SAGALA hits Dubbo

What a turnout!

SAGALA (Salvation Army Guarding And Legion Activities) has been running for two weeks now and the number of kids has been awesome! The first night there were 24 kids... 8 in my group. We started the night with a couple of crazy games, and if anyone doubted whether we had enough kids, the sheer volume of screaming and laughter would've been more than enough to convince the skeptic. They whole hall was just booming with the voices of happy kids - it really was amazing. Mine and the other leaders' faces were glowing with excitement too.

After the games we lined up in our sections with each leader behind their group. Sarah explained all the bits of the flag parade and finally I played the national anthem on the cornet while they all sang. I was way nervous and I had a burning feeling in my solar plexus, and ultimately played crap :-) I bummed every note above high D - but nobody seemed to care.

We broke off into our groups and I soon learnt that I need to prepare more stuff for the boys. Three in particular got "bored" and started acting a bit silly. The rest of them enjoyed themselves and did some nice work in their books.

The night ended with the closing flag parade, followed by a short devotion.

WEEK 2
Even better than the first! I organised the game tonight - 4 teams, first player gets two balloons and has to keep them off the ground (easy!). The second team member comes in and is given another two balloons - the two of them have to keep 4 balloons in the air. This goes on until there are 5 kids keeping 10 balloons in the air. It's actually NOT that easy! Then once the whole team is in there, I throw in an extra balloon every 10 seconds. Most teams got to about 14 balloons before one dropped on the ground. The best team set the record of 17 balloons. It was quite a good fun game (invented by meeeee!).

We did the flag parade (I had nominated Jarrad the week before to parade the Adventurers flag), then I played the National Anthem again. I prepared well this time... and I also transposed the anthem down a tone, so it only went up to high Eb. Easy! And I didn't bum a single note.

In the Adventurers group we had a good night. Two of the 3 aforementioned boys from the week before were absent, but another soon filled the spotlight as troublemaker. There was not an excuse of "boredom" this time, because I had planned things for them. I had a private chat with the guy at the end and hopefully he will come back next week with a different attitude. I heard later that his younger sister also caused trouble in the Sunbeams group. Perhaps there's an issue at home.

Caleb also came this week, and a new boy - Matthew (which makes 3 Matthews in my group! How confusing).

I'm looking forward to the 20th August. We will be enrolling AT LEAST 24 kids! Certainly a day to be celebrated in the Salvation Army.

I thank God for all these kids. I pray I can be a positive influence on their life - especially as they edge towards those volatile teenage years.