Masvingo!!!

I'm SO in love with Africa! It's so beautiful here, the countryside is beautiful, the people are beautiful, I feel at home here. I'm settling in well so far here in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. My Celebration Zimbabwe family is taking good care of me. On Wednesday we welcomed a team from Life Church of Omaha, Nebraska that traveled here with Dan Ohlerking of Children's Cup. The team of 15 is an awesome bunch and so super excited to be working with the kids! And we are so happy to have them here!

On Thursday we traveled to our Masvingo church campus (about 4 hours away by bus) to kick off the Kids Christmas parties. I love Masvingo! It's been 2-3 years since I was last there and it was so great to be back there with Ps Samson and the children. We held 2 Christmas parties for the children at 2 different schools, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Wow, what fun!!!! At the 2 parties we had about 675 children! Go God!! The parties were divided into different stations of the kids to rotate to. We has face-painting station (Linda, you would have been awesome here doing that!!), sack-race station, soccer station, water-slide station, dance station (that's where I was all day!), Nativity drama station, memory-verse station, and bouncy house station. These African children were SO happy and seeing there smiles was just priceless. All the kids want to give you high-fives and get their picture taken. It just brings me such joy. I feel extremely blessed to be here with the children. They mean SO much to me.

Like I said I was at the dance station all day. I must have danced for 6 hrs straight! Everyone kept saying "Where do you get the energy Shannon?", and I say it's all from God! These kids can seriously dance, I mean seriously dance! I learned some African dances and then I got the opportunity to teach the kids 2 songs with dance motions that I know. I taught them Hillsong's "Take it All" and "Mighty to Save". They are such good learners. They have such excitement for dancing and singing, I love it! Hearing them shout "Take Take Take it All" at the top of their lungs I know just makes God smile so much. And it makes my heart smile everytime I think about it. It's their new favorite song now. I even heard some of the children afterwards walking around saying "Take Take Take it All!".

It's all about Jesus. That's why we do this. The kids have fun at all the different game stations but teaching them the love of Jesus is the most important thing. After the game stations we brought all the kids together for a lesson about the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. Then all the children got presents (jumpropes and bracelets for the girls, and bouncy balls and balloons for the boys), and they then got to eat a wonderful meal of chicken, rice, and cabbage. This means so much to them. The children here will be talking about this for days!

When the day was over my feet hurt, my body was exhausted but it didn't matter. It was all worth it for the children and for Jesus! It brings me such joy! I spent the 4 hr ride home happy in my heart and ready to go back again and again.

Tonite is Ignite youth rally and tomorrow is another 2 Christmas parties for the children at Sibomvu and How Mine. So excited!!

Be Blessed!

Shannon

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