Kids!!!!

Church day is over. We had a pastor from Thailand who came to Jurong to speak during sabbath school and also to preach during worship service. Though he wasn't so well-versed in english, still he managed to deliver his message such that it was beneficial for me. I thought that it was a very heart felt message that he spoke and i believe some others in the congregation felt so too. I also thought that this sermon was very different than other sermons we had. I felt relaxed as i listened to the sermon. I wasn't sleepy but i could listen attentively quite well. Hmm...anyway it was one of the best sermons of the year and it really lifted me up to be a more devoted christian in my private life.

At night we had lantern festival. It was by the kindergarten in church and so many people turned up. I was shocked at the number of parents(with kids) that came. It was an annual event and so it was one of the highlights of the kindergarten. I guess there were a total of 500 people there. And so we stayed back to help out. Jeffrey, pei fong, gary, shuqin, barbara, joyce and some others..and when they were all in the sanctuary for the event, we were told to set up the game stations. And i was asking "are we supposed to help out to be game masters?" I got a yes from shuqin..ahhhh..so last minute!! so impromptu(as said by peh fong)..and we had 30 mins to set everything up. So we chose our props and brought out small tables and chairs to the carpark. My station was about using the spoon and transferring 3 ping pong balls from one pail to another. It was meant to be a competitive game where 2 compete against each other. And i got barbara to help me give out the presents. After the event in the sanctuary, everyone got out and went for a lantern walk with the kids having their lantern brought from home. I guess they walked around the neighborhood. And for us, we were still setting up the stations and planning the games. This meant we had 10 mins for them to come back. When someone announced their arrival back to church, i looked to the main gate and i was shocked at the hordes of parents and kids!!! Ahhh!!! Reminds me of my days of being a relief teacher when i had a hard time controlling the kids. But thankfully the parents are there..hehe..however, it still was quite scary to see them come.

Initially i was able to get 2 kids compete each time, but as time went by, the kids were satisfied in being able to transfer the ping pong balls themselves without competition, so i just let them do what they want. It was quite funny too because since the stations were side by side and we had no barriers, so parents and kids were standing even in the middle of the game! It seemed like a marketplace. One parent asked me where was the queue. There was no queue!! So after that i noticed a queue started to form (finally!) and it became more organised that way. Can you imagine 2 kids playing the game and you have other kids and parents in their path?? I saw one boy who was holding the spoon with the ball on it and walking back so fast and suddenly stopped because an adult was "passing by". Thankfully he had fast reflexes..hhaa..But the kids loved it and so i just let them have fun. It didn't take a while for the prizes(pencils) to run out and so we had to take extra prizes(crayons) to give them. And the station on our right was pei fong's station and kids had to throw an inflatable rugby ball into a big pail. We saw him closing shop so after our prizes ran out, we closed shop too.hehe. And so after that i went to see how jeffrey was doing. His was a more ridiculous kind of game. Using toy spades and shells, the kid was supposed to use the spade and push the shell across half the width of the carpark around the chairs and come back. It was supposed to be a competitive game too with 3 kids. Apparantly he had managed to maintain order by keeping the competitive level going but when i came to watch, he seemed to have given up already and then the kids were allowed to do it at their own time and pace and come back to collect their prize(crayons). I helped out abit too in directing the kids in how they should play the game.

After that i went to gary's station. It was the golf station using miniature golf clubs to hit the golf ball into the overturned horseshoe. Each kid was given 3 balls to hit and his was more organised. At least the kids queued up and there was no scrambling or anything. So i helped him abit by putting the balls in the starting position. And after awhile, we closed shop as the lucky draw period was time..actually it was time for the family games to begin then the lucky draw. We had parents playing games this time but i guess i won't talk about it.

Well, all in all, i think it was a successful event by the kindergarten. Thank God for this success too and that i survived.