Last month we had three Christmas parties – one at the highschool, one at the university, and one at home with Young Club.  It was a busy time and it seemed like we were going to the store everyday to buy food and supplies, but it was good =)

At the highschool and university we had games, sang Christmas songs (Thai and English), told the Christmas story, had a gift exchange, and enjoyed snack foods.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the activities, especially the gift exchange and the food.  We enjoyed seeing all of the different gifts our students brought for the gift exchange and which gifts were the most desired.  Lalita also went with us to each Christmas party and the students were excited to see her.

Ready to play the gift exchange game at the highschool

Highschool (grades 10-12) after the party

Natasha and Pook telling the Christmas story at university party

For our Young Club party we had our usual 7 kids plus another handful of kids who came for the party.  My Dad arrived in Nakhon the night before sporting a big white beard (he had grown it for a Christmas program called “Journey to Bethlehem” that he was in).  For the party he dressed up as Santa and the kids were all surprised and excited.  They each took a photo with Santa.

"Tam" with Santa

Lalita gets a turn

In addition to singing songs, the kids performed a small Christmas skit they had been preparing for a couple weeks.

Joseph with Mary riding on a "donkey" - heading to Bethlehem

One of our supporters in California had some t-shirts made for Young Club – the kids were excited to get them.  We finished up with a gift exchange and also passing out some gifts we had for the kids.

After the gift exchange

"Bew" and "Shogun"

Some of the boys

Posted under Ministry, Young Club on January 16th, 2009 by phil
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During the school break in October we had some extra activities for our Young Club kids.  We took them to our local zoo one day and gave them a paper they had to fill out while they were there.  On the worksheet we put questions like “How many crocodiles are there?” and “What is the largest bird at the zoo?”.  Everyone had a good time and enjoyed the zoo.

Young Club at the zoo

Young Club seems to have finally settled on a core group of around 6-10 kids.  Pook continues to teach them Bible stories and the kids are learning more about prayer.  Recently they have started to say their own prayers.  We enjoy seeing them take these steps.

Meeting the largest bird at the zoo

Our superhero mask craft

Posted under Young Club on November 26th, 2008 by phil
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Young Club officially launched this past Saturday.  We spent two weeks announcing the club in our 5th and 6th grade classes and had all of the interested students take a permission slip home to their parents.  The flier explains who we are and what Young Club is about.  Particularly we wanted to make it clear that Young Club is a Christian club and the kids will be learning about God and the things the Bible teaches – in addition to singing songs, playing games, doing arts and crafts, and eating snacks!

We had 25 kids show up on Saturday and it looks like we may have even more this coming Saturday.  In order to fit everyone in we cleared the furniture in the living room and had everyone sit on the floor.  If the club continues to grow then we will be pressed for space at our house and may need to consider other options.

Pook teaching about the creation of the world

They learned about the creation of the world and drew a picture about it.

Working hard on their pictures

Displaying their pictures

We finished up with a quick game.

Playing a "money" game. Girls are worth 1 Baht and boys are worth 50 Satang (half a Baht).

It seemed like most of the kids had a good time, and we were able to meet some of their parents when they dropped off and picked up their kids.

One group of boys was so excited for Young Club that instead of showing up at our house at the appropriate time of 10am, then showed up at 7:30am and started calling our names. We had to tell them to come back at the right time. Hopefully this week they won’t show up so early =)

Posted under Ministry, Young Club on July 22nd, 2008 by phil
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