VBS in Zimbabwe

Tuesday 8/11 we left at 8am to Musana for what we thought would be our first day of VBS and construction. When we got there we were told that the kids would not be coming until Wednesday! Interesting start since Monday had already been a national holiday so we weren’t able to do anything. There were a few kids around and some women. The men were able to get a “plan” together for the construction project and the VBS crew could scope out where we were to hold VBS.
We took a walk with some of the women and they showed us around “town”…which was a couple of shops, a grinding mill and a well. It was a fun tour around and some good time to get to know some of the women of the church.


Wednesday, finally, was our first day of VBS! We arrived about 9:30 and the kids trickled in between 10 and 11. At 10:30 we had 60 and by the end we had 99…best we could count anyways! I told the bible story, Creation by drawing pictures with the children drawing with me (I call this the Marilou method!). It went pretty well for my first try! It was a good first VBS day! That afternoon we spend some time with the women’s fellowship, who were having their weekly meeting. They were dancing, singing and praying…it was great and very African! I love it! They asked us to bless a new baby so we prayed for him – he hadn’t even been named yet! After lunch, we joined the guys “helping” with the building. We moved & cut some rebar, hauled bricks and just handed some things into the trenches when needed. We were all so sweaty and dirty by the time we were done! It was fun!

Thursday was day #2 for VBS. The story was Jonah/obedience and Mark 12:31. More kids and another success! After VBS we visited the school with some teachers and the headmaster while the kids were fed sudsa. The only manual labor I did this day was to mark the rebar with a white crayon….but it was very important I’m sure!

Friday was our last day of VBS and there was also a clinic being held for the day. My story was the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus and I also did the closing ceremony since Kathy was already in the clinic….that was pretty fun and I got some good video!
After VBS, I went to the clinic for the rest of the day. It was so much fun! We didn’t have too many drugs to work with but made due. Some many people could have used antibiotics so it was a little frustrating that we didn’t have any! We saw 223 patients total! Phew…what a day! We had no idea we would be doing a clinic but it turned out to be a great experience!