Last VBS day at Ciacova

Well, the last day of our three day VBS in Ciacova started at 11:00 as usual. The kids were there before 11 eager to play and be together. It was a typical morning, kids playing outside the church, moving them into the church for songs, the little man skit and then a memory verse. Today's was 1 John 1:9 “ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”. Ruth broke the verse up into three parts and put them on a cutout of a kid praying. This was to symbolize that all kids can pray to God confessing their sins, then again maybe it should represent us and remind us that we need to do this on a regular basis because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The kids again did extremely well in memorizing the verse. The game for the verse this time was a relay were the kids were broken up into two teams, they had to run to a bucket pull out a zip lock bag. In this bag was a card with part of the verse and some candy. They had to run the bag back to a designated teen, pull out the card, then when all the cards were there the teen was to assemble the words in order of the verse. The kids were excited to receive candy, especially the ones who had to go twice and got two bags.

It was then craft time. Because the story in the afternoon was going to be the Paralyzed Man who was lowered down into a house in front of Jesus, the kids made a little man out of foam piece for the head, body, arms and feet. The legs were made from rubber bands. Boy was it hard for a person like me with fat fingers to get the stapling correct on a the small pieces. The kids got to drawl faces on the head and any design they wanted on the body and arms. It was a neat little craft, we just did not have enough staplers to go around.

The kids then said their memory verses for tickets. I forgot to mention that earlier before presenting today's verse, the kids had an opportunity to recite the memory verses from Monday and Tuesday for extra tickets for prizes. There were approximately 5 kids who were able to do this. I just pray that these verses will not only stick in their minds but also their hearts. When Ruth came out with her prize apron, the kids came running. Most of the boys wanted the matchbox cars and we had only 10 left from the bunch that we brought, they were a big hit. Both Ruth and I did not realize there was still a game to play.

So they went into game time. Today's game was popping balloons tied to the kids ankle. Earlier, we had blown up about 30 water balloons (because they were smaller) and tied yarn around the stem of the balloon. Then the kids got in a line and had the balloon tied to there left or right ankle. When the call went out to start the game, the kids (& teens) were to stomp on another person's balloon trying to pop it. If your balloon was popped, you were out of the game. It was a little wild and crazy, but they had fun with it. Ludia, one of the teens, won this game. They were dismissed and told to come back at 5:00pm and to have their parents come at 7:00pm for a meeting at the church.

We had lunch, and I will not bore you with the amount and types of food we had again. Let's just say the plane ride back we will be a bit heavier then the plane ride to Romania. The Mayor of Ciacova, whose daughter attends the church, had ask Marius to meet us. So we were able at this time to go tot the city capital building and had a short meeting with the Mayor and Vice-Mayor. Both are good men and are in their first year. They are trying to make Ciacova a better city and it was a great honor to meet him. Well, since we had a long break there were a bunch of things we had to take care of. One was to go out and find more matchbox cars and candy for the next two days of VBS in Padureni. Second was to organize and layout the clothes we brought to give away (I explain this later). Third was to organize the crafts for Paderni. And forth was to organize what we had left. Cheri & Ruth completed the third and forth items prior to lunch. Amy, Cheri, Ed, Melissa & Michele completed the second item, while Marius, Ruth and I went to the stores to find the things we needed for item number one. Our shopping trip took a little longer then we thought mainly to the fact that Marius need make a few other stops while we were out. We got back around 5:15pm and most of the kids were already there but the other 5 of the team were ready willing and able to occupy the kids till the songs started.

Tabita lead the kids in a few songs again. Then it was story time. Ed told the story of the Paralyzed Man carried by his four friends to a house were Jesus was speaking. The crowd was so big they could not enter the house to have Jesus heal their friend. So the cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down in front of Jesus. The point of the story, which Ed got across, was that Jesus does not just heal physical sickness but forgives sin, which is more important then the physical side of it. As he said, “Is it harder to heal a man or forgive his sins?”, “Pick up your mat and go home”. Ed also recited a prayer for forgiveness of sin and had the kids bow their heads and say the prayer silently if they felt the need to. He also told them if they did pray that prayer and had questions to ask someone (Marius, Tabita or one of the teens helping us) about it. Ed had a bunch of games to go along with the story. The first was a relay race were the group had to carry one of their teammates as if he/she was paralyzed. The second was a relay race hopping on one foot as if disabled. Third was running, walking or hopping with a balloon between their knees and then sitting on the balloon to pop it (yes, we had a lot of balloons to blown up and clean up). Forth, was the kids had to run to a person get a balloon and kick it soccer style back to the starting line then pop it before the next kid could go. Have you ever tried to kick a balloon, yet alone with a breeze blowing. It was pretty comical. Last was a question and answer time. Each team got a change to answer question from the story, do a physical challenge and a true/false question. Each team did pretty well, the winning team won by only two points I think.

We then went into right into the church service. This was were the parents and church members were to come and see what has been going on the last three days. It was not a big crowd but a good crowd. The kids got up on stage and sang the songs they had learned. They also recited the three verse, with the props Ruth had made and then showed the parents/church members that they had them memorized. One boy actual recited all three verses from memory and won a prize (a puppy that had show up at the Ianc's home in Ciacova). We were then on. We sang a song (Mighty is our God). Ed & Cheri did a wordless skit about giving your heart to God. Amy gave her testimony. Then Amy and Melissa and Cheri did the little man skit. This is were Amy was Melissa's arms and hands, while Melissa's arms and hands were the little man's feet. Cheri asked the little man questions and the girls in together had to act out some things like shaving after putting on the shaving cream, brushing his teeth, eating breakfast and stretching. The kids & the adults really enjoyed the silliness and messiness of the skit, as a matter of fact Tabita was laughing so hard she was crying. Next I gave my testimony. We ended with another song (Lord I lift your name on high). Before we were allowed to leave the stage, Marius publicly thanked us for coming and partnering with them on the VBS program. After we sat down he had a few people pray, and man what prayers. It put me to shame how passionately they pray and that they pray for us regularly. I not sure about you, but I need to work on that, pray that I can get stronger in this area. The service ended by Marius having us come up front to greet folks, then they went to the back room and choose a few of the clothing items that we brought. The kids also received a zip lock bag with a beany baby, a pencil, some candy and a small bottle of bubbles. It was a good night and personally, I was able to see some old friends from my last visit in 2006.

After this was all done, we cleaned up the remaining clothes and put them in one suitcase and two bags so they could be given out at the next church we visit tomorrow night. Then we had diner, again I will not bore you with the types and amount of food. The teens that had been helping all week, eat after us and then Michele, Melissa & Amy stuck around to play games with them while the rest of us went back to our host homes for the night.

Tune in tomorrow for the Padureni VBS story.
Doug