After-school program praised
Out-of-town student-teachers made 'lots of songs and laughs,' says pastor
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, October 27, 2016
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
It only takes minutes to reach out to someone.
The Kids Travel Company from Vanguard College spent a week in Fort Simpson. In the back, from left, are Jesse Brobbel and Ben Gascoyne. In the front, from left, are Jessie Bergen, Austin Parks, Caitlin Giles and Hayley Neufeld. - photos courtesy of Danny Allaire
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For a group of six students from Vanguard College in Edmonton, Alta., plenty of those minutes were packed into five days of teaching in Fort Simpson.
From Oct. 17 to 21, the students taught an after-school program at Calvary Chapel for children in the community.
The group included Caitlin Giles, Ben Gascoyne, Hayley Neufeld, Jessie Bergen, Jesse Brobbel and Austin Parks. All save for Neufeld are first- or second-year students at Vanguard College pursuing degrees or certificates in intercultural studies.
The group made their big entrance the evening of Oct. 16, where they led the Sunday service at the church. After that, it was business as usual for them as they settled into a routine of singing, performing skits, playing games and laying out crafts for children to participate in.
More than a dozen children between Grade 1 and Grade 6 attended.
Jerry Chiasson, the pastor for Calvary Chapel, said aside from running the after-school program, the students also helped to clean and paint the interior of the church while they were there.
"The team did an excellent job," Chiasson said.
For Chiasson, one of the best parts of having the group in Fort Simpson was witnessing how well they got along with the community's children.
"What a delightful time for the kids, enjoying fun activities," he said.
"There were lots of songs and laughs enjoyed by all."
Aside from crafts and skits, the group also played memory exercises, getting children to memorize a Bible verse each day.
Despite the threat of an early closure to the ferry, spirits were high among the group on their last morning in Fort Simpson. Gathered around a breakfast table in the basement of the church on Oct. 21, group member Brobbel said the group was touched by how many children had come out over the course of the week.
"We've definitely been blessed with that. There were a lot of kids," he said.
This is Brobbel's second time teaching in the Northwest Territories. In 2014, he taught a similar class in Hay River.
"I think it's definitely a perspective (shift) to know that you don't always have to leave the country to go and help," he said.
"You don't have to go to Asia to help people or to do kids' ministry - you don't even have to leave your province."
Hayley Neufeld, who graduated from the college two years ago and now instructs first-year students, said her favourite part of the week was hearing how children responded to the team.
"During worship times or serious times, they were really responding to what we had to say," she said.
The group was one of four from Vanguard College sent to different parts of the Northwest Territories this year. The after-school program was the practical portion of an urban-rural practicum first- and second-years do at the college.
