Guest Post: Kelsey’s App Review

My daughter, Kelsey, has a few educational games she likes to play on her iPod, so I asked her if she would like to share about them here on my blog:

So my mom wanted me to talk about some learning apps that I like. I only have a few so I will do my best to talk about them and tell you how much I have enjoyed them!

Presidents vs. Aliens

The Presidents vs. Aliens app is really fun if you want to know more about our Presidents and their nicknames, facts, quotes, and more. What I love about this game is that when I get a question right, I can use the circle picture to take down the aliens that are put in different places. It’s fun because it’s not just learning, you are doing something fun in between if you get the question right. Another thing I like about it is that you can change the settings on it. You can change the questions that it asks you. So if you want the game to ask you the nicknames that belong to a President or you can just do identifying. You can do more then one too. It has helped me learn a little more about my Presidents but I’m still learning. Another cool thing is that once you have gotten a certain amount of Presidents (after you have taken down all the aliens then you earn a President depending on how many questions you have gotten right), you can play some side games, which are still about the Presidents but they are really fun to play and I have been learning so much about all of our Presidents.

Stack the States

Stack The States is another really fun game that I really like to play. It is the same company that made Presidents vs. Aliens. The game will ask you a question about a state, like maybe where is Yellowstone Park located and it will give you options of which state to pick. If you get the question right, it will make the state as big as it would be and then you have to put it on a platform and well, stack them, hence the name. It has a ‘finish line’ a bit up away from the platform. What you have to do is stack the states up to the finish line and if you got a certain amount of questions right after you reached the finish line, it will give you a state to add to your map like the Presidents vs. Aliens game. This one also has side games for you to play once you have earned a certain amount of states. I really like it because again, you’re not just answering questions, you’re doing something fun in between. I have also ,been learning about the states and where things are located. I don’t believe you can change the questions on this one but it is still fun and you can learn a lot from it.

Another thing that is cool about these two games is that each player can have their own game. So maybe Tim and Bob want to play. Bob can have his own game and earn his own states while Tim can also do the same with his own game.

Duolingo

Duolingo is a cool language app that you can use when you, well, want to learn a new language. It has lots of different languages and you can learn more then one at a time. But for me that might be a bit confusing…. But it’s really cool and I have been learning quite a bit. It does get difficult sometimes just trying to learn all the verbs and things with Spanish, but that’s just Spanish. You can go back at any time to a lesson and review everything that you learned in that lesson. I think that’s really awesome. You have a certain amount of hearts in each lesson. When you answer a question wrong you will lose a heart and this will keep happening each time you answer a question wrong. If you run out of hearts you have to do the lesson all over again, which can be a good thing because then you can learn a lot more by doing the lesson over and over again. I like it better then Rosetta Stone because you know what the sentences are and what the words are because it switches between English and Spanish. Maybe one time you’ll have to write out a sentence in Spanish from English or an English sentence from looking at the Spanish sentence. Me and my mom both do it and love it. My mom and I have been learning a lot through it and hopefully we will be able to speak the language soon. Maybe when I am done learning Spanish I can learn a different one through it.

Well, that’s all I have for today and I hope that helped you learn a little bit more about three educational apps for your phone or other device. I have learned a lot about different things from these three apps and will hopefully continue using them. Thanks for reading and again I hope these helped you out.

-Kelsey

Guest post: Compassion Sunday

Hello, it’s me again, Kelsey. So my mom asked me to do a post on Compassion Sunday. I hope I do a good job telling you all about it.

When my mom asked me to do Compassion Sunday, honestly, I freaked out. I have never liked public speaking because I have to talk to tons of people staring at you. And that is just not my thing. But my mom really wanted me to do it so I did a little research to help me prepare and get ready.

I was going to write out my own speech but I decided to do the speech in the Compassion Sunday packet. It took a little while to get a date set but we finally set one. Me and my mom went on to the Compassion website and ordered our packet.

When it came I was pretty excited! I pulled everything out and looked at it. I also looked at all the children. When we get child packets,, I love looking through all of them and reading about where they live, what they like to do for fun, how many children are in the family and all the fun stuff.

A few days later my mom told me that there were some videos that Amy Coddington had made to show you how to prepare before, during, and after. The videos helped me a lot.

As the day was drawing near, I was getting nervous. I kept thinking that I was going to blow it and it was going to be terrible. But I remembered that God says to not worry and to trust in Him. So I prayed and prayed and prayed that I would help these children get sponsors and I wouldn’t get so nervous.

On the day of, my mom and I set up a table in the lobby with the child packets and pens. After that we went to Sunday School and my sub teacher told me I was going to do great and to not worry about it because most people get nervous and it was totally normal.

I had been given a list of when things were going to happen during the service so I knew when to come up to the front of the church. When it was my turn I was shaking so much. I said a quick little prayer and started. Looking at all those people made me nervous. My mouth went dry while I was speaking but once I started getting into it, I was able to talk without freaking out. It went smoothly after that and I was proud of myself. After I went to sit back down I was still shaking a lot, but I had finished and I did it. I thanked God for helping me get through it.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/62272657 w=500&h=281]

Compassion Sunday Presentation from Yvonne Reynolds on Vimeo.

So, after the service my mom, my brother and I went into the lobby and stayed at the table. That day we had three children sponsored. We were so happy! Our pastor let us keep the table up for another week and the next week we had one more child sponsored. So, total we had four children sponsored! Even though it was just four children, four of those lives were changed that day.

