Ukraine Day 2

Today was our first day of Vacation Bible School.  Children from 3 churches have come to Studenezta to camp out around the church in tents to do a week of Vacation Bible School.   In the morning our team acted out the story of Saul becoming Paul and everyone had a part. Jodi led while Anna translated, a Bearded Bronson dressed as Saul/Paul, Cody played Annanias, and Mike ( as Steven) was stoned to death by Michelle, Addy and Alicia with crumpled paper balls.  We then did crafts associated with the story and games outside that the children loved.

Lunch and transport to to Miniki followed and the afternoon Vacation Bible School had 25 children attend, which is great for the first day.  The entire VBS was done in the rented community center, moving seats numerous times to change between crafts, stories, games and bible verse memorization.  The children were very receptive as they have never had a VBS in their town before.  Parents, mostly women were guarded but curious.  Men worked in the 90+ degree heat in the fields.

All made it through the hot summer days without air conditioning and welcomed the wind from the rolled down windows of the van as we traveled the long road back to Zhitomir. Once again, Mama Lidda and Jane provided great food for the workers and nice places to recover from the day’s work.   Mamma Lidda's favorite words are still "Eat, Eat".

More tomorrow.