First Day Debrief

Well, our first day is complete! It was a good day with them and we have already gotten to know their personalities. We also have some memorable stories we'd like to share with you in just a moment.

First off, Sue engineered the making of nametags for the kids and assigned them to teams. We went outside for an exciting game of crab soccer... except only the boys were excited. So I decided, based on sightings of snails with Emma, that I'd do something with the girls based on a snail. There's a hopscotch game we'd planned that is shaped like a snail, and I needed to draw up a snail of chalk, which I was supposed to do while the crab soccer game was going on. Since the girls weren't interested, as I said, I went to them and said, "Do any of you know how to draw snails? Because I don't, and I really need somebody to teach me how to draw one." The girls were delighted to help. "What does a snail look like? Is it square?" "No," one girl informed me, "it's round." "Oh, so I can just draw a circle?" There was a resounding "No!" "Oh, well, then what does a snail look like?" They drew some good snails and then I drew the giant snail to play the game on, all the while asking if I was drawing it correctly. (Apparently I was.) I explained to them how to play the game, and then we were joined by the boys, who demanded to know how to play the game. So I explained it again, with the girls' help. The boys ended up pretty much taking over the game, which with only seventeen squares, didn't last too long. So I drew them a fifty-square game for them while Phil played another game with them.

After lunch, Heather ran worship with them, Phil spoke and we broke into small groups, Hanna and Andrew Szymczak (on Rachel's request) did a skit, and Sue helped the kids make T-shirts, with the colors assigned by team. (We have a green team and a yellow team.) We then ran relay races, which the older kids liked better than the younger ones. Then the older ones and I continued our giant fifty-square game of Snail, which we likely will be continuing through the week.

We had dinner then, which we followed up with a low-key activity session, including Duck, Duck, Goose; Go Fish; Hot Potato; and we tried to get into the Macarena, but my iPod speaker died and we couldn't get it going. The iPod speaker is not high on anyone's priority list, but we had planned to use it through the week, so please pray it starts working again!

Please pray for good weather tomorrow since there's a hike planned and we want to do a lot of activities outside. Please also pray for some issues we've had with the kids already, for hydration, for strength and stamina, and for good health.

To leave you with a laugh: our memory verse in small groups today was Psalm 18:46: "The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!" One little girl in Rachel's group said, "Please pray to my Rock," as a joke, and it provided the team with a much needed laugh during our debrief tonight. We have had some good times already and are excited to experience more this week! Thanks again for all your support.