The events of this week have left me pondering lots of things...While we were still in the hospital I began journaling some of these thoughts... I thought it might be interesting to share them with you all...
Excerpt from my journal--
Journal/Reflections on Calvin’s medivac
Wow… It’s a lonely feeling being in a hospital in a foreign country where you know no one. My previous experience with being in the hospital or knowing someone in the hospital is that loved ones come to gather round, visit and pray with the sick patient. The main caretaker of the sick person gets occasional breaks to stretch their legs, or even go home for a short rest and loved ones often bring in food for the caretaker and even the patient sometimes.
What a different experience it is having a medivac from Papua New Guinea to Cairns, Australia! There’s no one around to call and say, “Hey forgot to pack clean underwear. Can you bring some by?” Instead of a short, but tense car or ambulance ride to the hospital, there were several tense hours on an airplane with a doctor and a nurse working the whole time to keep the patient stable and unsure, really, if the altitude of the airplane will cause additional stress on the patient’s condition.
Once we arrived at the airport, we had to clear international customs before they would let us get on the ambulance that was waiting nearby on the tarmac. (Not to mention that fact that since our PNG visas had not yet been renewed we had to make a stop in Port Moresby to pick up our passports with ”hot off the press” visas.)
We’re in a place where, as soon as we open our mouths, it’s obvious we’re “not from here.” That leaves some people unsure how to deal with us. When we first arrived, one of the first comments I got was from a hospital admin who said, “You’re from where? And you live where? You know you have to pay, right?” To which I responded (thanks to our wonderful director’s office) “Here is a letter of guaranteed payment. (Now please go take care of my son!—okay I didn’t say that last part.)
Everything here at the hospital works just a bit differently or you’re afraid it might. I’ve been unsure of things like, “Is it ok for me to go get a fresh pitcher of water for my son? Are they going to let us have any food? Do they just feed the patient or the caretaker as well?” How much am I going to need to advocate for my son?’ How come we haven’t heard from the doctor yet?” Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been well taken care of, things are just a bit unsure and I have to force myself to ask lots of questions.
Once we got to the hospital and our doctor and nurse handed him over to the hospital staff here, it was just the two of us (except for our wonderful doctor who came back briefly to give me some toothbrushes and toothpaste—That’s one of the things I forgot to pack in the mad dash to grab what we needed for the trip) Speaking of that… how do you pack for something like this? I had to think briefly, what will we need in the hospital, what will we need once we leave the hospital since we’ll likely have several days here once we are out of the hospital. What is the weather like in Australia this time of year, etc. Part of the reason we’ve been a bit bored and lonely here is that I didn’t really have time to think through what I should pack to keep us occupied. I did pack a couple of things, but we could have used more. (I did pack a The Last Battle by CS Lewis. I read the entire book out loud to Calvin over the course of our 3 days in the hospital.)
It’s a lonely feeling sitting in a hospital room with a sick child and no one to talk to, give you a break, give moral support, etc. I get the feeling, however, that, in Australia, maybe people don’t come visit at the hospital they way they do in the US. I just haven’t seen the influx of people around the children’s ward that I’d expect to. It’s a bit isolated in terms of communication as well. We arrived at the hospital and there was no way for me to contact Chad and say, “Hey, we made it. He’s ok, here’s what’s going on, Etc.” As we sat in the emergency room, I kept thinking, “I need to find a way to get in touch with Chad. How am I going to do that when I can’t leave Calvin? I can’t just pick up a nearby phone and call him. I don’t have an international mobile phone… all I had here is my PNG mobile which has no credit left on it, doesn’t work internationally, and to top it off, I forgot to pack the charger and there’s no battery left on it!
Things I didn’t pack, but wish I did…
Toothbrushes and toothpaste (thanks to Dr. Carl who helped me out with this one)
Clean underwear for Calvin…we’ll be shopping for some as soon as we get out of the hospital.
Chapstick… that plane ride and being on oxygen is hard on the lips. (Thankfully the nurse gave us something for it once I asked).
Nail clippers and nail file… this would have been a great time to trim Calvin’s toenails (I had plenty of time to realize how gross they were) and give my own nails some TLC.
Tweezers… It also would have been a great time to fix up my eyebrows. =)
A magazine.. It’s hard to focus on a book right now, but it would have been nice to at least have a magazine to look at.
