Sharing Games and Crafts Ideas for the Joseph Bible Story in a VBS Camp

The annual vacation bible school took place at the beginning of August in Waterloo

After our two weeks of holiday in Asia, we were busy as soon as we landed in Canada.

We had a week of leadership training for the teens prior to the Vacation Bible Camp the following week.

There was a leadership camp prior to the children's VBS day camp

This year was the first year we ran a week of leadership camp for the teens and the responses were very good!

Leadership camp prepared the leaders for their roles in VBS

Without any advertising, only through words of mouth, we had fourteen teens signed out for the week long camp!

  This year our bible stories focused on Joseph, his relationship with his brothers and his rise to power in Egypt.

Most leaders felt confident to teach their group of kids

During the leadership camp, the teens learned the songs, something about teaching children and the bible stories.

Michelle came back to help co-direct the camp

They also had time to practice their drama skits for the VBS children.

The leaders enjoyed learning meal preparation

The leaders learned to developed their leadership skills, gain independence and confidence.

They did a fine job working with kitchen equipment

The even learned how to prepared their own meals.

The leaders prepared their own meals for the whole week!

In fact, surprisingly learning to prepare for their own lunches turned out to be one of their most favourite activities!







Some of the leaders came up with some creative crafts and games and I would like to share them here so that other VBS directors and leaders can also use them in the future.

Leaders cut out the Joseph coat for the children before class

Craft # 1
Joseph's Coloured Coat

Step 1 - This was a craft prepared for kids aged 5 -7 years old.

The leader prepared a template for Joseph's coat and pre cut a number of pieces prior to our craft time.

The dye/ paint were made out of shaving cream and food colouring!

 Step 2 - Get a tray and put about half of a small can of shaving cream in it and stir it up to make it foamy.

Add a few drops of food colouring in the foam and mix the colours.

Each child takes turn and lay one side of their paper coat to this colourful mixture.

The paper will pick up the colour. Let dry on a flat surface

The youngest kids did this craft with good results

The same craft can be modified for older children or children with different learning abilities with the following changes :

- Have a few templates cut out, pass them among the children.

- Children trace the template on white paper and each cut out a coat

- Each child colours his/ her coat with their favourite colour

- For brighter / older children, they can draw designs on the coat and discuss how this special coat make Joseph's brothers feel

Craft # 2
Making Chains  - Joseph Trusted God When He Was Chained in Prison




- Leaders show children how to make 2 inch folds on pieces of paper,  can use recycled paper or old newspaper or magazines
- Children cut out strips of paper along the folds

- Using clue or tape, children make loops out of the strips of paper















- Attach the loops together to make two chains for themselves

 ( These chains can be used for a game in which children can race each other with these chains attached to their hands and feet like Jopseph being held in prison )

- Or children can make a long chain to decorate their room



Game # 1
Joseph Running Away from his brothers who were jealous of him

Walking in pairs, children are safe from their enemies

Choose a couple of children as Joseph's brothers to chase the other children.

Joseph and all other children will walk in pairs. When they walk in pairs, they will be safe from Joseph's brothers.

Every 15 seconds, a caller will yield " Joseph goes home" Then Joseph and the children leave their partners and run towards home.

After 5 seconds, the caller yields" Joseph be careful!" all the children have to be find and attach themselves to a partner to be safe.
These who are left standing alone or were touched before they find a partner become Joseph's brothers who will chase after the other children. The game ends when all the children get home safely or when there are too many caught by Joseph's brothers.

Game # 2- Joseph getting away from his brothers

Children need to know three key words and their actions in this game


Row - Have all the players standing in rows and extending their hands in full. They can be 5 or 7 people to a row.

Alley - All the players in the entire rows turn clockwise 90 degrees

Post - All the players stand where they are and put their hands down






Pick one person to be Joseph who is running away from his brother.
Pick another person as Joseph's brother chasing after Joseph.
Pick one person being the caller of the three words - Rows, Alleys, Post
Joseph and his brother have to be running within the perimeter of the players forming rows and alleys.

Listening to the caller's instructions, all the other players stand and form Rows or Alleys blocking Joseph's brother from getting to Joseph.

