Firstly, here's a run down on...
Cowra Summer Breakout
To describe it in one word - AWESOME!!! (keke...in joke as well) I was great fun working with my team of leaders in JBs (Jumping Beans) section and teaching Kindy to Year 2 kids. Each day we'd start off in Concert Time with Club 35 (Year 3-Year) kids singing songs and watching Dr. Kaboom blow something up!! Then we'd break up into our sections and have some games, a skit, memory verse, more songs, and crafts.
Our main point was that Jesus is God's Son, and we need to believe/trust/have faith in Him for life. in response, we repent from living the wrong way and live God's way.
I must admit that I was often clueless as to what to do and how to do it. Having never taught little kids before, I didn't know how to discipline them or give appropriate attention to them. But the other members in my section were great! I learnt lots of things from them and they were patient with me. It's hard to put down what I learnt, because it's often just a bunch of little quirky things. But I wanna go back again next year to have another go.
Jen has put up some Mission Reflections and there's a really cool story about two of the JB kids and how they were influenced by the things we taught them.
We also did some visitations - ie visit the parents of the non-church kids and try to invite them to some of the evening events. We had a sports arvo/evening with the kids and it was sooo tiring running around with them I was sore for two days afterwards (hmm...is this a sign I'm getting old...???). Other events included a (swimming) pool night, ladies' dessert night, men's breakfast & darts, BGR night, movie (Matrix) night and a Nathan Tasker concert!
It all ended with the Big Bash on Saturday where there was free face painting, hair spray & wraps, balloon animals, lolly guessing comp, sponge throwing, etc. Some sections also performed songs they had learnt. We had lots and lots (and lots and lots - excuse the pun :P ) of fun performing the Son of Man song.
I also had to preach on Phil 3 twice while I was there - once to my mission team and a second time at the local Baptist church. I didn't get a lot of feedback except to say that the illustrations and applications were good and appropriate. I tried to contextualise it as best as I could and I kept adding and changing things throughout the week with my experiences of Cowra. The only thing I could pick up on myself to work on is making eye contact and using my voice better - esp making sure I slow down and pronounce big words clearly.
I preached at the Baptist church on our second Sunday there (which was also our last day before going home). Towards the last 5 mins of my sermon, I started to feel really tired and I could hear my voice starting to drone. I really had to struggle to just lift myself and to keep going. Which was a bit ironic, since my point was to tell people to keep going in their Christian walk, and in particular to keep going in evangelism and their partnership in the gospel - and here I was losing steam!! :|
A most exhausting trip, but definitely most enjoyable and worthwhile. I had some really good conversations with other team members and got to know a few of them. Look forward to the reunion on Feb 14th (hmm...the date is a bit...awkward...). Though funnily enough, we've already had a mini reunion at KYC 'cause lots of them were there in Katoomba.
<< Praise God for the opportunity to serve in gospel partnership with so many other Christians both from Sydney and in Cowra. Pray for those who have been touched by God's Word and pray that the seed planted in them will come to bear fruit one day as they come to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Thank God also for the team and especially the members in JBs section. Thank God for the way in which we bonded and worked well together and supported each other. Also thank God for the many things they taught me and pray that I can use it in the future to minister to others. >>
Enough ranting for now. I'll write about the other stuff later.
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