Monday, May 5, 2008

Dia del niño (Kid's day!)

In Australia, I used to say: "there's a Mother's Day and a Father's Day, why isn't there a Kid's Day?" The answer I always got to that was that "every day is kid's day!" Well, here in Mexico, there is a kid's day on 30th of April every year!

To celebrate my first ever Kid's day, I was able to get involved with another team of missionaries here and help with a kid's club in a poor area of Queretaro. It was an amazing morning! We met at the house of a missionary from the US in the morning and got the supplies ready to run the kids club and give gifts to the children and their families - clothes, sandwiches, activity books and toys.
When we arrived in the neighbourhood and turned down the lane to the warehouse where we were going to run the program, there was already a line of kids and their mum's all the way up the lane for about 150 metres! Myself, Nolan and Tracey started making and giving out baloon animals to the children (I learned quickly!). The smiles on their faces were priceless!

After that, we joined the kids inside the warehouse in their groups, sang some Christian songs and then started our kids club lessons. In our group of 12 year olds, I was asked to give the story... in Spanish! By the grace of God, I was able to put the words together and tell the bible story of Jesus feeding the 5000+ people (5000 guys plus women and children!). We then played some games and gave the kids some gifts which caused great excitement (and chaos!). All in all, a wonderful experience and in the midst of it all, I met some faithful Christian workers here who are passionate about seeing kids come to know the hope and joy of knowing Jesus.

Party! There were more than 350 kids!

Smile boys!

I want a present!!

Also, in honour of Kid's day, we had a special day at Horizonte. The kids all dressed up as famous characters. The winners were two boys - one who dressed up as a pirate and the other who dressed up as Martin - the pastor!



Afterwards, we had a fair with food for all. Normally we have comida agape where everyone brings food to share, but this time... we had to pay (only 5 pesos) for our food... this was to raise money for Mother's day (I think!!!).

Anyway, it's fun to celebrate the joy of being a kid... and I'd like to think that I'm still a kid at heart.

1 comment:

Buehler said...

Phil,
You're doing great things which will positively effect more people than you'll ever know. Please keep up the good work!
God bless,
Jamie B.