El Faro hosted their eighth consecutive Vacation Bible School earlier this month and it was one of the best yet! Ten years ago Zita Vasquez had been living and working at El Faro for just a few months when she realized the great need the children had in the surrounding areas. She began a small Bible Club and at the end of the first year she had the first Vacation Bible School with volunteers from a high school in Guatemala City. Eight years later we have many of the same volunteers now in the University, but serving with the same heart and compassion.
The theme of the Bible School was ‘Always With Me’. It focused around Psalm 23 and three stories about David’s life and how they relate to different verses found in the Psalm. “I chose this theme and stories because I think it is important that the children learn to trust God from an early age and that they know that God will never leave them”, explained Zita Vasquez.
The program looked something like this: The first three days in the morning we had the Bible School at El Faro with children from five different communities. We had kids arriving by foot, by a boat that we sent out, and also a bus for those that lived further away. On the second day in the afternoon we traveled to the village of Las Pavas. On the third afternoon we traveled to Barrios where half of the team went to the garbage dump to work with kids and the other half went to a needy neighborhood called Mitch. “This year the new challenge was to do two activities in two new locations at the same time”, said Zita. “In Mitch you could see much distance with the people and we didn’t know what to expect. Once we started the youth program many people came including children, youth, and adults and it was a wonderful time.”
Each year crafts are carefully planned to fit the theme of the VBS. The craft this year for the VBS at El Faro in the morning consisted of two things. The first one was designing plates that incorporated the theme of Psalm 23. All of the kids put a verse from the Psalm and also decorated the plates with sheep, roads, shepards, and calm rivers. Because the VBS talked about David and finished with him becoming King, the kids also decorated their own crown with jewels and stickers. The craft in the villages was making sheep for the kids and “stained glass” crosses for the youth.
Our special guests this year were Tio Abner and Youth For Christ Guatemala. Tio Abner has a children’s ministry where he performs a show complete with singing, dancing, and puppetry. He was a great blessing to the kids using his amazing talents for the Lord. Youth for Christ put on an incredible drama for the youth that really touched their lives. We are so grateful for the time they took to come and help El Faro with the VBS.
The last day was entirely in Livingston where we partnered with our friends Miguel and Laura who have a beautiful ministry there. We had a children’s program in the morning and youth program in the afternoon. This was also a challenge because Livingston is an entirely different culture and the kids are difficult, but in the end we have a very successful day and many children and youth were changed.
Over the course of four days we saw a total of 474 kids and 125 youth. We are overwhelmed by what God did this year not only with the children, but with the volunteer leaders and guests. God continues to amaze us with how much He uses children to spread His love and we are so grateful to be part of His work.
Comentarios Recientes