Today with the children was dear. You created us a lovely day of clouds and coolness, so the music and games groups could be outside much more comfortably. I believe it was an answer to prayer. Molly told me she specifically asked You for cooler weather (after her sunburn from yesterday), but little did we imagine You’d make it cool enough to rain! But the rain was lovely too, so we thank You, Jesus.
In music Jon and I aided the kids in writing their own group songs. We had instructed them yesterday to go home and think very hard about what they might want to write a song about and bring their ideas back today. I’m sure most of them forgot, but we did have a few shy volunteers who raised their hands and murmured their thoughts. Inevitably we had to ask them to speak up. Their ideas, however timidly submitted, were brilliant. The red group wanted to say, “Jesus is so great - Amen!” The yellow group sang about Jesus doing miracles and healing people. The brown team said, “Thank You, thank You, thank You,” over and over again, then listed off reasons why. The black group, a rather naughty bunch of all the youngest children, wasn’t quite confident enough for English but said a good deal of wisdom in their, “Yesu atuyamba mubizibu.” Translation: “Jesus helps us in trouble.” And then the green group came for their brainstorming session. It went like this:
Me: “Green team, you remember you were supposed to go home yesterday and think of a very good idea for a song, yes?”
Green team: “Yes, Auntie.”
Me: “We will write your song today. It will be a very good song - a great song, yes?”
Green team: “Yes, Auntie.”
Me: “So, what would you like to write about?”
One arm shoots straight up into the air. It’s a young boy, and he looks fairly confident. I pick him, and he says loudly, “Our shirts!”
Me (notice the raised eyebrows): “You want to write a song about your shirts?”
The boy nods. There are a few giggles.
Me (looking at the rest of the group): “Are you sure? You are going to write a song about your T-shirts?”
Green team (enthusiastically): “Yes, Auntie!”
Me: “And what would you like to say about your shirts?”
They think about this for awhile, then another hand goes up. “I love my shirt. I saw that it was good.”
(I’m pretty sure he was almost quoting Scripture here.)
From there, the suggestions poured forth. “Everywhere I look, I see green like my shirt.” “The fruits we eat are green, and they are very nice.” Not quite sure what that means about the shirt, but oh well! “Green is my favorite color.” And on and on. We waded through the flood of eagerly presented ideas and finally came out with this: “I love my shirt because it is good. I love my shirt because it is good.” And then the boys sing, “It’s greeeeeeeen! It’s greeeeeeen!”
I think it’s my favorite song.
