Yesterday was a great day! We woke up nice and early, ate breakfast, and headed over to St. John’s Episcopal to get to work.
In the morning, the students worked super hard renovating the church’s rental house inside and out. A team was outside working on the landscaping, tearing out roots, and planting plants outside. The team inside was working hard cleaning the dirt and grime off all the walls, scrubbing the walls, baseboards, doors, trim, and tearing up carpet from the floors.
After a hard morning’s work, we ate lunch, got changed, and prepared for the kids to come for the Bible STEM camp. We had about 18 kids kindergarten through seniors in high school from the Niihau island. The Niihau island is shortly off the coast of Kauai and has a population of about 100 people. Two men purchased the island years back and closed off the island to anyone except locals. The locals work for very low wages and many of them live very tough lives. These kids take a barge over rocky waters to Kauai and the church picks them up for church and other activities like our camp.
Our students had fun connecting with and teaching the Hawaiian students STEM lessons, tutoring, and Bible stories and crafts. The stem station taught about propulsion and energy by making catapults out of popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and spoons. The Bible station taught about creation and painted rocks together. The tutoring station helped kids in math with worksheets and mini lessons from Miss Widger.
We all had a delicious dinner together with the kids - the most mouthwatering chicken marinated and grilled by Kahu (pastor) Peter. By the end of the day our Hawaiian friends didn’t want to leave and couldn’t wait to come back tomorrow.
After the camp, the Valley team drove to a nearby beach to see the sea turtles come in before sunset and swim for a bit. We ended the night with devotions and some good time hanging out before bed.
These kids are working HARD and absolutely killing it! Keep praying for continued health, strength, and Holy Spirit energy to keep working hard this week. Pray for furthered connections with the kids and that hearts would be pushed closer to Christ.
In the morning, the students worked super hard renovating the church’s rental house inside and out. A team was outside working on the landscaping, tearing out roots, and planting plants outside. The team inside was working hard cleaning the dirt and grime off all the walls, scrubbing the walls, baseboards, doors, trim, and tearing up carpet from the floors.
After a hard morning’s work, we ate lunch, got changed, and prepared for the kids to come for the Bible STEM camp. We had about 18 kids kindergarten through seniors in high school from the Niihau island. The Niihau island is shortly off the coast of Kauai and has a population of about 100 people. Two men purchased the island years back and closed off the island to anyone except locals. The locals work for very low wages and many of them live very tough lives. These kids take a barge over rocky waters to Kauai and the church picks them up for church and other activities like our camp.
Our students had fun connecting with and teaching the Hawaiian students STEM lessons, tutoring, and Bible stories and crafts. The stem station taught about propulsion and energy by making catapults out of popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and spoons. The Bible station taught about creation and painted rocks together. The tutoring station helped kids in math with worksheets and mini lessons from Miss Widger.
We all had a delicious dinner together with the kids - the most mouthwatering chicken marinated and grilled by Kahu (pastor) Peter. By the end of the day our Hawaiian friends didn’t want to leave and couldn’t wait to come back tomorrow.
After the camp, the Valley team drove to a nearby beach to see the sea turtles come in before sunset and swim for a bit. We ended the night with devotions and some good time hanging out before bed.
These kids are working HARD and absolutely killing it! Keep praying for continued health, strength, and Holy Spirit energy to keep working hard this week. Pray for furthered connections with the kids and that hearts would be pushed closer to Christ.