The first day of summer

Summer has arrived! This is the first time I have ever written a blog but I closely follow other people’s blogs and really enjoy them so here goes with my very own………..

This morning it was great to wake up to the sun shining and having a feeling that this is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118 v 24.
So Centar opened its doors to the summer programme. Becca introduced the theme to the excited group of kids who were eagerly awaiting what was in store for them. This summer we are going to ‘travel the world’! This week by means of an introduction we will look at the world and then subsequent weeks we will ‘visit’ different countries so we need a passport……..
So the first task the kids set to was making their own passports. It was great. Since coming here I am amazed at how much more creative they have become. I remember the first crafts Becca did with them in which they would copy the craft Becca had previously made in the same colour, the same design and one person even wrote Becca on their piece of art instead of their own name! Well now we have a box of individual well-designed passports.
Inside each passport are 8 sheets, corresponding to 8 countries, for the young person to write down 15 facts about that particular country. They may be told the fact by one of us, they may see it ‘pop up’ on the computer screen, and they may have to do a challenge to earn a fact. When they have 15 they get a stamp for that country.

This evening Centar was open for 11-14 year olds and they took part in a Wii Sports knockout competition. We decided after a warm-up of bowling to hold this in tennis – I’m glad football wasn’t available! Again having been here now and seen some of the kids growing up although they are still noisy I saw tonight a positive change in some behaviour. For one boy losing would have sent him off in tears or a temper but tonight he just shrugged his shoulders and cheered on the next player. Praise God as changes like this which are very subtle are so encouraging.

So tomorrow I’ll be wearing old clothes to paint lots of sheets of paper in preparation of making a mosaic map of the world with the kids.