By Carol Brey-Casiano

This trip to Honduras (this summer) was my third missions trip with Charlie’s Lunch Ministries. On the two previous trips—both to Guatemala—I brought books for the children at the various sites we visited, along with a few coloring books and crayons to occupy them. But this trip was different—we were going to be with the same group the entire week. I saw this as a unique opportunity to spend time teaching them about the Bible and the Lord.
I planned Bible stories to teach the children, with accompanying activities:

Noah and the ark (we made “arks” out of paper plates)

Jonah and the whale (we made “whales” from paper bags!) and

The Life of Jesus (we colored pictures of Jesus and talked about His miracles.)

After planning the activities, I found out (about two days before we were supposed to leave) that Sam Stewart wanted me to conduct a “mini-VBS” for the church we were visiting, Nueva Vision. Alicia Storbeck from Auburn, AL and Nancy Efaw of El Paso helped conduct the VBS. Never having conducted a VBS in Spanish before, I was glad I had a few things planned! We also had about 200 books to give away—many donated by Lectorum Publications in New York.
We actually had two daily—an informal one each morning for any local children who showed up, and the scheduled VBS session in the afternoon. In the morning, I would tell stories and the children would color pictures from the Bible coloring books I brought, while Nancy and I prepared the crafts for the afternoon session. We were often assisted by some of the children, who demonstrated such helping hearts!

In the afternoon, the children participating in Charlie’s Lunch would take part in the VBS, joined by other children from the neighborhood—about 70 children each day. Alicia Storbeck led us in song, and I would tell a Bible story before the craft. Craft time was pandemonium; but it was wonderful to see the children getting excited about a couple of paper plates that were magically transformed into an “ark” full of animals!

I was unprepared for the reaction we received when we distributed the books. They were amazingly popular with children and adults alike, and all were extremely disappointed when we ran out. My motto for next year is: “More books!” When people have a hunger for knowledge and learning, I’ve found you can never have enough books.
Our VBS experience in Honduras blessed us immensely. The children were extremely enthusiastic (though trying our patience at times), but very loving and always ready for a hug. More prayer might have calmed them, something to try next time! All in all, everyone learned something.
The children were hopefully strengthened in their knowledge of the Bible and their faith, while our VBS team learned more about working with large numbers of children—as well as the importance of always having plenty of crayons on hand!