As I've walked this journey, there have been a couple of Scripture passages that have encouraged me. Allow me to share them with you. I pray they will encourage you as well...
Psalm 34
1 I will extol the LORD at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
2 I will glory in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the LORD, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from telling lies.
14 Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
and his ears are attentive to their cry;
16 but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to blot out their name from the earth.
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
19 The righteous person may have many troubles,
but the LORD delivers him from them all;
20 he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
21 Evil will slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
22 The LORD will rescue his servants;
no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.
Psalm 46:1-7
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Medivac Pics
 | ||
| In the ER |
 |
| By the time we arrived in Cairns he was ready for a good snooze |
 |
| Starting to feel better-- you can tell by the goofy look on his face |
 |
| You can do some fun things with your oxygen chord when you don't need it to breathe! |
 |
| I told him with his toe glowing like that, he reminded me of E.T. |
 |
| E.T. Phone Home! |
Friday, May 20, 2011
Medivac
Wow.. it's been quite a week! Calvin and I are sititng in our airconditioned room at Treetops Lodge in Cairns Australia while Chad and Sydney remaion back in PNG. I've done a bit of journalling about our medivac experience-- I've written about 5 pages already and I haven't gotten through all the details.
So, here's the story (in a somewhat shortened version)...
Last week Calvin started feeling sick (probably with a virus that has been going around school). The virus triggered his asthma. After a weekend on him feling really lousy and unable to keep down any food or liquid, I took him into our clinic. He was a bit dehydrated, so they kept him at the clinic for dehydration and had me administer fluids every 5 minutes. They were also a bit concerned about his breathing, but didn't make a big deal of that at first. After a morning at the clinic, they sent us home with a promise to get more fluids into him, increased asthma meds, and prednisone. We checked back in with the clinic that afternoon and they gave him a shot of meds that was supposed to help his breathing. We had an appointment to return to the clinic at 11 AM the next day
After a restless night with a LOT of coughing, Calvin woke at 6:30 with a nose bleed. Just as I got him cleaned up, the phone rang. It was the doctor calling to check on him. I gave him a report and he decided I should bring Calin in first thing rather then wait until 11.
When we got to the clinic, his O2 level was low and he couldn't register a peak flow. He was moved to the treatment room and put on a nebulizer. It was at that point the doctor told me he wanted to send him to Cairns for treatment. This was about 9 AM Tuesday morning.
Because Chad has not been working in his regular office this month, I was having trouble getting in touch with him. I ended up leaving Calvin in the very capable hands of the clinic staff and driving out to the training centre to find Chad. We rushed back to the clinic, talked with the doctor, and decided I would be the one to go with Calvin. At this point, the director's office and aviation were hard at work doing all sort of important things related to an emergency medivac. I made a quick call to the school principal letting him know of the situation so that he could make arrangements for someone to cover my class. I also went to the finance office to pick up a bit of Aussie cash. Finally, I headed home to pack and pick up important papers.
Typically, in an ememrgency medical situation, our airplanes are equipped to fly straight from Ukarumpa to Cairns, however, our passports and resident visas for PNG expired at the end of January and have been waiting in a government office to be renewed since mid January when we returned from furlough. We needed those to travel internationally. Our Port Moresby staff got to work for us, located our passports and managed somehow to get our new visas.
After sorting out all the details about the passports, flight plan, equipping the Kodiak airplane for a medical flight, dealing with medivac insurrance stuff, packing, and lots of stuff I'm sure I don't even know about....we loaded up for our 5 minute drive to the airstrip.
At this point, Calvin was requiring quite a bit of oxygen. An oxygen tank was brought along in the van for the drive to the airstrip, but about halfway there it ran out. Calvin's oxygen levels was dipping down into the low 70's by the time we got the the aircraft. He was quickly helped into the plane where they hooked him up to one of the on board oxygen tanks. It took a bit longer to load up everything and handle all the details. We finally took off around 1PM. On board the plane were 2 pilots, a doctor, a nurse, Calvin and me.
Our usual medivac plane, the King Air, is down for repairs right now, so we flew in one of our two Kodiak airplanes. Flying time from Ukarumpa to Port Moresby int he Kodiak is about 1 hr 20 min so, at around 2:30 we touched down in Port Moresby. We stayed in the plane while the two pilots cleared immigration and grabbed our passports. Thankfully, we didn't have to refuel in Moresby, so it was a pretty quick stop.
