For His Little Children: And Then There Were Three… (Sara)

I was so happy to see Erin and Luke arrive on Thursday. They had stopped to eat lunch on the way down so they were later than expected, but they’re finally here!

Before they got here I had been keeping busy loving on the kids, getting settled in the house, and figuring out how everything works here.

The kids ages 5 and up have school weekdays from 8:30-3. Then in the afternoon they play, do homework, and any special activities. I have been helping in the office, working with the kids, holding babies, and teaching art a few days a week.

Here are some highlights from the last week.

~Taking the toddlers to the park

~Playing with Edison. Though he still acts really shy around me whenever I use sign language.

~Making plans to tutor Patti Sue (the orphanage director) in Sign Language.

~Doing assessments of the preschoolers so that we know how to work with them this summer.

~English Tutoring. I was asked if I could help two of the kids with English and this has turned out to be one of my favorite things to do. There are not a lot of materials to use so we kind of make it up as we go along. We read books, play games and practice letter sounds. Their favorite thing to play is word bingo. They enjoy tutoring because it gives them some time in a smaller group (2-on-1) and because I give them a sucker or gum when we finish. On Friday instead of reading a couple of books and playing a game, Yulisa decided she wanted to read all 13! –that day she got a sucker and gum.

~Art Class. The theme for the past week was “”The body of Christ” and the kids were learning about teamwork. For art we drew the outline of a body and cut the paper into pieces so that everyone had a part of the whole. Then all the class had to work together to draw/color/decorate their pieces which became one body. They all looked pretty cool when they put them together.

This next week we will continue to do many of those same things along with working at the property, dance/movement classes, doing one on one stuff with the kids (which Erin is going to write about later), and basically anything else that we are asked.

Please pray for:

· Wisdom and direction about how to best spend our time

· Endurance for the long days

· An added measure of God’s Joy and love that we can share with these kids

P.S. Any ideas for simple games to help teach English phonics and basic reading would be appreciated – leave a comment!!

~Sara

Here are some fun pictures from our time so far.....