On our second Sunday we were asked to lead one the Sunday School
groups and though a little surprised by the request, as we hadn’t talked about
anything like that up to then, we were happy to be at last involved in
something, apart from finding out how things work, where shops are and fitting
the house, so we accepted the invitation and chose the younger group, 5-8, so
as to be with our boys, who this way would have the opportunity to enjoy an
activity in English rather than waiting bewildered for a generous hint at
translation here and there… Moreover, given that it will take us a long time
before being able to follow prayers and sermon, it would be a good excuse to
flee the church at the right time.
They had just done some Christmas related activity the previous
week, so we went for the Wise Men: after reading the story (English first, then
Kinyarwanda, not us!) and after attempting to teach them a song in English (not
easy, despite Elena’s talent), Mattia lead a discussion/analysis of the
passage, relying on Ildephonse (one of the leaders, and our night-watchman) for
translating to the rest of the children, as very few could understand English,
which created some funny moments when Michele&Sam were already giving the
easy, straightforward answers (yes, no…) while the others were listening to the
question in their language; anyway, it worked nicely. In the meantime, Elena
was preparing a long banner with a picture of the Wise Men visiting Jesus on
one side, so that all the kids then drew themselves, with their names, as our
gifts to the new born King. Another song, one of the few they know in English,
then led us to the nearby lawn, where we played a “bring-the-gifts” relay game,
after some time spent in splitting them in groups and explaining the rules…
They seemed to enjoy the hour and something we spent together, at
least they pretended well and gave us some good cheering and clapping at the
end. Our boys enjoyed it too and once again they had been quite good, Michele
especially, at staying in the kids’ area in the first part of the service.
We don’t know when we’ll be doing this again, but at least it was a
good start!
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