Friday, March 19, 2010

St. Patrick's Day




Even though they don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day here in Ecuador, we thought it would be fun to teach the kids about a holiday other people celebrate around the world. So of course we told all the kids to be sure and wear something green (or there would be pinching).. and I tried to somehow incorporate some fun facts into our lessons of the day. In Bible class, I decided to tell them about the three leaf clover and how St. Patrick used it to tell others about Jesus. Our verse this week is John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except THROUGH ME." So we talked about how you must go through Jesus to get to God and then God will give you His Spirit... the Holy Spirit. So we made three-leaf clovers and labelled them Jesus, God, Holy Spirit. I guess we haven't talked as much about the Holy Spirit before because they had lots of questions (which I love) so we talked about the Holy Spirit and what He means to us. After Bible class we moved on to English class and Reading and then come 10:30 it was time for snack time. I had everyone get in line to go downstairs but two girls stayed in their seats, Jeniffer and Thalia. When I asked them what was wrong they each said, "I want the Holy Spirit inside me." So I sent the others downstairs and Thalia, Jeni, and I sat down and prayed. I told them it was important for them to do it in their own words and in their own language because its a personal decision between them and God... and WOW.. you should've heard their prayers. I definitely could not have given them any better words to "repeat after me". They were so honest and genuine and ready. I am so proud of these girls and their desire to have the Holy Spirit guide them to be like Jesus.

The next day we were studying "cause and effect" in English class and everyone had to come up with one on their own. I took a picture of Jeniffer's notebook...