Building a Lego-cy
Each year our club has our annual ” Building a Lego-cy” contest. Clubbers (in all clubs) are divided into four teams according to the color they play for during game time. For each quarter a clubber brings during this contest (we usually run the contest for three weeks) they earn a Lego block to add [...]
Unwanted Boy in India Finds His Eternal Family
Working in a brothel in India, Shanti hoped to give birth to a daughter who could grow up and earn money by working as a prostitute. So when her baby was a boy, she was angry. Instead of caring for her infant son, Rohit, Shanti starved him and pressed lit cigarettes into his back when [...]
Curiosity Replaces Crime with Christ in Kenya
Duncan lives far from the places where tourists visit when they come to enjoy the game preserves not far from his home in Kenya, East Africa. His home is in Kibera, one of the largest slums in the world—right in the middle of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city. With little to do in his free time, [...]
5 yr old Orphan in India Finds Love of Jesus
Meet Rachel, orphaned at age two, she is five now and the youngest to acknowledge Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior in the hostel run by Lutheran Evangelical Church, Jalpaiguri. She loves to go to school and her favorite food is potato curry. She also loves to play with water and the cat. [...]
Tough Kid in Kenya is Transformed
Millicent is from Kibera, the largest urban slum in Kenya. Like other children in Kibera, Millicent lives in a squalid, makeshift dwelling without electricity, running water, or sanitation. Any money her father makes is usually spent on alcohol. And because Millicent’s parents have difficulty paying the required fees, she rarely attends school. Millicent learned early [...]
Held Captive on Trinity Island in Ecuador
Background: Trinity Island is an area where fugitives hide from the police, continue their drug trades, and base their “hit man” operations. Everyone is armed. The area is divided into two sections, the Beret’s and the Jesse’s with each having a “boss” who has full control of the area . Anything done in that area [...]
Come and See the Living Goddess!
We had only been in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, for just an hour or so, when we were invited to see the living goddess. Naturally, we were intrigued. Enough that we gladly stepped through low arched entry ways into an extremely ornate open courtyard. Built in 1757, Kumari ghar is the home of the [...]
My Heart Broke a Little Bit More
My church kicked off an initiative last month called “The Least of These”. Our focus is to reach out to each of the people mentioned in Matthew 25:35-40, “For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you [...]
Loved and Valued by God
In many countries girls are devalued, under-appreciated, and even abused and discarded. I was reminded of this during my last trip to Kenya in August 2010. I was visiting a new Awana club that had just started in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp. Two of the Awana club leaders were young girls, 17 and [...]
A Child Will Lead Them
There is great insight in Isaiah 11. The Messianic Kingdom is portrayed here vividly: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the bear and the yearling together, and a little child will lead them.” You see the place of the child? Leading! This is [...]
Walking a Day in Their “Shoes”
As a kid do you remember complaining about having to do chores and having your parents or grandparents go into that long story about how when they were kids they had to walk five miles uphill one-way to school in the snow? While your parents or grandparents were just telling stories, the truth is that [...]
Nobody Loves a Leper
How do you describe rejection, despair and disfigurement–in one word? Leprosy. In Jesus’ day, it was the most dreaded disease imaginable. Same in our day. Leprosy, we’ve now seen firsthand, is alive and deadly in Bangladesh, the world’s most densely populated country. For anyone who missed the Sunday School stories, leprosy’s progressive symptoms include skin [...]
Created in His Own Image in Kenya
“God says: God created man in His own image, Genesis 1:27.” The teacher stood in front of about 80 children in a crowded room made of corrugated metal and had the students repeat the verse in unison. They did so obediently and attentively. It was large group at an Awana club in one of the [...]
Abused, Sold, then Abandoned—(all by the age of 4)
Of the 19 boys in the room, Rohit was among the youngest, at just five years old. For our benefit, he bravely stood up and shared with us his story of life as the son of a prostitute. “My mother’s name is Shanti,” he began. “She wanted a daughter, not a son. But unfortunately, I [...]
A View from the Top of the World
The distressed gray slum seemed at first just another chapter in a long book on human misery. We took a short walk down muddy paths so narrow, we had to walk single file. Turning a corner, we heard the voices. Young voices. MANY voices. And all of them singing. The building containing all those voices [...]
“Can you you give me Jesus’ mobile number?”
Eight year old Chancal smiles freely. Laughs easily. Is a charming child to engage in conversation. There is nothing on her face that even hints at the agony of her few years. Nothing to suggest she could be the poster child for children at risk. Chancal lives in Nagpur, India—the geographic center of the country—at [...]
Be the Hands of Jesus to a Child at Risk
I think that in almost every child of God there is a desire to reach out to the hurting, lost, broken, and suffering people in this world. That is why I think one of the most exciting things going on in Awana International is the Children-at-Risk Initiative. I actually got tears in my eyes when [...]
I Have a Name
Today ends our big internship project! Excited, but sad too. Just as a quick recap: all throughout the last 7 ½ weeks, we have been developing an initiative that involves all of the employees at Awana. It has been an incredible opportunity! We have taken an idea we are all passionate about (reaching kids who [...]
Enoch, a Child of War
“A Child of War.” Being in Awana has helped me to forget my past. Alt title: “God Things” Name: Enoch Malangu Muchima, 25 ys old. Place: Meheba Refugee Settlement, NW Zambia, Africa Awana Leader: Yes, trained 1 yr ago in the first SP training at Meheba Date: Interviewed April 27, 2011 Use restrictions: See copyright, [...]
