SUBJECT: Vacation Bible School at Kaikan

AUTHOR: Becky Gates, her husband David, and three of their five children - Katie, Carlos, and Kristopher, work together with her parents, sister and family, in a medical aviation program in the jungles of Guyana, South America.

DATE: August 5, 1997

Becky Teaching a Bible Story

Last week we had a nice little Vacation Bible School. Thirty-seven children attended. Many of the children of the village were away helping their parents on the farm. They were quite disappointed that they were not here to participate, so we have promised to hold another VBS in a few weeks for those that missed this one.

We started at 9:30 every morning with a rousing song service, every day teaching them two new songs, many of which were Bible verses. This was followed with a Bible story, our theme being Great Bible Battles. Most of the stories were new for the children, so they listened with rapt attention.

Attending Vacation Bible School at Kaikan

Then our puppets, Miss Nurse and Super Man, brought us a few health tips, and a few laughs. This was staged by Kristen and Kara, and I must say they did an excellent job.

We next had some exciting Bible games, such as Bible Baseball, and Bible Tic Tac Toe. One the last day the older children had a Bible Scavenger Hunt, which they seemed to really enjoy. It was the first time they had ever played anything like that.

After games, it was craft time. When you live in an isolated place like this you really have to use your imagination to come up with some interesting crafts to do. Fortunately, Betsy had bought a bunch of paints when she went to Venezuela, so the

They loved crafts

first craft was to make caterpillars out of egg cartons. I was surprised at how creatively some of the children painted their caterpillars.

The next day they made stationery by spray painting over different shaped leaves. They also made bookmarkers with leaves and flowers covered with clear tape. Again, I was so impressed with their creativity in designing their bookmarkers.

The third day we made mice and rabbits with hankies and washclothes. The last day they decorated butterflies drawn on

Finished products at VBS

colored paper by pasting on beans, rice, tapioca, popcorn, macaroni, etc. Katie, my oldest daughter who is visiting us was a great help with the crafts and craft ideas.

Friday night we finished with a special program in the church. The children sang the new songs they had learned, and showed the parents the crafts they had made. We concluded with a beautiful nature video accompanied by sacred music.

You may write to Becky at: gates@andrews.edu

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