Valle de Sol pt 2

We went to Valle de Sol today, and we had a blast.  There are Bible classes for kids up to about 12 years old.  These kids have never heard Bible stories before, so it is neat to hear their reactions.  Valle de Sol is a slum area, mostly of former residents of Nicaragua hoping for a better life.  Many of the houses are made from tin scraps and are very simple.  Many of the children are unbathed and have several teeth that have rotted out.  This is different than what we see in the city.  Here in the city, while we can see poverty everywhere, it is still much more hidden.

In order to arrive to the precario, or slumtown, our group had to take two taxis.  This cost about $6 per taxi.  We got there and Matt and Chuck went immediately to playing with children.  Kids see Matt and Chuck and see a jungle gym to climb.  A few minutes later they all gathered into the church building to sing a couple songs they new.  The preacher is working so hard to teach the kids 2 songs at a time, so we sang each of the two songs three times.

After the time of singing, we broke into three groups.  Group 1 cannot read yet, Group 2 upto 9 and Group 3 9-11.  Initially I was supposed to work with Shawn a lady from our school who works with the older children, but the preacher asked me if I would mind teaching the smaller children.  Today we talked about the creation and the first sin.  Surprisingly, the kids maintained their interest for quite a while.  At the end of my lesson, I asked if one of the children wanted to pray, and a little girl named Shanon asked if she could.  When she finished her prayer, the kids each colored a picture then played games.  They were very simple games, but the kids had so much fun playing them.  Mine and Haley's favorite was one called "Banana, Jello, Giant, Small.  The sweet Tica lady that usually does the class would call out one of these words and the kids would have to make a certain action.  If a child made the wrong action or was the last to do it they were out of the game.  They also played ronda, papa caliente and of course futbol.

Today, Matt was working as a floater in between the three groups. Inside the building where the older children were they were playing jump rope. Matt made everyone laugh when he tried to jump rope. The day ended with turning the jump rope into a tug-of-war rope. The girls won both time. Instead of riding a Taxi home, we took a bus into town. This cost our family about $1.20 which is a much cheaper option. Pray that God will work in this ministry.

the younger children coloring

jump rope

beautiful little girl