This week at Saturday Bible Club we started following a "Bible Hero's" series that I found on a website called "Jesus without Language". Michael shared the lesson on
the Apostle Philip who teaches us to invite people to come to Jesus. After that we split the kids into a younger and older group for the craft - we had already precut the younger group's craft for them. This system worked really well and I look forward to trying it with Zante and Lexi there too.
Sunday. Oh man what a day. Hendri sat with the girls which meant I could be in the meeting room and I really enjoyed that and my dad's message re the name of God. However during teatime 8 new kids arrived for Sunday School, 11 and younger. One of the boys, Abraham (5yr old), was there with his father, Peter. I welcomed them, showed them where to go and offered refreshments, then asked Peter whether he wanted to stay with his son or attend the adult's bible study class which Mike was leading. He said he would stay with Abraham because he was, and I quote, "naughty". When the time came to start Sunday School we gathered the children inside but had to ask Peter to fetch Abraham out of the rubble filled empty swimming pool as he refused to listen to us. When we broke up into classes I had to run around collecting extra stationery for the classes with so many extra kids, while also trying to keep an eye on Lexi and prevent her from being a distraction. There were about 12 kids in the youngest class which Liezl handled really well. We quickly realized that there was something seriously "off" about Abraham as he could not even colour and was very aggressive toward his dad. When the class was over he promptly tipped out all of the stationery onto the floor. In the midst of trying to jot down the new attendees' names, change a dirty diaper, and prevent the horde of preschoolers injuring themselves and/or Zante on the jungle gym I noticed Sipho in tears. He is in the "middle" class and the older class had shooed him out of their classroom even though they were done with their lesson and watching funny videos on youtube. I did my best to reassure and console him and then went in to admonish the teens, when I heard Liezl's voice raised in concern in the swimming pool area. Worried that it might be one of my kids I went to check and found her and young Tania trying to stop Abraham from throwing rocks at the dogs. Liezl then asked him and some of the others to go play in the front yard. The others quickly ran off but we had to "herd" Abraham in the right direction. Liezl eventually took him by the arm and walked with him to where we could see Peter sitting talking to Bro Itayi. She told Abraham to go to his dad. He took three steps away from her, picked up a big clod of earth and threw it at her, hitting her on the back of her head as she managed to turn away. I then ran to him, took him by the arm and marched him to his dad, angrily telling Peter what had happened and that such behavior was not welcome at the church. Then, and only then, he starts explaining that Abraham has a brain tumor and is severely mentally and socially delayed. I then told him that he needed to be with Abraham at all times then and make sure he didn't hurt anyone or thing. This whole episode upset me to such an extent that I was in physical stress-induced pain the rest of the day, and ended up crying in bed that night. I do not regret my actions so much as I am furious with Peter for not clearly explaining Abraham's situation to me right at the start. I certainly believe the day would have turned out very differently if he had.
On Monday the guys went fishing and Zante along with them. She absolutely loves it! Lexi and I enjoyed our morning together and then went to the dam in the afternoon, which was lovely, lush green grass and not another soul (except the security guard) in sight. Sadly the day ended with Hendri and Mike having to rush to the aid of my parents when the Mahindra developed trouble on their way to Nelspruit. They then had to tow it back so we slept over at Adieu Monday night.
On Tuesday it dawned on me that I had a majority of preteen boys at Homework Club, but I was still doing a lot of 'girly' crafts with them. Pinterest to the rescue - found some simple catapults made from popsicle sticks and rubber bands. God moment: I had exactly the right amount of popsicle sticks for the amount of kids that showed up! The younger kids, including Zante and Lexi, completed several worksheets. After making their catapults the boys came inside to test them in a game that we had created by sticking targets to the floor. The further the target the higher the value. After the first round they realized that some of the catapults performed much better than others. We encouraged them to consider in what way they differed and then adjust their's accordingly before the next round of 'shooting'. The best kind of learning is when you think you're just having fun! Everyone had a blast - not sure what we're gonna do next week now that we've set such a high standard!
We are still taking the girls swimming several times a week and they are becoming more and more confident in the water, floating on their backs and swimming backwards too.
I finally found a shelf wide enough for my math rods, and after an epic traffic-delayed journey and lots of rearranging the classroom is now pretty much full! Zante finds the math rods past 4 quite a challenge and tries several times a day. Lexi is enjoying building towers out of the knobless cylinders.
On Friday while Michael went to present the Bible class at Aphiwe Zante and I played 'shop', with items costing either 1, 2, 3 or 4 coins. At first she struggled to count out only 4 coins but after about an hour of playing she managed great!
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