We are now back at the BLRC after spending most of the day at Wabigalo. Wabigalo is one of the slums in Kampala where there is a church plant. Being a slum, there is incredible poverty, single parents, unemployment, disease, poor water availability and poor access to education. Kampala Church of Christ (KCC) has established a mission point in Wabigalo at a small elementary school. Most of the people who come on Sunday are children and a few of their mothers. The children love to come and sing, have Sunday school and then the regular service.
Today we had about 60 children who attended our health education and God the Potter classes. Before Nancy and I taught the kids who actually come to the church had prepared some songs of welcome for us. They did a wonderful job of singing, dancing and praising the Lord. I went next and talked about some basic health issues- brushing teeth, not smoking, clean water, and handwashing. I had some pictures of black lungs which was really shocking to them. They had a lot of questions about lung cancer and second hand smoke. They listened so well and seemed really engaged. In addition to Nancy and I, Vivienne, Abel, Peter, Francis, Isaac, Tazo and Fred went with us to the meeting.
Nancy did an awesome presentation with clay, talking about how God created us, and breathed life into us. Each child had a lump of clay and made a person they tried to breathe life into. It was a great object lesson but also challenging as their attention span was rapidly shortening. We then worked on a memory verse from Isaiah 64:8, "Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and You are the Potter." To each one who recited it, we gave a piece of candy and a foam flower sticker (everyone actually got something!).
After that we played with a pop up tunnel, did face painting, jump rope, as well as karate and rapper picture poses. The kids love seeing themselves on the camera. There were too many kids there to pass out the pillow case dresses and boys' shorts, so we are going back on Sunday to them out to the kids who regularly are a part of the children's ministry there.
One minor comic relief item... Apparently this is the season for grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are big business. In western Uganda, there are thousands of collection sites for grasshoppers. They put up big floodlights over top of sloped sheets of tin. The tin ends in rain barrels which have sacks in them. The grasshoppers are attracted by the light, land on the tin and slide down into the barrels. They are then cooked- like stir fried with or without spices and eaten in great quantity. The sellers on the street even have take out containers if you don't want to stand there and eat them. Everyone I've asked about them always says, "Oh, you can make a lot of money from grasshoppers." Then they say, "but it's seasonal. " : ) Today in the class, one little girl had a small container with about 8-10 grasshoppers in it. We had to pause a few times as she found some more. We wanted to make sure she put it in her container. Another little boy found another 1 or 2 and Nancy tried to get him to put them in the other girl's container, not knowing you don't mess with someone's grasshoppers! They are serious business. I have promised I will try them while I'm here so I will let you know how they taste!
All in all, it was a fantastic time with the kids. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good, that is His nature- as they say here!
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