Rewinding back to December, I wanted to write a blog on the End of Year / Christmas party that was held on Wednesday, December 12 at the school of El Llanito and the very special kinder/sixth grade graduation ceremony held that night. All together this was such a special day of love and appreciation and I didn't want to forget it...so I'm now sharing.
Serve One ministries has adopted the town of El Llanito to help with a myriad of things such as the construction of their salon/school building, supplying student uniforms/supplies, teaching english, hosting vacation bible schools and other mission groups and for the past few years has supported their end of year Christmas party celebration. Serve One is funded through personal donations and of course through fundraising efforts that Scott and Staci put on back in the States.
This year I got to help participate, plan and recruit church members to make this day a success and boy did it!
We started at 8am and we had stations set up for the kids to rotate through. There was instant icecream making, more face painting, Bible verse crafts, a blow up jump-around, sack races, soccer, etc. The kids were definitely busy running from station to station. My hands were about frozen trying to help all the kids shake their icecream for forever it seemed.
We were able to sing some Christmas songs in spanish (luckily the songs were printed out) that went along with the Christmas story. The kids were all dressed up as characters...it was a bit unrehearsed but it was fun! Afterwards, the preacher from the spanish speaking church shared the gospel message with the kids to explain why the life and death of Jesus is so very important to know and remember.
Afterwards Scott and Staci were able to bring one gift for each child and then they had their last meal for the school year. Isa and Maria cooked up a wonderful seafood and rice dish.
One of the best parts for me, was to share this experience with my dear friends Sherrell, Jesse and their little girl Shalom. Thank you again for all your help and for all the goodies you brought for the kids!!
Later that night, El Llanito (along with all other schools in Guanacaste) held their graduation ceremony where they honor 6th graders going onto Colegio (high school) and the kindergartners entering 1st grade.
The school children always pick one person to dedicate their ceremony to and this year they picked Staci, one of the founders of Serve One. Here she is glowing along with her little dog (which you can't see, but he's a cute little yorky).
They asked the four of us to be in the procession, they gave us a very beautiful plant bouquet and then asked us to help give out graduation certificates...which involves getting a kiss on the cheek from each student. I was so honored to be a part of that night and it was wonderful seeing the kids I've been teaching graduate. The teachers really made us feel special and I'm so thankful I have been given the chance to help out the village of El Llanito.
The school provided a wonderful meal to all the proud family members and the night ended with some great spanish music. It was interesting in the beginning of the night before the ceremony started... they were playing easy listening English music (Delilah style)...which if you know me I love that kind of music. We were wondering why they were playing english music vs. spanish. We were told it was in honor of who the graduation was dedicated to...which was Staci. So very thoughtful!
Que Dios te acompañe!
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