However, if the instruction is Post. then all the players will have their hands down and Joseph can be caught easily by his brother as there will not be any barriers between them.








These games and craft gave the VBS children a lot of fun!

Leaders taking a lunch break

 I was very thankful and honoured to have worked with such a great group of young people!

















Thank you, Lord for providing this group of great helpers to run the VBS camp this year!

R.T.
Director - TECA
Leaders Training Camp &
VBS Camp
Waterloo, Ontario

Taipei Airport - A Unique Airport with Interesting Waiting Lounges of Various Themes

Taipei Airport

We arrived at the Hong Kong Airport with plenty of time for lunch before boarding the plane to Taipei and then catching our connecting flight to Toronto, Canada

 Waiting Lounges with various themes, Taipei Airport

We always fly with either Air Canada or Cathy Air since they are the biggest airlines operating in Asia. This time we flew with EVA Airline from Hong Kong  to Toronto via Taipei Airport with a stopover time there of about three hours.

In our travel, I love exploring the different airports at the same time o stretch my legs and see what kind of shops and services they have to offer.

Taiwanese Ceremonial Waiting Lounge

The Taipei Airport is not the most modern nor is it the biggest in Asia. At first glance, it appeared that there was nothing to write home about.













 Since we had about an hour to kill, we took a leisurely walk about and explore the various shops.

Numerous shops can be found in airports everywhere to entice travelers' spending

During our numerous trips, we found that though airports in each city look a little different.

However, they are very similar in that in every airport, there are shops and brand name stores and restaurants trying to lure travelers to spend money buying their products at the last minute before catching their flights.

We found the Taipei Airport charming and unique.  After passengers clear security and customs waiting for  their flights,  there are actually something interesting for them to experience.

A Waiting Lounge with a floral theme

The waiting areas in the Taipei Airport are not just lined up with restaurants, shops and more shops. But it has been divided into a number of theme waiting areas such as the one on the left with a floral theme of Taiwan's most famous flowers.





Each one of these theme waiting areas offers travelers a comfortable space to relax, wait, and something to read about should they be interested in that particular theme.

For example, we saw the Music Waiting Area.

The Music Waiting Lounge - Taipei Airport, Taiwan

The Skyline Waiting Lounge

The Skyline Waiting Lounge - decorated with model planes and hot air balloons and other flying objects. These colourful decorations must set off the imagination of those kids interested in aviation!

Decorated in bright pink colour with small tables and play equipment for kids to explore while waiting for their next flight with parents, this was a waiting lounge with a  Hello Kitty theme. 

 

Display of a Taiwanese artist's work at the airport

We liked the traditional wood furnishing at the Taiwan Image Waiting Lounge which was showcasing the arts and crafts of Taiwanese citizens at the time of our visit.




We admired the pieces in the Art Gallery displaying the artwork of a well known Taiwanese photographer.

Art gallery showcasing as artist's work at the airport

We visited a number of stores selling merchandise to travellers.
One of the stores sold local crafts items and also highlighted the aboriginal people of the island with a map and related information about them.

What I really like was the Library Waiting area where it has been decorated with book shelves and filled with reading material.

The E library Waiting Lounge at the Taipei Airport looked inviting and lined up with books

Cushions were placed on the floor should one wish to relax, sit down and read.

Travellers reading in the e Reading Waiting Lounge

In fact, we saw some people doing just that and a girl was enjoying some reading time with her mother.

I enjoyed wandering through the different colourful waiting areas with various themes and reading material and related displays.

I only wished we had more time so that we could explore the Taipei Airport more and see all the different themed areas.  At least  we could learn something while waiting for our connecting flight without being bombarding with only stores bombarding us with material goods and tempting us to buy more things we may not need in our lives!

R.T.
Taipei Airport
Taipei, Taiwan

   

Taking a Direct Bus from Guangzhou to Hong Kong Airport

Schedule of the daily direct buses going from Guangzhou to Hong Kong

There are a number of ways to go from Guangzhou to the Hong Kong Airport by bus:

   1. By Guangzhou bus to HK, then take the HK transit system directly to the airport

  2.  By train from Guangzhou to HK, then take the HK bus to the airport

   3. By special coaches from Guangzhou, going directly to the HK airport

Rosedale Hotel - where we purchased coach tickets from Guangzhou to Hong Kong Airport

We chose option 3 with the coaches operated privately by a local tour company.

