A New Beginning

(word count 1179)

Covering Tuesday June 17th, 2008

1 Samuel 28:16-18
Samuel said, "Why do you consult me, now that the LORD has turned away from you and become your enemy? The LORD has done what he predicted through me. The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David. Because you did not obey the LORD or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the LORD has done this to you today.

The next morning we gathered in the living room to pray for our message to the children. This week would be dedicated to giving them a vacation Bible school. We discussed all our feelings and trepidations considering the set-up for this week was different then all the times we worked with the children in Nairobi.

We also discussed a great deal about spiritual warfare after I had told everyone about my dream-- I felt odd talking about my dream because you never know how a group will react to that. Other people in our group had been experiencing similar feelings and dreams. Sevo barely mentioned it but he said there was a great deal of witchcraft and jealousy in the area. He never expanded on that, although I was curious as to what all that meant. Nothing seriously bad ever happened to us, but at times throughout our stay in Butula I had a strange sinking suspicion that I wasn't getting the whole picture so I tried to reason out what could \be happening at more peculiar moments. That may not have been the wiset thinking.

We prayed intensely about this subject.

As well, we also had breakfast. We had bought a lot of items and throughout the course of the week we would become very sick of the food we had bought. There was plenty of fruit, kool-aid like juices, hard boiled eggs, sausage, rice, crackers (I forget what we were supposed to call those, maybe crackers), biscuits (cookies), and the giant sized bread that I had found.

This was the first day we had the chance to sleep a few more hours-- which means we were awake at 9:00. We taught the David lesson, which we were all familiar with since we all taught it in Mathare. Except, this time we split the school in half. We split them into two groups by age.

I got to be with the older students; they were delightful. These students were not as bold as the kids in Mathare. Hekima Academy was more formal; these students were extremely polite and courteous-- they were also quiet. It amazed me to see all the different dynamics from each class. For some of our mission team they found Hekima's more quiet students to be discouraging because they were unsure how the students felt since they weren't being as expressive as our previous group. For our David lesson, I sat with the children-- which they found funny. I helped them to yell for David and boo against Goliath. April read most of the story to them.

Afterwards, we played a giant game of red rover-- which was supposed to be the Israelites against the Philistines. In the end, it was basically hundreds of students charging towards each other, which was definitely entertaining.

It was late in the day and the students were going home. We played in their playground, which consisted of a swing and a tire. Originally, we intended to do construction work to add more to the playground. It didn't matter what the children had because they knew how to make the most from what they were given. We still wished we could add to what they had but for various reasons we had to put the project on hold for future teams. In fact, more of our mission team used the swing then the children. As for the tire, several of the boys did somersaults off it. They asked us to try, but I think Josh put it nicely when he said that he would end up breaking his back.

They also did walking handstands, they break danced, and a small music group practiced their songs for an upcoming music festival. There was one boy who showed us magic tricks.

There was one little boy that I chased around a tree for a long time; he was shy but very giggly and was pretending to hide. One little boy came up to me while I was playing with the other boy and the new boy politely told me the smaller shy boy's name and age. However, this boy never told me his. Throughout the trip, the same boy who gave me his classmate's name often came up to me to tell me helpful things. It was like he was always watching me and knew when to help. A few of us girls, maybe a couple of boys, played limbo. Then in the blink of an eye the children began going home and our whole team was exhausted.

As for the rest of the night, the only thing I remember was that we cut several pieces of paper to make crowns for the next day in our craft for the Esther lesson. There was also a hilariously long conversation in trying to figure out how many children there actually were at the school. We found there were more younger students than older. I believe the first grade class was the largest-- somewhere around 45. The seventh grade class was the highest grade and it had somewhere around 12-15 students. Each grade was different with its own personalities and perks. But everything did seem similar to my own childhood. Many of the things that I did when I was a kid in each of these grades seemed reminiscent while being in Butula. If there's one thing I learned it's that even though we have a variety of differences in our cultures and we have many different methods for approaching the world I think there's many things that are universal that we tend to overlook.



1 Samuel 17:41-46
Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!" David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.