The "Southeast Asia CI" Blog: Pre-CI meet & Day 1: WE HAVE BEGUN!

On Sunday, we all first arrived at the Peh’s house. After playing some get to know you games and eating a hearty dinner of mixed rice (a new experience for some Americans!), we settled comfortably back down and sang some worship songs as a great start to the rest of the evening.

The highlight of the night was small group simulations! In them, some of us were appointed as leaders or assistants and some acted as different types of children we might encounter.

I personally learned a lot from the simulations, especially on the fact that all kids have their “on” and “off’ keys, namely things that stimulate them or turn them off. We as leaders need to be sensitive to the kids’ “on” and “off” keys and look for ways to secure their attention so we can teach them valuable things from scripture.

The next morning, we headed to the CI venue where Victor led us in a devotion about desires, dreams, and motives. It was really intriguing subject and a good reminder to love God above all else. For even though our dreams may be “good”, once they take God’s Place in our lives they become idols. He also talked about how it is important to personally own our faith and have an active relationship with God instead of treating christianity as the religion we merely inherit from our parents.

After teachers’ training, it was time for our first night of CI! Reflecting on it, I feel that it went really well for the first night. My fellow team members are Eliel (leader) and Eric (fellow assistant).

I would categorise my nights experience for my team as in between survival and success, but leaning towards success! :) Although many of our team’s kids were a few shy or had a pretty negative spirit in the beginning, they really started to open up after we made an effort to talk to them and to get to know them one on one. it was an awesome experience, and I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of this week!