Day 6: The Poor Can be Counted Rich!

Saturday started with sleepy faces, but as children started to file in, their happy faces and energy go us all hyped, getting us ready to kick start the day.

We started with the lesson “The Poor Can be Counted Rich”. We taught the children that sharing and being generous does not make you poor, but instead God says that you are rich in Him through what you’ve done.

In the first large group of the day, we reviewed songs and scripture memory and listen to the story of a girl who had a serious disease of the Gimme Hands *gasp*. In Small Group 2, we learned about hospitality. Two beggars were hungry but the first beggar had 3 apples while the second beggar had 2. Even though the first beggar was starving, he still chose to show hospitality and share his third apple with his friend.

The next large group got us laughing at the story of a selfish rich man and his dog Pooch and Lazarus. The rich man unmercifully turned Lazarus away when he came to beg for food and set his dog on him. In the end, the rich man was sent to hell - he got what he deserved, while Lazarus went to heaven. Right before lunch, we had another small group where there was a small skit about two birds who were imprisoned but set “free” and didn't know it.

Parent presentation was a blast and the children were energetic and excited. What was interesting was that several student assistants were picked for the last large group skit, and I felt they did an amazing job acting! They acted in the skit called "The Race of Life" where no one knew when the end of the race was, and you had to persevere and not be distracted by the things of the world. Sadly, our time together at the KL Children’s Institute came to an end and we bid all the children goodbye.

Our last day in Kuala Lumpur ended with a really delicious dinner was provided by various ATI Families and we ended the day grabbing coffee at a nearby cafe and prepared for our travel to Singapore.

Deborah Leong

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Day 5: Exploring KL's sugar, corn and beans

To start Friday off the group of 30 left at 11am, walking to our first adventure on the train. This was a fun trip to the Twin Towers where we enjoyed lunch and a crazy desert called cendol. Cendol is shaved ice, sugar, corn, beans and durian syrup. 

My favourite time was when we broke up into small groups and answer questions that the staff made for us. This was such a cool time to get to know our team members and to see how we all want God at the center of our lives. 

We then took a train to our next destination, Central Market. It is a large building filled with vendors and beautiful items! There was also a very unique spot with a pool of fish, which I of course, needed to explore and see what it was. The group of girls and I found out that it was a pool to put your feet in and let the fish eat your dead skin. Next thing I know, we are sticking our feet into this pool and fish are jumping at us to eat our feet. Best fun ever!

With beautiful clean feet we move to China town for a crazy fun experience of moving up and down the streets lined with vendors.

We were all so thankful that it did not rain because it had rained almost every day this week.

To end this amazing day we enjoyed fruits: mangosteens, rambutan and lychee!

Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; his love endures forever"

- Adlai Welfel

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Day 4: A meaningful lunch on the lawn

This morning began with our first youth-to-youth enounter of this trip. We suited down in our brand-spanking-blue team shirts and drove to a partk. We met with about 17 young people who were from various places.

First we played a running game in the mud and hot sun. We then split into small groups for introduction.

Sam talked to all of us about learning to change our actions, not by focusing on trying to stop our bad actions, but by conditioning ourselves to do good by keeping the scripture in our hearts.

Then each small group spent time in discussion and prayer. It is wonderful to see people with many different surroundings coming together to seek the Lord. Afterward we had free time with frisbees, and lunch on the lawn.

The teachers met in the afternoon for training and before it started we played some imporomtu monkey in the middle. The inner child in each of us must be coming forth because of our time with so many energitic kids. Jolynn led our teacher training, she is very up-beat, with practical wisdom for our lessons.

For dinner we had pizza, quite good lah!

In the evening, my team-mates, Dorcas and Elijah led our students in hard physical exercise to teach them about suffering. They stopped frequently to give the kids a choice between ending the exercise regime for a small sweet, or continuing on with it to earn a large pile of sweets and treats. 

In large group, two new stories were debuted with great power. They taught us about the principle suffering from the perspective of Papa Leonardo’s pizza Del Maria, and Donald Duck the Emperor Penguin.

The children on our team were full of energy, but maintained great control of themselves. It is fun watching their faces as new thoughts click into place. I am privileged to be able to be here and work with these children and my team. 

- Martha Strickler

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Day 3: Through the eyes of Krystal

Hello everyone!

