A little before 5am, I was awoken by the sounds of someone
moving around. I opened my eyes and smiled to see that it was two of the older
boys studying the Bible lessons they would be teaching at 5-Day Club that day
by the light of a candle. These were just two of the amazing kids that God had
brought to CYIA Antananarivo, they were focused and so eager to teach and to
teach well.
One of the older boys in particular, Orluce, was constantly
studying. He had to be pulled away from his work to stop and eat lunch. He woke
up early to study and usually had his outlines in his hand whenever I saw him.
It was great to see him grinning after he taught the Bible lesson, explaining
to me that he had gotten everything into the lesson and many children had
accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Today, I stopped by the Teaching
Children Effectively 1 training here in Tana that started today, only to see
that two of the students were Orluce and his friend Febrice (Febrice was a
second year student at CYIA). I can’t wait to see what God has in store for
these two boys.
Sarah studied hard every morning and used every minute of
study time to go over what she would be teaching that day. She faithfully taught
one certain plant in the yard each morning, even shaking the plant’s “hand” and
saying hello to start out. Her supervisor told me, while laughing, that on the
first day of club, Sarah was so used to teaching her little plant that when she
got up in front of the kids she turned away from the kids and toward one of the
trees and began to teach.
Hery was on my team. He told me on the first day that he
liked to make people smile and laugh. I was a little concerned that he had just
come to CYIA to hang out and have fun, but quickly realized that wasn’t his
purpose in coming. Yes, he was constantly making my team laugh and there was
never a dull moment, but he studied hard, even getting up early to do so, and
would carefully listen to anything I said and apply it. On the first day of
club, we walked into the neighborhood that we would be teaching in and there
were some adults sitting there. All the kids looked at me wondering what to do,
and Hery announced, “don’t you remember what they taught us during training??
We are suppose to go say hello to the adults!!” It’s good to know someone was
listening! J Watching
him teach, I knew he had it. He had that natural ability to teach kids and have
fun doing so. The kids hung on his every word.
Orellie went home each evening because she lived close by.
After getting home later than her mother expected the first evening, her mother
decided that she couldn’t come anymore. She showed up late the next morning,
with out the smile that I had never seen her without. She cried as she
explained what her mother had decided and how she had finally changed her mind
and let her come. Her enthusiasm for teaching and her obvious love for the kids
at 5-day club was amazing. Whenever I saw her after club, she was surrounded by
a crowd of happy children.
I wish there was space here to tell you about each of these
precious teens and the wonderful time we had at CYIA. There was no electricity,
no running water, no one to cook the food, and only enough straw filled
mattresses for the girls, the boys, instructors and some of the girls slept on
the cement floor. But everyone pitched in, getting water from the well, cooking
the food, washing dishes, and keeping everything in order. No one complained,
ever. By the time Saturday rolled around, they were pleading to stay at least
one more day. Not only did God bring an amazing group to camp, He provided for
us in every other way to, especially when it came to the weather. It has been
unseasonably cold and rainy (even for winter) here this year. But Tuesday
morning, as we headed out to a little village outside of Tana, the sun came out
and stayed out through Friday. Saturday, our last day of clubs, it began to get
cloudy, it rained while we ate lunch but cleared off for our clubs. Sunday we
were back to cold, gray, windy, rainy weather. Today it is absolutely freezing!
All that happened last week is a reminder of what a great God we serve. When I
think of CYIA Tana, I can’t help but smile and thank Him for the amazing things
He did. Thank you so much for being such an important part of our team by
praying for us!
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