Yohan Osaka Children's English Camp

Every year the Yohan Church in Osaka hold a 1  1/2 day English camp for kids. It's an event were children can come and have fun doing various activities while learning English and about Jesus and it was as blessed for me as it was for the kids. I was told about this event from the Yohan Gifu church I attend here in Gifu city and wanting to serve God more as well as my love for kids I decided to join so I took bus from Gifu city on a 3 hour trip to the big city Osaka. Upon arriving I was surprised to discover that there were people there who have been setting up the entire event for a week though the actual event itself was not even 2 days. Also there were volunteers who traveled from the U.S. as well as members of the Yohan Church in Seoul Korea.

On the first day each kid was given a card with blank spaces for stickers. Every time a student accomplished an activity correctly or did something well such as trying to use English they were rewarded with a blue sticker. If they were misbehaving or using too much of their native language they would receive a red sticker. The blue stickers could later be traded in for fake cash that they could use during lunch to purchase food and snacks also using English and during they last day they could even by items from the flea market we created which included items like cartoon videos, shoes, toys and other things.

Mini Olympics

Lunch time. Using English the kids can order a variety of things to eat.

The activities ranged from Mini Olympics, to role playing and even a summer festival with performances from some adorable little kids and a rendition of a scene from Alice In Wonderland all in English. There were also a lot singing. Only about 4 or 5 songs but we sang them throughout the day quite often with dances that accompanied them and the children seem to enjoy them no matter how many times we did them. By the end of the event every song was stuck in my head, but they were all giving praise to Jesus so so be it!

Violin performance by two talented boys.

Cast of the Alice In Wonderland stage play. I was so surprised by the English the memorized.

The students all wrote in English a small resume including things like favorite food and dream job and then drew a picture of their future dream job.

I love babies so much and this little cutie was adorable.

Early morning exercises in the park.

It was a lot of work with the first day starting at 7am and ending at 10pm but it was such a blessed time and I will definitely do it again next year if possible. God bless the children.

Below is a video that was put together (not by me) of the event.