blown up, it was so good to see everyone getting invited and playing with balloons along to some well known Disney Song Classics playing along. Party games included, musical chairs, musical bumps, ladders, musical statues! And no party would be complete without face painting - I had a tiger design painted on my face, and some nail painting.
It was suddenly lunchtime and the bus for the children to go home had arrived early. As the children ate their lunch, we ran back to the house to pack up a bag for every child to go home with, it included all their crafts from the week, the biscuits they made, a knitted jumper, lots of colouring pencils and pens and their exercise books. As we bought them back to the School House the children's faces lit up and it was so special to see the children look in the bag with such excitement.
We then prayed for their return home and thanked God for this time we had shared together this week, and the new friendships we have made. There was one last time to do something altogether as a group and it had to be the hokey-cokey!! My complete highlight of my time so far. Then it was time to say our goodbyes, which was never going to be easy. Seeing the children over the week develop as individuals and children of God has been such an honour and complete blessing. Memories that have been made this week will stayed with each one of us forever, and knowing that we shared this time with some of the most vulnerable children of this world makes it even more special. As the bus drove off we followed them down the lane with tears in our eyes, but with the knowledge that we will be seeing most of them next week when we go to visit their community next week.
We went down to the School House tidied up and sat and shared lunch as a team.
At 3pm we had an orientation session from our Hosts (Prags and Dawson) in preparation for the community, but also to discuss deeper the vision and set up of Hands and how we are all one family and without every single member of the family it would not work effectively to serve the long vulnerable people of Africa. There will be more to come on this later next week.
As the afternoon came to a close we ate dinner (meatballs, vegetables and pasta) with Dawson. Over dinner we shared many a happy moment from the week and also had a great time growing as a team, I can honestly say I haven't laughed so hard in a long long time! And as I'm blogging now, we are watching the film Aladdin to rest and relax for the business of this week.
I thank God for this week, for the children we have met, the friendships we have developed and the memories that will stay with us and the children for the rest of our lives.
After a crazy week, I think it is safe to say all the team are looking forward to having a couple of days to rest and reflect and prepare ourselves for the community visits next week.
As we arrived down at the school house, it was so lovely to see all the children's smiling faces - it really showed the developed trust between the team and the children compared to the timid children the very first time we met them, to the warmest, loving, playful children we experienced today. The session started off with 3 worship songs which we're the favourites from the week - The Camp Song, Hallelu, Praise ye the Lord, and Who's the king of the Jungle? As in England, we chad competitions between sides to see who could sing the loudest!
We then heard the story of Feeding the 5000. Using a 'magic trick' Emma demonstrated how Jesus had originally 5 loaves and 2 fishes, and how through his miraculous work managed to feed 5000 people. And at the end, each child had a bread roll to eat!
We then split up into our coloured groups and had a colouring sheet to fill in, and each child in our group wrote what their favourite thing of camp had been from the past week. Whilst this was happening, each child was pulled out of the group and had a surprise waiting for them around the corner of the school house. Each child was given a new pair of shoes in which the joy on their faces was one of the highlights from my time this week. To see the expression on those children's faces and the pride they took in their new pair of shoes was so humbling to see. Once every child had received a new pair of shoes, they all went outside and played a massive game of Zambian Netball - I'm still not really sure what the difference between 'normal netball' and 'Zambian netball' is, but they all seemed to be having a great time playing it!
Now it was time for our last activity - PARTY TIME!!! With over 100 balloons blown up, it was so good to see everyone getting invited and playing with balloons along to some well known Disney Song Classics playing along. Party games included, musical chairs, musical bumps, ladders, musical statues! And no party would be complete without face painting - I had a tiger design painted on my face, and some nail painting.
It was suddenly lunchtime and the bus for the children to go home had arrived early. As the children ate their lunch, we ran back to the house to pack up a bag for every child to go home with, it included all their crafts from the week, the biscuits they made, a knitted jumper, lots of colouring pencils and pens and their exercise books. As we bought them back to the School House the children's faces lit up and it was so special to see the children look in the bag with such excitement.
We then prayed for their return home and thanked God for this time we had shared together this week, and the new friendships we have made. There was one last time to do something altogether as a group and it had to be the hokey-cokey!! My complete highlight of my time so far. Then it was time to say our goodbyes, which was never going to be easy. Seeing the children over the week develop as individuals and children of God has been such an honour and complete blessing. Memories that have been made this week will stayed with each one of us forever, and knowing that we shared this time with some of the most vulnerable children of this world makes it even more special. As the bus drove off we followed them down the lane with tears in our eyes, but with the knowledge that we will be seeing most of them next week when we go to visit their community next week.
We went down to the School House tidied up and sat and shared lunch as a team.
At 3pm we had an orientation session from our Hosts (Prags and Dawson) in preparation for the community, but also to discuss deeper the vision and set up of Hands and how we are all one family and without every single member of the family it would not work effectively to serve the long vulnerable people of Africa. There will be more to come on this later next week.
As the afternoon came to a close we ate dinner (meatballs, vegetables and pasta) with Dawson. Over dinner we shared many a happy moment from the week and also had a great time growing as a team, I can honestly say I haven't laughed so hard in a long long time! And as I'm blogging now, we are watching the film Aladdin to rest and relax for the business of this week.
I thank God for this week, for the children we have met, the friendships we have developed and the memories that will stay with us and the children for the rest of our lives.
After a crazy week, I think it is safe to say all the team are looking forward to having a couple of days to rest and reflect and prepare ourselves for the community visits next week.
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