Among Haitian children...

VBS kids tell Haitian orphans, ‘Jesus loves you’
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 Jul 30, 2010 

By Pamela Swithin

HOUSTON –– As a group of kindergarteners sit coloring, one small boy begins to sing “Jesus loves me.” Soon all the children join in. The coloring pages bear a note that reads “Jesus loves you” in Creole – the common language of Haiti. It’s a personalized message the children will include in kits of school supplies that will be sent to orphans in Haiti.

Westbury Baptist Church of Houston, Texas, used its Vacation Bible School this year to partner with Baptist Global Response in a project that would raise funds and assemble approximately 100 of the school supply kits, which consisted of Ziploc sandwich bags containing pencils, erasers, and crayons.

The children wanted to include something personal in the kits and decided to include the decorated “Jesus loves you” notes. At first, they only had the French translation of the phrase, until one of the day camp workers mentioned he had family members who spoke Creole.

As the children colored the notes and sang “Jesus loves me,” it “was a moment I’ll never forget,” said Beverly McDaniel, a church member who has helped with VBS for the past three years.

The idea for a project focused on Haiti came about as Hope McNeil, Westbury Baptist’s children’s minister decided to do a mission project for VBS through Baptist Global Response. The church had been involved with BGR over the past year – collecting money for Haiti relief and putting together three In-Home Care Kits, which contain supplies caregivers use to provide comfort for terminally ill patients. McNeil felt the In-Home Care Kits, with all their specific components, would be too difficult for the children to gather, so McDaniel asked BGR personnel in Haiti what would be most helpful. The word came back about individual school supply kits and the VBS team knew that was the answer for their kids. 

Westbury Baptist held the VBS June 14-18, with an average daily attendance of 281 children, preschool to fifth grade – the majority of whom were not church members.

Each day at VBS, the children attended a worship rally and then rotated through crafts, recreation, snack time, Bible study, and either a music or missions group. As the children in the missions group put together the school supply kits, they learned about Haiti and the January earthquake that ravaged the capital, Port-au-Prince. BGR personnel sent photos from a recent visit to Haiti, and the pictures were shown to the children.

“The entire project certainly touched the hearts of those involved,” McDaniel said. “(The children) were mesmerized by the scenes they saw. Each day as we reviewed countries we had ‘visited’ as a part of our mission stories, they always mentioned Haiti.

“Our Haiti project was the highlight of our missions rotation,” she said.

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An update on BGR relief efforts in Haiti is available as a downloadable bulletin insert. For information on how to get involved in Haiti relief, e-mail jbrown@gobgr.org or call toll free 866-974-5623.

Pamela Swithin is a collegiate correspondent and summer intern with Baptist Global Response.
 

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