Fiesta!

When I went home at Christmas time, my mind wasn't always far from Thailand, and the kids at Rainbow House. I was trying to figure out something to bring back, something fun, and something they can't access easily in Thailand.

I remember having a conversation with my mom about it, and coming up with the idea of doing a Vacation Bible School, or VBS. Since I've grown up with these my whole life, I'm very familiar with them. However, very few volunteers had ever heard of it, so in case you haven't either. . .

VBS is typically a week long bible camp held during the summer time. There are songs, skits, puppet shows, crafts, snacks, games, bible stories, and prizes. They often revolve around themes and decoration is a huge part of the excitement.

The highlight of my childhood summers really.

So I contacted my old youth pastor from Bridgewater, Sarah Scott, and asked if I could borrow one of the VBS programs that they had used in the past.

In the end, I arrived in Thailand with a suitcase full of books, music, puppets, and Canadian candy. I couldn't wait to get started on the planning process. I have always attended VBS's when I was a kid, and when I was in grades 5-7 I often helped out the leaders. However, I have never led one before, and believe me, it's 100% different. The theme of the program was Mexican/Spanish and was called Fiesta!

I reserved February 15-19 as the week of Fiesta!, and created a fundrasing video to send to my home church  to help buy snack supplies, prizes, craft supplies, and decorations.

This is my home church, Cornerstone Wesleyan, and the generosity from the congregation totally surpassed all my expectations. In total they gave 500 dollars to help support the VBS at Rainbow House! Incredible!

The toughest part of it all, was the language barrier. All of the volunteers speak English, but the staff at Rainbow, who make all the decisions, speak Thai. This caused a few misunderstandings, but I was surprised with how much was actually understood. The head teacher, Kru Tong, was amazing with giving me permission to use an abundance of resources at Rainbow, and as well as permission to use his staff for the week!

I always get stressed out when I'm in charge of things. I go to bed late, and wake up early, because the thought of sleeping when I could be doing something else, terrifies me. It's probably a bad quality, but it got things done and Fiesta! was a huge success! Here are some photo's and highlights from the week!

This was the opening of Fiesta!, which happened every morning and lasted for about 20 minutes. This was my responsibility and it was a blast to do. We led the children in singing and dancing, and then performed a puppet show. One day we had all the kids perform a puppet show for us using tons of finger puppets!

This is when the kids were distributed their name tags for the day.We know all the kids names by heart, but I really had a desire to make Fiesta! not feel like a normal day at Rainbow House. I wanted it to kind of feel like they weren't at Rainbow, and that they had gone to a VBS! That's also the reason why the staff all wore matching shirts.

Which, tip for travellers, the colour red is anti-king. Why I decided to buy red shirts for the staff is beyond me. . .a true slip of mind. It was fine in the end, but at first, there was question to whether or not it was appropriate.

Anyways!

Snack!

Snack was probably one of the biggest hits! Emma and Lynn took over in this department and I was so grateful for their organization and help. The snacks had themes based on the story of the day, and were mostly western style goodies. Which, Thai kids absolutely adore. However, diluted juice was not popular. Thai kids would just drink the concentration straight over having it watered down; there's no such thing as too sweet in Thailand. The snack was a craft/eat combo where the kids got to build or decorate their food. The Rainbow House staff probably appreciated this station the most. Thai's love to eat, and this was the place to do it.

Bible Story

This was my station, and definitely the one with the fewest pictures. My camera is broken, so I apologize for the lack of variety here. Bible Story was a good spot to be! It was inside and chilled out, which I think was a nice break from the heat and humidity of outside. Charlotte helped me out here and it was great! We did re-enactments of bible stories as they were explained in Thai, and then the kids coloured a sheet based on the story of the day. It was really neat to have the Thai staff read the stories. One of the teachers always got really into it, and the dramatizations were more fun!

Crafts with Sethi. Sethi was absolutely fantastic with the organization of this station. Kids that I never would have expected to sit down, understand how to do a craft, and then do it, actually finished crafts every day, all week. It was such an encouragement to walk by the craft room and see the kids focused on what they were doing. Trust me! That is a rare blessing!

 

 

 Pictures from the games station are also pretty much, non existant. James and Rachel took over the games station, and the energy burned there made a good balance in the day. The kids were always loaded up on sugar from their thai snack in the morning, and then their VBS snack an hour or so later. Games was the perfect place to let them run it all off, and let the staff and volunteers recouperate.

The last day of Fiesta we had a PINATA! I made it out of a paper bag, thinking it would be all too easy to bust. Well the handles didn't last long, but the body was tough and nearly invincable!

At this point the handles had come off, and Joanekke and I were holding the pinata at the corners. True bravery at work.

The staff give it a go! Kru Nok slams it!

Caught Lynn! Lynn, the beautiful girl in the red, standing right behind me, was winding up for a big swing, and missed! Hitting me right in the leg! It was a good laugh.

My turn!

And here's the hit that finally broke it! Done by the tank, Kru Thea.

At first the kids didn't really know what to do. But after a little encouragement, the swarm came.

Enjoying the sugar sugar sugar

At the very end of Fiesta! on the last day, we finished with our theme song and dance, and then handed out treat bags. The bags were filled with fun toys, and candy. The kids didn't get to keep them because they're not allowed possessions in the government wards, but I still wanted them to have the bags regardless. For that hour, they had something that was theirs, and it was a lot of fun!

Some of the kids waiting for us to pass them out

And then it was over! The weeks of planning became reality, and then Fiesta! was finished. It was such a good time and I'm amazed at how well it went. 

It never would've happened without the incredible support from the staff, volunteers, and people back home. Thank you!

At the beginning of the week, when we were decorating Rainbow, we finished by reading this verse

2 Corinthians 4:18 (New International Version)

¹⁸So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

It was so easy to wonder why would we even try to incorporate the message of Jesus to these kids during VBS. What was the point? There's no way they could understand with their various mental disabilities.


Really though, that's not true. To think that way really demeans what abilities God has to communicate to these children. 


I have to focus more on what's unseen, and not always only notice things that are tangible. There are more important things that can't be touched, held, eaten, or purchased. 


Like love.


Even if the kids last week didn't understand the bible points, and didn't understand the connection between the crafts and games and snack and story, and even if they didn't hear the words, or couldn't see the pictures, they can understand love. The effort demonstrated by the awesome staff and volunteers is only out of love.


And if God is love, they can understand God.