Our first day at Shepherd went super well!
In the morning, we did a Poverty 101 class, learning about the differences between poverty and middle class and how these different experiences shape our worldviews. As we work with the kids this week, understanding where they come from and how they view the world through their own “stained glass window” will be really helpful as we build relationships with them.
After lunch, we were each assigned to a different classroom for the afternoon. Our job was basically to form bonds with the kids while helping the interns with whatever they needed.
There is also a worship time each day at Shepherd in the gym where all the students sing and dance to a few worship songs and learn the Bible lesson for the day. During this time, we performed a great skit about the story of baby Moses being put into the Nile River. Neil was our awesome Narrator, while Zach Foor starred as the Nile River/Baby Moses (and will be returning as Moses again in our Wednesday skit!).
I (Lily) was assigned to the 4th grade class, which is a lot of fun though definitely chaotic! My highlight of the day was definitely a conversation I had with a boy during recess. He had learned about the story of Noah recently, and he was asking how God could be perfect and sinless and still allow so many people to perish in the flood. This led into a deep conversation about sin, justice, and mercy, and even though I was struggling to answer these tough questions, I am so glad that his heart is open to learning more about God! I would love for you to pray this week that I would be able to continue having such conversations with the kids, and that God would grow both their and my own faith through these interactions!
I, (Neil), was assigned to the Kindergarten class. The Kindergartners were definitely more chill than the other groups, from what I’ve heard. There was one problematic kid, but Sophia Kennedy handled him well. One of the kids liked to grab on my arm when we were walking in the hallway between locations. Overall the kids didn’t cause too much trouble, although there was a tad bit of crying, which is somewhat expected when dealing with kids going into kindergarten, especially with some of them not being even 5 years old.
Some prayer requests for our whole team:
-That we would get lots of sleep!
-Courage to share our own personal testimonies of faith in front of the class
-Learning the names of the kids
-That we would share Christ’s love and have wisdom in dealing with tricky conversations/situations
Thanks so much for your support and prayers!!
Here are a few photos of our day:
