Peter - From Fisherman to Preacher

Mark telling about Peter´s life

One week of eating, sleeping, and breathing Vacation Bible School at our home in Huejotzingo ended on Sunday.  We chose to create a VBS based on the life of Peter, emphasizing how Jesus changed him into the man he became.  Our first day, the story was narrated by Peter´s brother, Andrew.  On Tuesday, the narrator was a mouse who lived in the house of Peter´s mother-in-law and witnessed how Jesus healed her.  The third day was from the point of view of the beggar healed by God´s power through Peter and John.  Cornelius told Thursday´s story, and Mark wound up the week telling about some stories that Peter had told him.  We developed our games, crafts, songs, and work pages to reinforce the stories and the day´s verse, and we told the children that the stories were to be shared - that they could repeat the Bible accounts to their friends and family.

We were very blessed to have a capable team from Dios es Amor come each day to help us.  Although the VBS is small with the week´s maximum attendance at 25 children, we all had plenty to do.  We divided the children into two groups, with the younger group having children aged 2 - 7, and the older group 8 - 13 (older would have been fine, but the oldest who attended happened to be 13).  In the younger group, we had three 2-year-olds, one of them being Abishael.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the week.  One girl showed up on Saturday at 12, convinced there was still another day of VBS, although the only part left was Sunday´s finale at 3.  We tentatively plan to have another VBS in December, depending partly on how our new baby is and how Abishael reacts to being a big brother.  The new baby is due end of October or beginning of November, so we will work on developing the VBS but will wait to do it if our children need more time.

We appreciate all the prayers that were said on our behalf.  A few weeks before the VBS, Abishael was sick with a throat infection that gave him almost constant fever and robbed him of energy.  Several times we took him to the doctor, thinking the infection had become pneumonia, because he was only getting worse rather than improving with medication.  Thankfully, the infection never did turn into pneumonia.  Abraham and I both had to take antibiotics as well, since we also came down with the infection, although not as seriously as Abishael had.

On the Monday when VBS began, Abishael woke up with fever again, after several days of almost normal health.  When we took him to the doctor in the afternoon, she diagnosed a stomach infection, and he had to begin a new course of medication.  That infection responded better to the antibiotics, and he soon returned to his exuberant self, very happy to participate in all the VBS activities.

Many of the children missed the Sunday finale, because there was another event at the same time with another family.  However, even so, this year more parents and other relatives attended the finale than any previous year.

Please continue your prayers for us.  Pray for health, since we have only just emerged from illness.  Pray also that the children would be willing to share the Bible stories they learn with their families and that we can continue to build relationships with their parents.