It's Thursday, July 12 about 11:30 PM and the sun is still brillant, the mosquitos swarming. Most of our team is still awake, debating the finer points of theology with Pastor Brian. We've enjoyed getting to know him this week: he sings and plays guitar with the kids during VBS, eats some meals with us and talks theology/political science/sociology/philosophy with us. We laugh and share stories about the differences in our lives.
VBS was easier today, in many ways. The kids were more comfortable with us and we with them. Prep for the skit today took AGES. We did the Joseph story -- the whole thing -- as a campy melodrama that I'd found online. There are so many characters and most of the characters were playing 2 or 3 roles. There were costume changes and props and it was so confusing during practice, we didn't know if we were coming or going. But with enough practice, we got it down!
I went outside about 10 minutes 'til 2 pm (our start time) and the kids were already bunched around the door waiting to get in. We did nametags and coloring, then Brian was on for opening songs. They love "Father Abraham...had many kids.."" because they get to run and jump around.
The skit went great! Ethan added some appropriate piano music (doom-like music when Joseph gets thrown into jail, etc) and the kids were captivated. Although I think a few were scared...they thought the brothers were actually going to kill Joseph. Hmmm, maybe in a culture where abuse is common, we may want to re-think some of our acting techniques/themes.
Craft time today was making dream coats...out of white trash bags with taped multi-color streamers on them. They were a big hit! Prepping for this activity was very time consuming...and again we laughed at the irony of putting children in trash bag coats...hello suffocation risk?!! Well, they looked great in their coats and everything went fine.
Game time included a balloon relay. Getting them into equal teams proves challenging, but they seemed to like the balloons. We had them walk/run with balloon in between their knees... so funny. Even Ethan and Ray played along! A few of the balloons got loose in the dog kennel area, the dogs were rather confused...
A note (pun intended) about music: toward the end of the day, we did a few more songs, including the local favorite "At the Cross." They don't really know the verses, but they sure sing with gusto on the chorus. "At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away..." I sang the verses and they BOOMED the refrain. Each time it was louder and louder. It was a beautiful sound.
Later this evening (after dinner) some of the highschoolers wanted to come to church for Eskimo drumming and dancing. The man (Robert) who used to organize dancing has moved to Nome, so it was hard to get enough to dance. There was only one drummer and a couple of dancers. The kids sat around the church, just hanging out with us, listening to Ethan play piano and waiting to see if more dancers would come.
Ray observed that even though we were all waiting, just listening to Ethan play, some chatting, some playing with kids, that the music united us all. "It was a joyful calm," Ray observed. Yeah, that's Brevig Mission. A joyful calm.
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