We wanted to do another program for the children at the Ngaliema Hospital, after the positive response to our program last Christmas.
We had performed here before at Christmas time in 2008, for the children in the hospital’s general waiting room. Whether the kids were waiting for medical treatment, or only accompanying a sick family member or a relative, these children would most often be there for hours. Our program was held in an attempt to give some cheer to the kids spending part of their holidays in the hospital.
With the theme of Easter in mind, we set the date to the day before Good Friday. The director happily agreed to us holding another program, and helped us with necessary preparations, including putting up a poster in the waiting room, advertising the event!
To gather the children, we began with a short Video on the Life of Jesus.
A friend of ours had kindly printed and made many copies of a beautiful coloring page for the children. These were distributed to all the children as they listened to the story behind the picture they received, a parable to the Easter message for children, called 'The Little Red Hen'.
When the story was finished the children all eagerly repeated with us a prayer to ask Jesus to come into their hearts and stay with them forever.
After the prayer, we passed out crayons and helped the children to color in their pictures.
One little girl said that she didn't have crayons at her house, and we knew that this wasn't uncommon. These kids thoroughly enjoyed their chance to color.
It was difficult to get them to put their coloring pages away when the time came for our next activity-a lively action game.
The next event was an impromptu play of the Easter story, with all the children as our enthusiastic actors. We had brought cloth with us that was quickly fashioned into costumes.
Without a rehersal, the children performed marvellously. The parents and the others in the waiting room all loved it!
Afterwards, we passed out tracts to everyone in the waiting room, as well as serving cool drinks, provided by the hospital, to the children.
We hope that this Easter will remain a memorable one for these children, and we look forward to more programs here in the future!
Project Hope is a non-profit missionary-based humanitarian association consisting of individuals who dedicate their full-time to voluntary work, using our abilities to the fullest in service to others. We are non-salaried volunteers who are dedicated to the common goal of spreading God’s love and improving people’s lives.
