Mita Renda/Lugar de Niños/Kid's Church

 Here are some pictures from our Saturday Kid's Church. Sherry is helping to serve the dessert that Miguela (Enrique's wife) has prepared for the kids. It was arroz con leche. 

The name is in Guarani, and it means Kid's Place. The name is Mita Renda (Me tah wren dah - is how you sound it out). It has been amazing watching God work through this simple hour and a half to two hours with anywhere from 35 kids to 60 (and growing). Without even advertising it, the first Saturday Kid's Church had 40 kids from ages under 1 to 15 show up. They were quiet, reserved, nervous, and didn't participate at first. Now, they love coming and being a part of Kid's Church. They know that on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. (Asunción Time), there is a church just for them.

 Every couple of weeks, we teach them a new scripture verse, and our puppets help us teach them. They memorize it so fast especially when there is candy involved in helping them learn it.

 At the end of every service, we provide a meal for each of them. We sit in a circle, talk about how they are treasures of God, remind them of the lesson for the day, then we pray together for peace, protection, provision, and for the food.

 The girl, smiling, sitting to my right is named Yesica. Two of her sisters are sitting on the sofa behind me, and her mom is the older lady on the right (above on sofa). This is the first time that I saw her smile, and all I did was tell her that she was beautiful. I had just finished telling her that when Sherry snapped this photo. I am telling the boy to my left, Andrés, the same thing. He got a kick out of it, too.

 The bored-looking teenager in this photo is Chaz. Actually, he's not bored, he was enjoying joking around with Micaela. She's the younger sister of Yesica, and she is really shy. She smiled for the first time in two months this past Saturday (June 22, 2013).

 This is Enrique, one of our helpers in the Kid's Church and the regular church. We are praying that he and his family will be the future pastors of Doers of the Word Assemblies of God Church. Chariti is in the middle of a couple of very active girls and a two year old boy named Thiago. Thiago loves to do the motions on the songs and loves to try and talk to the puppets.

 Here is a closer picture of the arroz con leche.

 With the help of Jesus Responde, we are able to serve them a good lunch of pasta, sauce, chicken, and bread.

 You can see Chariti, Kaylee, and Chaz helping lead the children in worship. The kids love to "dance" with the music. Below, they are helping lead the worship with the puppets' help.

 Above: You can see Enrique lining them up to give them each a sucker. The little boy in the very front is named Lizandro. He has been attending off and on. Very dirty little boy who is always hungry. If we allowed him to, he would probably eat the whole time he is there. I often wonder how many times he actually gets to eat each week. He has a temper problem, as well. He gets angry and wants to run away at the littlest things. Please pray that we can get through to him and that God's love can heal his troubled heart and spirit.

Below: Chariti and Kaylee are helping the kids to play "soccer" while crab-walking. It was fun to watch them do it. You can see a few seconds of the doing it below this picture because I have uploaded a video to this blog. Please let me know if you can't open it.

 Above: Video of the worship time with our puppet, Tito. It's fun for the kids to participate. They enjoy it, a lot.

Below: Behind the scenes, Chariti (and inside Tito, Elias) helping the kids sing and do the motions.

 Below is a video of the kids eating lunch. It's fun to watch!