Everyone said I did well and I was glad that I did! Well, maybe I will do it next year but I will have to think about it. :)

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed reading about my Compassion Sunday experience! Thank you! :)

Guest Post: The Compassion Mobile Experience

Last week, Kelsey and I were able to visit and volunteer at the Compassion Mobile Experience on one of their stops here in California. I mentioned that it would be fun for her to write a post for my blog and she excitedly said ‘yes!’ I hope you enjoy her post!

 

Hello! When my mom was explaining at first that she wanted me to write a post for her blog I said yes right away. When we got to the church where the Compassion Experience truck was, I was pretty excited! When we went inside it was really nice. We were greeted and decided to go through Julian's story. We walked into a little room where it had three doors with different fabric covering the doorway to each child’s room. We went into Julian’s room and we found ourselves in her house. It was very small and it only had two chairs for furniture, with one propped up against the the back door and the other in a corner. When listening to the audio, she explained that drunk men would always pass by their house so they kept a chair up against the door to keep them out. The other one was to be slept in. They would take turns sleeping in the chair in the corner. The next little room we went into was the market where Julian sold sweet potatoes. In the audio she told us that they most likely would not make enough money to pay the rent or get food for that night. The next room was the Compassion center. It was amazing! Just all the little things you could touch and look at. Julian talked about how her sponsors loved her very much, they even sent her a birthday card which in Uganda they don’t do because it cost too much money and it was a waste of time. But she kept the card for a very long time and she loved her sponsors. At the very last room (there was a few of them so I can’t describe all of them.) she talked about where she went to college and when she came back to the center to help the children just like her. She had built a house for her mother where it was safe and far away from where she used to live. My mom was crying at the end of Julian’s story. It was very powerful and moving. There was even someone who came out and said we have it so, so, so easy here in the United States.

Ruben:

In Ruben’s first room, we were in his house. It also was very small and only had a few toys on the floor. His dad was sleeping on the only bed. They were going to run away from their house and their dad because he was always drunk and would hurt his mom. So they slipped away quietly. The next room had his new house. He told us that they kept moving around because they could not always pay rent and would stay somewhere until the owner kicked them out. They always had little to eat and they slept on the floor. He worked as a shoe shiner to help get money for the family. He said that a lot of his friends would start sniffing glue and would turn into what his father was. He knew he could never to that to his family. He told us to look inside the box saying that there should be lots of money in it, but there wasn’t. He said one of his friends must have took it because he had not seen his friend for a while. They would not be eating as well as he thought they would be. The story goes on to where he started going to the Compassion center and loved his teacher because she was really nice and would protect the children. When Ruben got older he had a pretty bad fight with his mom and moved with his dad. He also quit the Compassion program. His dad had remarried and his stepmother was not very kind to Ruben. She made him sleep on the floor after a while and would not give him food saying she was feeding her family. When Ruben asked his dad what to eat and his father would just get mad. Ruben still had a letter from his sponsors and kept it with him always. He read it one day and realized that he should forgive his mother. He went back to his home and asked for forgiveness and went back to the Compassion center. His teacher told him that his previous sponsors would keep sponsoring him. He was so happy! He started working again and was able to pay for a dresser and a little red table he was very proud of. When we got to the last room there where some paintings of his and they were amazing. I really liked his story. It was so cool that even when he had left the center he still had a letter from his sponsors.

Brinda:

Brinda lived in India and when we went into her little house it was full of all the Indian gods. She said that she couldn’t smile or even laugh because otherwise the evil eye would get her. They would always try very hard to please the gods. Her mother heard a friend talk about Compassion one day and decided to put Brinda through. When they went to the center they first went to the office, her mother was telling Brinda not to smile but she was having a hard time not smiling. When Compassion told them that Brinda could go through, she was smiling so much and when she looked at her mother, she was beaming. Brinda loved the Compassion program and laughed and smiled all she wanted to. But then one day her grandma was in the hospital and she was dying. Her mother had a Hindu priest come in and pray to the god of healing and some other gods just in case. Her grandmother didn’t get any better. So her mother had someone else come in to pray over her but her grandmother got worse. When the two priests had come in Brinda was trying to get her family to pray to God to heal her grandmother. Her mother agreed and Brinda had her teacher come to the hospital and pray for her grandmother. The next day her grandmother got well and was doing better! They were so happy and when we got to her house again they weren’t worshipping all the different gods anymore. They started worshipping the one true God. Her house had different picture and verses and bibles. At that time her sister still didn’t believe in God. Brinda’s sister was going to finish up her last semester of high school but the family didn’t have enough money to pay for it. Brinda said that they would fast and pray for three days. The first day went by and nothing happen, the same on the second day, but later that evening on the third day someone her mother barely knew came to the door and said that they would pay for the last semester of her sister’s school and they didn’t even know the family needed the money. Her sister then believe in God. I loved that no matter what Brinda kept trusting in God to provide for her family.

These three amazing stories made me want to sponsor another child to help them through whatever they were going through. But you could make a difference and help a child who is waiting. You could help encourage them and send them your love and support. Help them know about Jesus and pray for them. Sponsor a child if you can because it is such an amazing program and you could help a child in need know Jesus. And if you have the time, please go visit the Compassion Mobile Experience. It was amazing, just listen to all the different noises and listening to the story of the child and really feeling like you were there with them. I was speechless afterwards. Life is so easy here in the United States, but for a child in Africa or India or South America, it’s not that easy. It is so hard to survive in poverty. Go to compassion.com to sponsor a child, I am sure there is a child waiting for you! :)

Well, that is the end of my experience story. I hope you learned a lot from it and I hope you enjoyed reading it! Thank you!