Plays/Skits

We are currently looking for children's plays/skits that our children can perform here in the church. We would like something that comes with a CD of music to accompany it (Since none of the adults involved can read music). These plays would be performed by the children at the day care or by the children in Sunday School (Ages 2-14). There are many parents who will only come to church to see their children perform in one of the yearly plays....we see this as an opportnity to share Christ with the parents and want it to be a meaningful time. Although our plays are usually planned for the Christmas season, we would like to branch away from the typical Christmas pageant and are looking to do non-Christmas related plays as well. So we are looking for plays with music that can relate important Bible concepts to the children AND the parents. We have anywhere from 20 to 100 children, so plays that have a flexible cast and lots of extra non-speaking parts are ideal. If you know of something that you think we would be interested in, please contact me at amberdawny@gmail.com

Needs as of March 9th

The Day Care has been blessed with MANY wonderful resources since I arrived. As with every classroom, there are always things you need to replace or update on regular basis. Here is a list of things we currently seeking:

A Wooden Kitchen Play Set
Good pre-school children's books to match our bi-weekly themes
Children's Praise songs CDs
Teacher books with art ideas and lesson ideas


But our biggest needs at the moment is sponsors. We need people to 'adopt' a child from our Day Care and help pay for school fees. We only charge 50 Rand per month for each child (About $7). But it really costs closer to 350 Rand per month per child for the food, materials and salaries to keep the Day Care running (About $45-$50). The service provided to the parents and community is necessary. These children need the safety and nourishment provided at our Day Care.

We are beginning a sponsorship program. We are creating profiles for each of the children. If you would like to financially sponsor a child at our day care, we would be glad to send you a profile. Please email me at amberdawny@gmail.com if you would like more informatin on sponsoring a child.

If you are unable to help pay $50 school fees each month, but would still like the profile of a child that you can pray for, please contact me. I would love to give you the name of a specific child that you can pray for. I have seen the wonderful things that happen when God's people pray!

Our Needs on December 12, 2007

After organizing and accessing the classrooms, I have come up with a current list of needs that we have at the Touch Life Centre. I have excluded materials that can be found and purchased at a reasonable price here in South Africa.

The following things can commonly be found at a very cheap price at places like Walmart and The Dollar Tree in the US.
• Bulletin Board Borders
• Educational Posters for Preschool (number, letters, colors, etc.)
• Counting Bears
• Lacing and stringing games
• Large Buttons for Sorting by shape and color
• Cookie Cutters of various shapes

The following things are miscellaneous things that can be found in various stores
• Dry Erase Markers
• Expo Dry Erase Cleaning Spray
• Silver Sharpie
• Educational Games for Little Children (Candy Land, Topple, Old Maid, etc.)
• Eric Carle Books
• Musical Instruments (rhythm sticks, xylophones, bells, etc.)
• Paint Brushes of various shapes and sizes
• Fun Markers that stamp shapes, or pictures
• Wiggle Eyes
• Small children’s book bags for our 15 new students beginning in January.
• Children’s CDs with fun songs (Bible songs, Raffi, Greg and Steve, etc.)


We are also hoping to purchase the following “Big Ticket” items. If you would like to donate money, we will use the money to purchase:
• Wooden House Keeping Furniture for 3 classrooms (The set with a stove, kitchen and storage unit costs around $250 per set.)
• 1 set of large wooden building blocks ($200 for a set of 110).


If you are interested in sending us some of these things, please contact me at amberdawny@gmail.com. I will try to connect you with people who are coming over and may be able to bring some things. This would save money on shipping charges.

God Bless you for youe desire to help us here in South Africa. You support and prayers are greatly appreciated!

Sunday School Needs

After a meeting with the Sunday School teachers, we are trying to reorganize the Sunday School program. It had 3 overflowing children's classes. We are trying to divide it into 4 slightly smaller ones that divide the age groups a little better. The biggest problem with this division is finding another teacher. So please pray that someone will step forward to help us with the Sunday School.

In the meeting, the teachers also expressed some wishes for the Sunday School Department:
1. That the children would be able to understand the material we are presenting and desire to participate (and not just show up for free cookies).

2. That we find a Sunday School Curriculum that will cover all of the basics of Christianity before these children turn 12. We also want a curriculum that focuses a lot on Jesus. Although Old Testament stories are fun, when there is no Christian background in the homes, switching between OT and NT can be quite confusing for these kids.

3. That we could find appropriate devotionals for the 11-13 year old girls who are working hard to learn bible verses and books of the bible. And that we could find Children's Bibles that are appropriate for low level readers.