This is Krystal reporting from KL, Malaysia. We started the day playing a really fun icebreaker, having a really good team bonding time. Then we moved on to do personal devotions & team devotions. 

Our focus was on examining the condition of our hearts. I was struck by how the Bible describes our hearts to be “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9). Victor gave us some really good questions to chew on. What are my heart’s treasures? Do I truly love God with all my heart? How do I overcome this wicked heart that the Bible says I have? 

To be honest with myself, my most treasured possession would be my phone. I would say that I love God, but with a divided heart. I realise that my heart is full of self and sin, and that I need Christ to sanctify me everyday. I know I needed to submit to Christ but I wasn’t fully willing or prepared to. But as I was gradually praying, I pleaded with God to make me willing to repent and submit. I pray that God will continue to work in my heart gradually, Day-to-day, to become more and more Christ-like 

After lunch, we spent the afternoon doing teacher training and preparing or CI that night. I was praying for ideas and creativity to teach our group of children, and also for a good time bonding with them. I’m very grateful to see that the kids were more responsive than yesterday night, and were more cooperative, especially during large groups. I prayed that God would give me strength to love each and every child as he/she is, and not try to change them into becoming the ‘perfect’ child I wanted them to be. 

I would like to raise some prayer requests. Please pray that the whole team will continue to grow in unity of spirit, for our health as many of us are now starting to lose our voices. Pray that each individual CI team would have synergy working together & grow in our relationships as we learn how to teach together.

Thank you for being our prayer partners! Do continue to be updated through this blog! We will keep you posted.

Blessings!

Signing off, Krystal Ling

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Day 2: Teaching with a learning heart

2/6/15

The trip so far has been very has been very eventful. God has taught me to not see myself as a teacher in CI (which is how I’ve always seen myself) but as a friend to the kids. And the more I tried to become a friend with the children in CI, the more they wanted to bond and connect with me and find it very encouraging to see that.

Also, the trip this time has been a very strong reminder about what I have been teaching the kids during previous CIs but also a reminder to me to apply what I have taught the kids into my own life.

The devotions this time round were a lot more related to the lessons that we’re teaching the children. I find that we’re teaching the children. I find that very helpful because we can learn what we need to teach the children first before we teach them. 

I hope the Lord continues to teach us more about Himself through the leaders, our fellow CI teaches and the kids.

- Jaedon Sia 

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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! 

Our shy kids became quite talkative and responsive because they were really enthusiastic about the lessons and craft! Praise God!


-
Eliza Tan

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Thanksgiving for God's Provision

In the runway towards the CI, God has answered EACH prayer. A couple of months ago, we needed more teachers to sign up. Today, we have a total of 29 teachers for the Kuala Lumpur week, one of our biggest teams yet!

With teachers in place, our next matter of importance was the number of children in each seminar. We have been praying for the numbers to grow and things looked impossible. It had been a lesson on prayer & trust that God was in charge and we are not in control.

Today, we found out that we have 60 students! Praise the LORD! Next up, another thing God provided is a brand new theme this year called the Power of God, an exciting and relevant curriculum written by IBLP Taiwan. 

To see it all coming together was amazing. We all gathered in my home. Team members from Malaysia, Indonesia & Singapore rolled in. The excitement was filling the air! It was awesome receiving each team member, people we have prayed for and God has provided :)

We went through a time for the team to understand what the trip will be spiritually as well as holistically. (More of that to be shared here on the blog!). That very night, everyone participated in a Simulation of a Children’s Institute small group. Over the years, we have found that simulations REALLY get everyone into the “mood” of the Children’s Institute and prepares you for what you’re in for! (And starts you praying and preparing more than you did before the trip!)

Everyone was already bonding by the end of the night and we look forward to tomorrow!

To end off my thoughts at the start of CI 2015, I think it is necessary to step back and praise our amazing God who has brought us together 

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46

This year more than ever, I cannot help but see that He is orchestrating every single detail this trip. From insufficient teachers, insufficient students, to the biggest team we’ve had in KL. Wow, praise the Lord! He’s got this, and He is in control. I’m so excited to begin a 3 week journey with our team, learning to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul & strength.

To God be the glory always!

Eunice Peh
Staff Member

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