DAY 4 - The Finale & The Future

AND THEN CAME FRIDAY MORNING.
What a week this has been! And finally the opportunity to wrap things up and send these great people back to their villages better equipped to plant the Word of God in the hearts of the next generation.
After some spirited and worshipful singing, Tom opened the Word for a brief final encouragement.




Cindy then shared with them how they can use RESURRECTION EGGS in teaching about many different aspects of the Gospel story. Each attendee received a couple dozen eggs and a whole bunch of ideas to take back with them.

Ellie then shared her final thoughts with them from the Word and led them through some very meaningful steps of commitment toward being faithful and effective Sunday School teachers. They stood and read in unison (a beautiful sound!) powerful statements of commitment, and then each one signed the document. They embraced this moment with great seriousness and conviction. An appropriate culmination to the conference.

But before we sent them home, we had so much more to give them (literally!) Remember that we had packed 7 suitcases full of materials? And that Kathy had already shipped over a bunch of boxes? Well, they weren't just for us to use at the conference, but to give away. SO, we ended the conference by calling out numbers (their notebooks were all numbered) and letting them come forward to choose whatever they wanted - from the Abeka curriculum/pictures, the puppets & masks and the flannelgraph sets. Was this ever fun to watch! Like kids in a Candy Store.

And then we gave away the COS banners so that they could be hung up in little, humble Karen church buildings spread throughout northern Thailand as a reminder of the "hands of friendship" that join us together from this day forward.

The last sight as we pulled away from the conference center was this Karen girl saying goodbye in the gracious Thai manner. But this is not really goodbye, because this is also how they say "hello." May there be many new "hello's" in the future.

The final "wrap" of the day was a little Team outing into the city for dinner and some browsing & buying in the "Night Market." We had a fun time, but "lovin' up on little people" never got lost in the fun and in the hussle & bustle of the Market - by guess who?

In that this whole week has been about getting the message of God's love to little people, we think that this is an appropriate photo on which to end our conference week.

STAY TUNED, THOUGH, FOR AN UPDATE ON OUR WEEKEND UP IN THE VILLAGES, W A Y, W A Y U P in the boonies.