Duck Duck Chicken

Two weeks ago, a group of little girls from the neighborhood met me at my gate.  After the usual round of hugs and tickles, they told me they wanted to have Bible study.  I asked them what they wanted to study, and they said they wanted to hear Bible stories.  Well, okay!  Thus began the Saturday morning kids' club in my backyard.

It's all pretty simple.  They come, drink some water, eat some cookies.  I tell a Bible story, and we talk about it.  (Getting them to talk is like pulling teeth, but it happens every now and then.)  then we play games.  Lots of games.

It's pretty clear that I haven't worked in children's ministry for a while, because I couldn't think of any games to play without balls or jumpropes or some kind of materials.  All that came to mind was Duck Duck Goose.  So I started trying to explain.  It's a simple game, so that part was easy.  I asked them about ducks, and found out that "duck" in Lugbara is "mbata".  But then we hit a snag, because a goose is also called "mbata."  I did some quick thinking and remembered that chicken is "au"  (ah-oo).  So we played "Mbata Mbata Au"—Duck Duck Chicken.

I wanted to play Red Light, Green Light with them, but how do you explain a stop light to kids who haven't even seen a stop sign?  So we turned it into 1-2-3 Go instead.  Today was bright and sunny (and hot!) so we played "Endrika"- shadow tag… which they all loved.

And now I have officially come to the end of my game repertoire.  Any suggestions for good, non-neck breaking games for 3-to-9 year olds are appreciated.  (Thanks, Red Rover, but I'll pass!)  Please pray for the Saturday morning kids' club—that we'll be able to communicate well with these sweet friends, that the national kids will develop good friendships with the MK kids on our team, and that they all would come to understand just how much Jesus loves them!