4. That we could find a Christmas skit/program for the children to participate in that would help the parents who attend to learn more about Christ. (We get ALOT of kids, but very few adults coming to church.)

5. That we could find good Christian music CDs and videos for children that would enhance the Sunday School program.

6. That we could get some stickers, pencils, bookmarks, etc that have Bible Verses on them to use as prizes.

Please help us by praying for these needs/concerns. I am always amazed at the number of children that walk on their own to church every Sunday.

This coming Sunday (Sept 23), we are keeping ALL of the children together for a day of fun games, stories and songs. While we are all together we are going to explain the new classes to them and try to get an idea of how many children are going to be in each of the new classes. I’m leading the games for this Sunday School Fun Day!

Organizing Toys

I finally had the opportunity to sort and organize the toys at the Day Care. It is nice to know what we have and what we need. I am posting a list of things we need. Many of these things can be found here, I just need to go do some shopping. Other things are hard to find and I may need a little prayer to locate them.

We have been so blessed by God this week. While sorting I found LOTS of cars, trucks and planes. I also found plastic animals, sand and water toys and several boxes of books. We also received lots of construction paper, fun foam and other art supplies from the VA team that came. We also received a parachute and balls for fun games! God is good!

We need:

1. Bean bags that are different colors and shapes that can be washed.
2. Plastic baby dolls and baby doll clothes. Black baby dolls are hard to find.
3. Musical instruments for kids (maracas, tambourines, drums, etc.)
4. Educational posters and religious posters to decorate classrooms.
5. Dry erase markers.
6. A sand box. Im sure a large shallow plastic tub would work. Im on the look out for something that will work as a sand box. We have sand toys, just no sand or box.
7. Educational materials for pre-schoolers such as:

• Games (Uno, Connect Four, Candy Land, Hi-Ho-Cheerios, etc.)
• Counting Bears
• Large Stringing Beads
• Lacing Cards
• Objects for sorting by size, shape and color
• Small toys for counting, grouping and sorting
• Peg Boards
• A doll house with furniture and small dolls
• A magnet set for exploration and experiments
• Blocks of basic shapes and colors

And my three over-the-top BIG wishes are:

• A wooden train set (Like Brio trains...they have a different brand here, but its just as expensive as Brio!!)
• Large wooden blocks for building.
• Nice sturdy wooden house keeping furniture (stove, fridge, etc.)

Needs as of 9-7-07

This list of needs is varied and broad. Many of these things are too large to be purchased in the States. I just sat down and brainstormed every imaginable thing we need at this point. Please pray for these needs and help as God leads you.

I will try to group the needs by category.....
Touch Life Center (Day Care):

• Funding for teacher/aides salary (Id also like Christmas boxes for the teachers with things they may need)
• Shoes for the children of the day care (ages 2 to 6)
• Uniforms for the 16 children going to school in January (~$40 each)
• Storage cabinets with locks
• Christian Children's Music CDs
• Bible Story books
• Toys of all sorts....

House Keeping: We need a sturdy children's house keeping set with stove, fridge, etc....as well as plastic baby dolls (black babies would be great since all the kids are black) and baby doll clothes, plastic food, etc.

Blocks: We need wooden blocks, Plastic blocks of basic shapes, etc.

Vehicles: A nice train set, sturdy cars, trucks, planes, etc.

Outside toys: Balls, Sand box, sand toys, water play toys

Craft Supplies: yarn, pipe cleaners, ribbon, construction paper, Popsicle sticks, powdered tempera paint, wiggle eyes, tissue paper, etc

Various: Bean bags of various shapes and colors, Plastic animals, things to sort (counting bears, large buttons, unifix cubes, etc.) Musical Instruments (maracas, tambourines, bells), dry erase markers

Troyeville Baptist Church:

General: Large Broom, Storage Cabinets with locks

Youth: Sponsors for Youth Camp (about $70 per student)

Christmas boxes for the 20+ youth

Sunday School: New Testament Curriculum with pictures

Christmas play with music

Christmas boxes for the 60+ Sunday School children

The needs can be overwhelming at times, but God has been good about supplying things that are immediate needs.

Better Communication

Hello family and friends,
In an attempt to make blogging a little more user friendly, I thought Id start this page to list any needs/prayer requests that come up here in Jo'burg. I will try to alert you from my personal blog when there are changes/additions here. This way, the information on my personal blog can be...well, personal. And more specifics regarding needs at the church can be listed here. Hopefully, this will prevent the lists of needs from getting lost as I add posts on my personal blog. I hope this helps streamline communcation a little.
Blessings!
Amber