Soon, we were back in the air with an estimated flying time of 2 hrs 40 min to Cairns. Calvin remained stable during both flights with breathing treatments every 2 hours (we didn't have electricity onboard so he was getting treatments with an inhaler) and the oxygen support between 8 and 10 litres. Once we touched down in Cairns, we were met on the tarmac by customs officials and an ambulance. The two onboard oxygen tanks were nearing empty by this point.
I think we finally reached the emergency room at about 6:30 PM (We began our day at the clinic at 8:30 AM). Calvin was wheeled in assessed, put on the nebulizer, blood work done, chest x-ray hooked up to monitors, etc. The doctor and nurse came with us to the hospital to brief the staff there and stayed for a bit to make sure we were bieng taken care of. They then left to get some food and a good night's rest-- they would be flying back to Ukarumpa early the next morning. They did, however, take that time to go purchase toothpaste and toothbrushed for Cavlin and I (I had realized I forgot these shorlty after we took off). I was very grateful for their thoughtfulness with that.
Once we got the hospital I knew I needed to let Chad know we'd arrived, but I couldn't leave Calvin and I didn't have a phone that would work internationally. Thankfully, around 10:15 Chad figured out which hospital we were at and called us. What a relief for both of us!
Around 10:30 they moved us out of emergency and into a triage area. There were no available bed in the pediatrics ward, so we spent the night in this triage area.
Sometime during that first 16 hours, we learned a few things... Calvin's chest x-ray was clear (great news), hi blood sugar was a bit high (probably due to the prednisone and dehydration), his blood pressure was a bit high (many reasons for that), and his white blood cell count was low (indicating a possible viral infection).
Finally, around 11 AM the next day, we were moved to the kid's ward to a small, but adequate room. Because of his cough and the fact that we were from PNG, we had to be in an isolation room. So, there we sat for the next two days with occasional visits from nurses and doctors.
When we frst arrived at the hospital Calvin was requiring 6-8 litres of oxygen. By Thurdsday morning we was able to be down to 1 litre. Finally, the oxygen was turn off on Firday morning and we began talking about being discharged. Because he hadn't been off the oxygen for very long, we were allowed to leave the hospital, but a having daily visits from "in home" nursing care until we see the doctor next week.
The plan is to stay here in Cairns unitl Calvin is medically cleared to fly and handle the altitude we live at in PNG-- hopefully sometime this next week.
Meanwhile, people in PNG have been wonderful about looking after Sydney and Chad who are still back in Ukarumpa.
We are so thankful to everyone who played a part in this experience. Not just the doctors, nurses, aviation staff, director's office staff, member care staff, friends who are feeding my family in PNG, people who are filling in the holes I left at the school, but also those who have been and are still praying for us and those who have already helped with the extra expenses we'll have as a reult of this.
I could write much more, but this will have to do for now.
Thanks to everyone who is surrounding our family with Love and Support.
So, here's the story (in a somewhat shortened version)...
Last week Calvin started feeling sick (probably with a virus that has been going around school). The virus triggered his asthma. After a weekend on him feling really lousy and unable to keep down any food or liquid, I took him into our clinic. He was a bit dehydrated, so they kept him at the clinic for dehydration and had me administer fluids every 5 minutes. They were also a bit concerned about his breathing, but didn't make a big deal of that at first. After a morning at the clinic, they sent us home with a promise to get more fluids into him, increased asthma meds, and prednisone. We checked back in with the clinic that afternoon and they gave him a shot of meds that was supposed to help his breathing. We had an appointment to return to the clinic at 11 AM the next day
After a restless night with a LOT of coughing, Calvin woke at 6:30 with a nose bleed. Just as I got him cleaned up, the phone rang. It was the doctor calling to check on him. I gave him a report and he decided I should bring Calin in first thing rather then wait until 11.
When we got to the clinic, his O2 level was low and he couldn't register a peak flow. He was moved to the treatment room and put on a nebulizer. It was at that point the doctor told me he wanted to send him to Cairns for treatment. This was about 9 AM Tuesday morning.