We bought the tickets the day before and  were picked up at the Rosedale Hotel at 7:30am.

We took a taxi from our hotel to board the coach going directly to Hong Kong 

The whole bus ride  including clearing customs would take about  four hours.

We passed by a few famous areas

First, we board a big highway coach at the Rosedale hotel.

The coach made a couple more stops on its way to pick up more passengers.

We enjoyed the scenery from Guangzhou to Hong Kong in our coach

After we crossed over the Chinese border, we were transferred  to a van as there were 6 of us going directly to the HK airport only.

Entering  Hong Kong by bus from Guangzhou was not too bad 

The best part about this ride was that we did not need to get off the vehicle at all when crossing to the Hong Kong immigration  as the travel company handled the crossing from within the vehicle with all our documents and information ready.

Chinese Immigration Inspection 

This ride cost 220 RMB per person which was about $ 45.00 Canadian.  I knew we could pay a much cheaper fare by taking the public bus, but we would have to run around changing buses a few times going through the custom twice and dragging all our luggage once at the Chinese border and then again at the HK custom.

Waiting to clear customs at the Hong Kong border

The direct coach was worth it as it saved us all these troubles and the possibility of missing one of the public buses and possibly causing us to miss our plane back to Canada.

Patience was required when crossing border from one place to another

Crossing the border from Guangzhou, China into Hong Kong took a little while as the custom officials poured over the documents carefully.

People just needed to be patient and wait for the process to finish.

We arrived at the Hong Kong Airport with plenty of time for lunch

It was a very comfortable, air conditioned ride.

We arrived at the Hong Kong Airport at around 12pm without any incident and with plenty of time for a nice lunch there.

A great way to end our adventure in China!

Tips - Whether you are taking the public bus or the private coach, you need to be aware that there is no washroom facility on the long distance buses in China. Therefore, you need to be prepared for the ride and not to drink too much liquid in the morning.

R.T.

Guangzhou Bus to
Hong Kong

Lychee Bay Scenic Area - One of Must See Places of Guangzhou City

Knowing that our trip in China was coming to an end and this was our last evening in Guangzhou. J.  called  to take us out at 5:30 pm. We went to his place and finished helping him with some decoration.


He took us to the Lychee Bay Scenic Area - a beautiful place with traditional buildings and houses

A huge traditional Chinese lantern placed  in the Lychee Bay scenic area

This is not a man made heritage village specially built to attract tourists and lure them to spend their dollars, but a genuine place where people have been living and working for generations and hundreds of years.

Entrance to the famous restaurant in the Lychee Bay area

Off course we had a meal at the very famous restaurant where well known political leaders and celebrities have frequented!

We had a great meal and conversation in the restaurant! 

We enjoyed a very nice meal and great conversation. We had not seen J. for a long time! I couldn’t remember the last time when we had such a good conversation with him!

A beautiful place with old heritage buildings

Buildings in the Lychee Bay Scenic Area

After dinner, we strolled around this pretty traditional place, with a small river winding underneath old bridges.

A beautiful night view in the Lychee Bay area

Old houses and buildings lining both sides of the river, some were decorated and lit up with the unmistakable traditional red Chinese lanterns.

A beautiful place for an evening stroll!

We must come back during the day  as we could not take too many pictures or see the place clearly.

J. was mesmerized by the traditional Chinese buildings and the beauty of place. The awesome scenery of the restaurant facing the river took our breath away. I said to J. that this would be the restaurant where his wedding reception should take place. He agreed happily!

Though it was well past 9 p.m. there were still people walking around and some shops were open. We bought some tea at the tea shop which offered a pretty good selection of local herbal teas.

We went back to our hotel where we watched a little CCTV  program together. Later I shared a passage and prayer with him. That was a long time since we shared a bible passage with him; we prayed together too. Amen!!!

We hugged and said good bye. I was sad that we had to leave Guangzhou the next day!

R.T.
Last night in Guangzhou
China