This is the most unique birthday party I have ever been to. I happened to get involved with this after a phone call on Thursday afternoon. A friend of mine asked me if I could help coordinate a program for about 200 kids on Sunday! I wanted to pretend that the phone suddenly went dead, but instead I agreed to help. These 200 kids are from a poor section of town and a man named Washington invites underpriviledged children to his house every year for his birthday. He gives them a wonderful lunch and someone always does a program for the kids. This friend of mine did hear me clearly state that a 2 day notice would not be sufficient in the future, but just this once I would try to throw something together. Another young lady in the mission helped me call around and we quickly formed a group of 8 who was willing to help. Turns out that there were only 120 children on Sunday (can you imagine only 120 children in YOUR house?) and there was another team that works with the kids every year that was there. Oh, yes...the ever present lack-of-communication strikes again. We quickly joined the two groups and combined both programs. They led the singing and then did a short skit. As it turns out, they were really struggling with what to do this year and they were happy that we showed up. 
Our team had 4 stations for the kids to rotate through: story, craft, dance, and (the big distraction) the trampolines that Washington rented for the occasion! This is a picture of the craft station where the kids made a "God's eye" using the colors of the Wordless Book. I'm not sure why it is called a "God's eye", so I didn't even tell them that is what it is called. Most of them decided to use is as a ninja throwing object! Oh well....at least they got to hear the story of the Wordless Book!
Washington has been a Christian for only 2 years, yet he has done this for kids for at least 10 years. He owns a beauty salon here in town and saves money all year so that he can celebrate his birthday by giving a special day to these children. Humbling, isn't it?
1 comment:
Looks like the kids had a blast. I'm sure you were wiped after that party. Something about lack of communication and the southern hemisphere, hee hee.
love,
m
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