Because Chad has not been working in his regular office this month, I was having trouble getting in touch with him. I ended up leaving Calvin in the very capable hands of the clinic staff and driving out to the training centre to find Chad. We rushed back to the clinic, talked with the doctor, and decided I would be the one to go with Calvin. At this point, the director's office and aviation were hard at work doing all sort of important things related to an emergency medivac. I made a quick call to the school principal letting him know of the situation so that he could make arrangements for someone to cover my class. I also went to the finance office to pick up a bit of Aussie cash. Finally, I headed home to pack and pick up important papers.
Typically, in an ememrgency medical situation, our airplanes are equipped to fly straight from Ukarumpa to Cairns, however, our passports and resident visas for PNG expired at the end of January and have been waiting in a government office to be renewed since mid January when we returned from furlough. We needed those to travel internationally. Our Port Moresby staff got to work for us, located our passports and managed somehow to get our new visas.
After sorting out all the details about the passports, flight plan, equipping the Kodiak airplane for a medical flight, dealing with medivac insurrance stuff, packing, and lots of stuff I'm sure I don't even know about....we loaded up for our 5 minute drive to the airstrip.
At this point, Calvin was requiring quite a bit of oxygen. An oxygen tank was brought along in the van for the drive to the airstrip, but about halfway there it ran out. Calvin's oxygen levels was dipping down into the low 70's by the time we got the the aircraft. He was quickly helped into the plane where they hooked him up to one of the on board oxygen tanks. It took a bit longer to load up everything and handle all the details. We finally took off around 1PM. On board the plane were 2 pilots, a doctor, a nurse, Calvin and me.
Our usual medivac plane, the King Air, is down for repairs right now, so we flew in one of our two Kodiak airplanes. Flying time from Ukarumpa to Port Moresby int he Kodiak is about 1 hr 20 min so, at around 2:30 we touched down in Port Moresby. We stayed in the plane while the two pilots cleared immigration and grabbed our passports. Thankfully, we didn't have to refuel in Moresby, so it was a pretty quick stop.
Soon, we were back in the air with an estimated flying time of 2 hrs 40 min to Cairns. Calvin remained stable during both flights with breathing treatments every 2 hours (we didn't have electricity onboard so he was getting treatments with an inhaler) and the oxygen support between 8 and 10 litres. Once we touched down in Cairns, we were met on the tarmac by customs officials and an ambulance. The two onboard oxygen tanks were nearing empty by this point.
I think we finally reached the emergency room at about 6:30 PM (We began our day at the clinic at 8:30 AM). Calvin was wheeled in assessed, put on the nebulizer, blood work done, chest x-ray hooked up to monitors, etc. The doctor and nurse came with us to the hospital to brief the staff there and stayed for a bit to make sure we were bieng taken care of. They then left to get some food and a good night's rest-- they would be flying back to Ukarumpa early the next morning. They did, however, take that time to go purchase toothpaste and toothbrushed for Cavlin and I (I had realized I forgot these shorlty after we took off). I was very grateful for their thoughtfulness with that.
Once we got the hospital I knew I needed to let Chad know we'd arrived, but I couldn't leave Calvin and I didn't have a phone that would work internationally. Thankfully, around 10:15 Chad figured out which hospital we were at and called us. What a relief for both of us!
Around 10:30 they moved us out of emergency and into a triage area. There were no available bed in the pediatrics ward, so we spent the night in this triage area.
Sometime during that first 16 hours, we learned a few things... Calvin's chest x-ray was clear (great news), hi blood sugar was a bit high (probably due to the prednisone and dehydration), his blood pressure was a bit high (many reasons for that), and his white blood cell count was low (indicating a possible viral infection).
Finally, around 11 AM the next day, we were moved to the kid's ward to a small, but adequate room. Because of his cough and the fact that we were from PNG, we had to be in an isolation room. So, there we sat for the next two days with occasional visits from nurses and doctors.
When we frst arrived at the hospital Calvin was requiring 6-8 litres of oxygen. By Thurdsday morning we was able to be down to 1 litre. Finally, the oxygen was turn off on Firday morning and we began talking about being discharged. Because he hadn't been off the oxygen for very long, we were allowed to leave the hospital, but a having daily visits from "in home" nursing care until we see the doctor next week.
The plan is to stay here in Cairns unitl Calvin is medically cleared to fly and handle the altitude we live at in PNG-- hopefully sometime this next week.
