During the summer most of the Prakash for India churches hold a VBS program. We try to encourage them to do so in an area where they can disciple the children throughout the following year. This report is from Dr. Suresh. He held his program in a village he has been working in for years. Sometimes it takes years of investing before you are invited to share the story of Jesus and His love. I have inserted reports from Dr. Suresh’s daughters who helped with the VBS program and were truly blessed by the experience.
Here is his report:
“I am indeed very happy to submit this VBS report to you. Today we finished our seven-day Vacation Bible School program at K…. In this time only I came to know about the villages’ name. This is the village where Vasentha and his new bride live.
K…. is situated towards the south about 25 Km from Nagpur. The pocket of these special “Pardhi” stay outside the larger villages, because these people are very far from acceptable social conduct. They like to be separated for their traditional habits, some of which are very dirty and risky.
Apart from some hunting they prefer wine making business for their livelihood as nobody likes to invite them for daily work. So they accept wine making as the easiest way for their financial earning.
They do not allow anybody entrance into their territories or any interference in their work. But by the grace of God, Loren, Sylvia and my family are very much welcome at any time to visit the village. This is truly because of God’s grace.
We started our program on 12th of June till 19th of June 2011. I am really thankful to the Lord for providing such an opportunity to serve the village children in such a good way.
On 12th we started our program with a prayer and a speech by the village chief.
(Rachel’s experience: It was fun taking VBS. I enjoyed all the days of VBS, especially the first day when this incident happened. I had seen many funny incidents but not anything like this. When on the first day the chief was giving his speech he was standing and there was a scooter behind him. As he was speaking he tried to sit on the scooter, but the scooter slipped and fell and with it even he was going to fall. This was the most funny moment of the VBS.)
After that Shini, Rachel and Liza taught some action songs. But, everyone loved the song taught by Liza.
Then Nupi told the story about the birth of Jesus Christ. Everyone listened very carefully. Then the children did coloring.
(Shini’s experience: Actually, I once had a dream that I would be teaching school in that village. So when daddy told me that we are going to take VBS I was very happy. The fun part was to see all of them do coloring. I had some reward stickers that I had taken with me. I had told the children that the one who will color the best would get a sticker. And even the parents wanted to color with the children so that they should get stickers. But I did a bit of cheating and gave stickers to all of the children. Some had never colored before.
There was this one guy who asked me to give him a separate book for him. When he was coloring I was standing just there and he was kind of good at coloring. Suddenly his Mother came to me and asked if I liked the drawing? I said, “Yes that I liked the drawing.” After that she asked me why did her son’s wife leave him and go away. I was clueless as to what I should say, but then I just said that his wife was very foolish to leave him. Then the woman told the people around her, “See I was right all about his wife being mad.” I was so scared that the next question would be that would I marry her son? I ran away from there. These people can speak anything, anywhere, anytime.
Then one day a woman came with a big stick in her hand and started beating her daughter. She was speaking to her daughter in their language, but still I could understand what she said and she was scolding her daughter because she didn’t cook before coming to VBS. But when my daddy asked the other people as to why she was hitting her daughter. The people told him that she was beating her because she wasn’t concentrating on the story being told. That’s why she’s beating her. I simply had a hearty laugh and kept quite. Later I explained everything to him when we got home. I really had fun and enjoyed this experience.)
On 13th we told about the childhood of Jesus. And this time I shared it. On 14th we shared about the Jesus’ preparation for God’s work. On 15th we told about Jesus’ work on earth. On 16th were stories about the crucifixion and its purpose. On 17th we taught about the resurrection and Jesus’ presence everywhere and in the heart of every believer. On 18th we told about the gospel and how to believe.
On 19th we had final day program. I shared about the application of God’s Word in their daily life:
1. Taking care of the environment
2. Obeying the rules
3. Showing respect to others
4. Respecting ourselves
5. Solving problems with peace
6. Courage for doing good things
I tried my level best to encourage the people to get rid of some of their bad habits. Also I tried to explain to them the importance of education.
After the program we gave chiwda (the Indian spiced dry rice snack) and sweets (candy) to everyone present.
Many parents came to me after the program and appreciated our whole week of programs. They promised me that they would enroll these children in the nearby school. I was very happy because I was praying for this thing from a long time. I praise God for this.”
(Vasentha was the first child from this entire tribe to EVER attend school
I hope you enjoyed the story of this VBS. As I get these emails from India, I will keep you all informed and will continue to try and write interesting and meaningful stories.
