So no one showed up for Bible school yesterday morning, which was a bit of a downer. But, we got some spraypainting done as the base coat for the mural Jacob is painting on the side of the church:
We kind of looked like hoodlums with our yellow rags to keep us from inhaling too much paint, but no one noticed us.
The kids showed up after summer school got out at 12:30, and we played elbow tag for awhile, since it was a big hit last week. I took some pictures because they were having so much fun.
After that we fed them cookies and lemonade, here are a couple of the really little ones who are really cute. This first little guy just liked to lick the icing out of the cookie and then wouldn't eat the rest. He was cracking us up. The little girl didn't want her picture taken at first (I have one of her hiding under a table), but then she decided to strike a pose.
Then we shooed them out to try to decide what to do for the rest of the week. We decided to do activities in the afternoons - one activity per day - and if they want to be at the church they can participate, otherwise, they can go home. We really don't want to encourage them to just hang around doing nothing at the church. So today we worked on the mural with the kids - it looks phenomenal already, Jacob has done an awesome job, he is a great artist. I will take some pictures of it later this week. We also had the littler ones do some sidewalk chalk to brighten up the area.
We used the Bible lesson we were going to teach yesterday at the bible school for pizza church this evening, which worked out well. Psalm 100 was the scripture we looked at and we talked about how you need lots of instruments to make a band, and you need lots of people to stick together and do God's work. Jacob had an awesome object lesson with a rock and some twine that showed the twine was stronger fused together than spread apart.
After a bunch of the kids left, a group of boys stuck around and started their own little music group, with two playing heart and soul on the piano and the rest drumming beats in the sanctuary with whatever they could find. I brought in the rhythym instruments we'd used for the bible lesson and we had a little band going, it was a ton of fun.
This week may not be shaping up the way we thought it would, but God works in mysterious ways and we are trying to let the Spirit move us in ways that will touch the lives of these children and build community in their neighbourhood. Coming together to do art, to study the Bible, to eat and to make music is a great place to start.