Meanwhile, people in PNG have been wonderful about looking after Sydney and Chad who are still back in Ukarumpa.
We are so thankful to everyone who played a part in this experience. Not just the doctors, nurses, aviation staff, director's office staff, member care staff, friends who are feeding my family in PNG, people who are filling in the holes I left at the school, but also those who have been and are still praying for us and those who have already helped with the extra expenses we'll have as a reult of this.
I could write much more, but this will have to do for now.
Thanks to everyone who is surrounding our family with Love and Support.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Food
I enjoy cooking, which is good, because I spend a lot of my time doing it.
We can sometimes get packaged products here, but most of what I cook is
from scratch. Lately, I've been cooking even more things from scratch.
Some things that used to be readily available have been harder to get.
An example of this is canned tomato products. It used to be that you
could almost always get diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, etc
in our store. Lately this is not the case. We have randomly had a small
amount of tomato products, but in the 3 months we've been back from home
assignment, I'd say the times when those shelves are bare have far
outnumbered the times when we've had these things in stock. I don't
think I realized before how much our family consumes tomato products.
Luckily, we have a beautiful fruit and vegetable market 3 mornings a
week here. Knowing that canned tomato products ultimately come from
fresh tomatoes, I decided to teach myself how to make my own tomato
products. As with most things, it's not really all that HARD to make
tomato puree from scratch, it just takes time.
Bread is another thing I often make from scratch. We can get some
sandwich bread from a nearby town. I often buy this for toast and
sandwiches because, frankly, I have a really hard time slicing my bread
in nice even slices like you find in a store bought loaf of bread. The
problem is that it tastes a bit like cardboard, especially once you get
used to eating fresh homemade bread. Nevertheless, the kids don't seem to mind it for their PB&J or grilled cheese.
Although we do have this option for sandwich bread, whenever we want rolls, bagels, hamburger buns, etc. They have to be made from scratch. One thing I've wanted to try to a while is making English Muffins. As with most things from scratch, they are easier to make than I thought they would be. In fact, I was pretty pleased with the results. I'll definitely we making these again. The best part about making English muffins is that I didn't have to turn on the oven. On a hot day this is a definite plus. Here are some pictures. They didn't have all the nooks and crannies you'd find in Thomas' English Muffins, but they were still a hit with the whole family!
We can sometimes get packaged products here, but most of what I cook is
from scratch. Lately, I've been cooking even more things from scratch.
Some things that used to be readily available have been harder to get.
An example of this is canned tomato products. It used to be that you
could almost always get diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, etc
in our store. Lately this is not the case. We have randomly had a small
amount of tomato products, but in the 3 months we've been back from home
assignment, I'd say the times when those shelves are bare have far
outnumbered the times when we've had these things in stock. I don't
think I realized before how much our family consumes tomato products.
Luckily, we have a beautiful fruit and vegetable market 3 mornings a
week here. Knowing that canned tomato products ultimately come from
fresh tomatoes, I decided to teach myself how to make my own tomato
products. As with most things, it's not really all that HARD to make
tomato puree from scratch, it just takes time.
Bread is another thing I often make from scratch. We can get some
sandwich bread from a nearby town. I often buy this for toast and
sandwiches because, frankly, I have a really hard time slicing my bread
in nice even slices like you find in a store bought loaf of bread. The
problem is that it tastes a bit like cardboard, especially once you get
used to eating fresh homemade bread. Nevertheless, the kids don't seem to mind it for their PB&J or grilled cheese.
Although we do have this option for sandwich bread, whenever we want rolls, bagels, hamburger buns, etc. They have to be made from scratch. One thing I've wanted to try to a while is making English Muffins. As with most things from scratch, they are easier to make than I thought they would be. In fact, I was pretty pleased with the results. I'll definitely we making these again. The best part about making English muffins is that I didn't have to turn on the oven. On a hot day this is a definite plus. Here are some pictures. They didn't have all the nooks and crannies you'd find in Thomas' English Muffins, but they were still a hit with the whole family!
Happy Easter
back in the US. We go to church, we share a nice meal with people we
love, we decorate Easter eggs, and we even have an Easter Egg hunt. The
biggest difference is who we celebrate with. If we were home in the US,
we'd be surrounded by family. Here, we live in a community full of
people who are away from their families. Because of this, we build
relationships here that often feel like family.
