by Dennis & Mai Spencer | June 23rd, 2014
Dear Friends,
Today was a busy day. Up at 6 am for prayer/Bible study and then a littles after 8 all the fun began. The company came to set up all the canopies we rent to give us shade and a little protection from the rain. We also rent table and plastic chairs from them to have enough to feed all the kids at one time. We had to empty out the sanctuary so we could have that space for group activities and a place for the kids to sleep at night. We had a lot of adult volunteers show up so the work went pretty fast. We hauled down all the mats, blankets, pillows from storage for the kids. We washed and cleaned all the serving trays, glasses, and drinking containers for water/kool-ade.
We put up extra temporary showers (8th picture below) to go along with the showers we already have to be able to shower all the kids in a reasonable amount of time. Tam also had to run extra electrical wiring to support additional fans under the canopies and extra lighting for the night activities. Praise the Lord as our new well is up and running so water, or rather lack of it, will not be a problem. We also set up all the stations to register the kids who came today for VBS after supper.
A lot of the church kids started arriving around 3 pm and played games until around 5 pm. Then we fed them a hot meal before they went out to play some more. We started registering kids a little after 7 pm and it went pretty smooth. We did miss Cheree, Jordan, Dennis and Fay Peceniak, Barbara Morgan, and Wendell and Tia being here to help us though. We registered 67 kids who had signed up and 4 more who hadn’t signed up. With 71 already registered tonight, and if the remaining 69 who signed up but weren’t here tonight show up tomorrow, we will have 140 total. This would be our largest turn out yet. Plus, we had about 30-35 adult volunteers here today.
After everyone was registered they all gathered in the sanctuary for a time of worship in song and prayer followed by a short Bible study led by Elder Nhan. Then a cup of Vietnamese jello for a bed time snack and off to bed. The kids sleep on mats in the sanctuary and we are still amazed, despite the humid conditions, they cover themselves with blankets because they say the ceiling fans make them cold.
We finally got back to our room about 9:30 pm and we wanted to put out this brief update. It’s now almost 10:30 pm and we have to be up by 5 am to start making breakfast for the kids.
Thanks for your prayers as God gave us a great day and we are excited for VBS to start tomorrow.
Love,
Dennis and Mai
Jesus in Vietnam Ministries, is a compassion ministry founded by Dennis and Mai Spencer. Vietnamese families suffer from deprivation, lacking sometimes even the necessities of life. In obedience to the many Scriptural commands to help the poor they are enabling families to survive in difficult circumstances. When shown mercy these families are very receptive to the Gospel. The Spencer’s also focus on children, who are the future church of Jesus Christ in Vietnam.