Vacation Bible School, Dominican Style!

I've been involved in VBS many different years with churches, helping to teach a class of 5 year olds about Daniel in the Lions Den or talking to 8 year olds about Adam and Eve, but I have never been involved in anything quite like the EBDV. The Escuela Biblica de Verano or EBDV hosted by Cielo's church (and other Templo Biblico churches) packs the 3rd floor of the main mission building twice a day. Once at 3 pm for children under the age of 12 and again at 6 pm for teenagers and adults. At 3 pm there are so many children that there is no room to sit, stand or walk and the teachers have to shuffle through dense crowds of children to check the answers written in the students' books containing the curriculum.

Blue Team (my team) - talking about their act of service

Playing games of ring toss for points

In the evening, two teams of Red and Blue compete for points that will accumulate all week for the award's ceremony on Sunday evening. Points are given for answering the questions about the day's lesson correctly, for winning games during the course of the evening and for assignments given to a group from each team modeled after a TV show in the DR. "Reality Show," which probably could be compared to any show on MTV or VH1... Road Rules, Amazing Race, etc. involved challenges geared towards helping others. The theme of the EBDV is Actions that give Life. So, one night the teams were asked to do something for someone in need. The next day we watched videos of what the teams had done during the day. One team had helped to cook, clean, do laundry and give a makeover to an elderly woman. The other team cleaned and cooked for another elderly woman who was wheelchair bound. No winner was declared and the prize was simply the experience.

I had so much fun at the EBDV (despite the fact that my team lost)! It is amazing what the Cielo church can accomplish with such a small budget and how much joy they can provide for hundreds of people in the community of Cielo. The community benefited not only from the Reality Show challenges, but from the activity they were able to attend Monday through Sunday. Over 40 young people gave their lives to Christ on Saturday and Sunday and it has been awesome sharing with them this past week as they came to our normal church services. They are a great group of kids who were touched by Christ's sacrifice for all of us and are earnestly seeking His will for their lives. I look forward to spending more time with them in the coming months.