We had the pleasure of hosting Easter dinner this year and invited two
other families to join us. Certain food items have been rather scarce
lately, but we managed to pull off an impressive Easter spread complete
with rolls, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad, and the traditional
Easter Chicken. Sometimes we've been able to get ham here around Easter
time and, although it can be a bit expensive, we've splurged to get
one. This year, however, there was no ham to be had, so chicken it
was. It's not really all about the food, although it WAS really tasty.
We had a lovely afternoon relaxing afternoon with good friends as we
celebrated our Savior's resurrection. We also took the time to take a
couple of family pics as we do every year at Easter. Here are a few
pics form the day...
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Easter Eggs
egg dying... after all, they are 11 and almost 10 years old.
Thankfully, I had an extra dozen eggs on hand because our store here is
not open on weekends or holidays. Friday morning (Good Friday is a
public holiday here), Sydney says to me, "Mom, when are we going to
decorate Easter eggs?" and "Can we each invite a friend to dye eggs with
us?"
I have to admit, I was kinda looking forward to not dealing with the
mess of it this year, but without too much complaining, I went and
boiled a dozen eggs while the kids each called a friend. Thankfully,
too, I had the food coloring and vinegar on hand (Which brings me to a
quick rant... Why do we (in the US) spend money on packaged egg dye kits
when all you need is water, vinegar, and food coloring? I will admit
that I didn't know it was so simple until I moved to the land of no
commercial holiday items.)
So, once again, the kids enjoyed the tradition of coloring Easter eggs
with friends. The mess wasn't bad and I can't really blame me daughter,
I am the one in the family who is big on traditions... I guess I've
rubbed off on my daughter a bit... that's not so bad is it?
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Missionary Kid moment
Recently we had a team of people come from the US and Australia to hold a 2 week long Vacation Bible School for our kids while we attended our biennial PNG branch conference (translated that means the parents were in all day meetings for 2 weeks and we needed people to look after our kids). We were so thankful for these wonderful people who came to help in this way. The kids had a blast doing all sorts of games, songs, activities, crafts, etc.
Doing a Vacation Bible School for a large group of missionary kids is an interesting experience, I'm sure. The typical commercially produced VBS curriculum doesn't work so well with a group like this who often know the Bible stories as well (or sometimes even better) than their VBS leaders. We heard many times from the teachers how smart and well versed the kids here are in their knowledge of the Bible. As you can imagine, the leaders had to use some creativity to keep this group of MKs interested and engaged... they did a great job! As we spoke to the kids teachers we heard some great stories of things they did together and the fun they had.
I had to share one such story with you all....
The grade 6 girls were playing a game of Apples to Apples. Their leader (a really fun college aged young lady) knew that these missionary kids may not "get" some of the things on the cards (this game is heavily tied to US culture). She told the girls, If you don't know the thing on the card, just put it back and take another. This lead to quite a lot of cards being turned back in. Finally, after trading in several cards, one of the girls turned over a card that read "Abba" (it was referring to the popular music group, Abba). The girl excitedly said, "Oh, I know this one! It's another name for God!"
And there you have it folks...out of the mouths of MKs
Doing a Vacation Bible School for a large group of missionary kids is an interesting experience, I'm sure. The typical commercially produced VBS curriculum doesn't work so well with a group like this who often know the Bible stories as well (or sometimes even better) than their VBS leaders. We heard many times from the teachers how smart and well versed the kids here are in their knowledge of the Bible. As you can imagine, the leaders had to use some creativity to keep this group of MKs interested and engaged... they did a great job! As we spoke to the kids teachers we heard some great stories of things they did together and the fun they had.
I had to share one such story with you all....
The grade 6 girls were playing a game of Apples to Apples. Their leader (a really fun college aged young lady) knew that these missionary kids may not "get" some of the things on the cards (this game is heavily tied to US culture). She told the girls, If you don't know the thing on the card, just put it back and take another. This lead to quite a lot of cards being turned back in. Finally, after trading in several cards, one of the girls turned over a card that read "Abba" (it was referring to the popular music group, Abba). The girl excitedly said, "Oh, I know this one! It's another name for God!"
And there you have it folks...out of the mouths of MKs
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