Wow! We had a great time last Saturday at the Children's Conference in Soweto, which is a suburb of Johannesburg. Children continued to come all day for the event and the final number was around 750 kids! We were so blessed to be part of the 40 or so adults that came to help. The event was for children in Kindergarten to Grade 7 but we had children as young as 18 months old come. The younger children came with older siblings which is very common here. We took Lucas & Alexis along with us to serve. We were so glad when they helped by participating and interacting with the kids. The children were entertained with many games and relay races as they arrived. At one point I looked over to see Dan trying to teach about forty 2nd & 3rd graders how to play "Duck, duck, goose". Because of the noise and loud music it was hard for the kids to understand us. They are also Zulu speakers and I'm sure our American accent didn't help! Promise and her daughter, Melissa,(from our church) led the program for the conference. There was singing, dancing and a story. Most of it was in Zulu so I'm not sure what all was said or sung but we enjoyed mingling with the kids and offering a smile or hug. Lunch was served to all the children and I have never seen children wait so quietly in line for up to an hour to get their food. It was amazing!
Each of our kids had a fun experience as Alexis had several girls playing with her hair at different times. I had warned her that this might happen and she did very well with it. Lucas made us laugh as he got a group of kids around him and began giving directions for a soccer game he was putting together. He picked captains and helped decide who was on what teams and they all listened to him! I asked how he did it and he said he'd point at a kid and make a soft clicking sound when he was done and that kid knew what to do. Who taught him that? It is amazing what kids pick up! We were so glad to be part of this event. Please click on the picture above to see a bunch more from the children's conference!
