P2P: A Day at Cuddle Trust

After a quick breakfast, our household headed over to the other house full of P2P-ers and we set off in the two CUDDLE Trust branded ‘buckie’ vehicles to head up to the Fundani container classroom in Wolwerivier.

We set up the learning and outdoor play space ready for our first day of Bible Holiday Clubs whilst Michael & Lilandi used the vehicles to pick up all the children from the local community… 30 children arrived, packed into the two vehicles that the six of us had previously ‘filled’ on our way there! Children just kept appearing and jumping out from what seemed like a TARDIS!

The children were excited to see us and were mostly full of smiles, with a couple less so sure at first! After collecting their name tags, they were divided into two groups - one doing the Bible lesson and craft activity inside the container classroom with Jessie, Laura & Ffion on the theme of the Kingdom, with the other group joining Lucy, Nathan and myself outside to play group games. Amongst the games played, firm favourites were ‘Over and Under’ (passing the ball alternately over heads and under (through) their legs in a race between two teams), plus the old favourites of ‘Musical Chairs’ and ‘Simon Says’! There was much fun, laughter, enthusiastic dancing and some good healthy competition, together with learning the skills of working together as a team to achieve better results.

Children at the Fundani container classroom proudly displaying their ‘Kingdom crowns’

Children enjoying learning a new game (“Over and Under”) at the Fundani classroom

After the first Bible lesson and activity session had finished, the two groups joined together for a break to enjoy some fresh fruit and fresh air outside, with the children from the first group proudly wearing their ‘Kingdom Crowns’, before swapping over to play the games outside with us. When our Bible time and games activities had finished, we all joined together to enjoy learning and singing some Bible-themed songs together, mostly in English, but also in Afrikaans too. Songs with actions were definitely the most popular and we enjoyed teaching them a couple of new ones, which they learned quickly and sung with great enthusiasm and volume!

Teaching the children new Bible songs at the Fundani centre

We then thanked God for our food before serving the children a hot meal and enjoying more songs together. This was followed by the distribution of food parcels to each child to take home. We had prepared these the day before in an efficient production line setup, ensuring that every bag had the same content of food, tea bags, vitamins and toiletry items for each family. After goodbyes, the children piled back into the two vehicles and were taken back home to their nearby community in Wolwerivier whilst we tidied up the classroom.

Handing out food parcels to the children at the end of Bible Club at the Fundani classroom

Children piling into the back of the ‘buckie’ to get taken back to their community

The afternoon was spent back at one of our host family homes where we worked on the resources that we were creating for a creche (pre-school) setting that we are visiting later in the week: colourful number line, alphabet and rainbow colour chart murals, a shape sorting mat and some two-sided emoji cushions for the children to use to express their emotions.

Educational resources ready to be hung on a wall at Tamzen Tots’ pre-school in Hopefield

Emoji cushions for the preschool children to hold to express their emotions

Hard at work making the pre-school resources

There are so many beautiful beaches in the local area, so we were able to enjoy visiting a different beach today (Dolphin Beach), for a wind-swept, sand-blasted, invigorating walk along the beach whilst watching the skills of the local kite surfers enjoying the huge breaking waves with the beautiful backdrop of Table Mountain in the background. Such a beautiful setting for us to admire the beauty of God’s creation whilst standing in awe of the incredible power of the wind and waves.

Re-energising on Dolphin Beach with the beautiful view of Table Mountain behind

Refreshed and re-energised, we returned to the host family home for another fabulous home-cooked meal together, followed by Bible reading and discussion. This was followed by our daily reflection time where we took it in turns to offer our gratitude for specific things throughout our day. These were put together into a prayer of thanks and gratitude, and of asking for a continued blessing on our work together to serve our Lord both through physical preaching and Bible teaching, and through the outpouring of love and support in the form of the outreach work in the communities in which the CUDDLE Trust serves.

The P2P group Cape Town, South Africa July 2023 L-R: Laura, Nathan, Lucy, Rachel, Ffion, Jessie

Bible readings, discussion and reflection together at the end of the day

– Rachel Dawson-Bowman, Worcester, UK