The Fishers in La Paz, Bolivia

The South American paparazzi comes in the form of well-meaning parents of young children participating in end-of-the-year programs!

We had our Highlands Christmas program on Thursday evening. I was in charge of it and was very pleased with how it went. We shared the Gospel message clearly with many families who do not know Jesus Christ. About 100 of our 125 students were at rehearsal all morning, but it didn’t end up getting too crazy. All the students in the program actually arrived by the time it started, which has not always happened in the past. Now to the paparazzi part – the church we held the program in was packed to probably 100 people over capacity. This lent itself to parents spilling out of the aisles and rows to take millions of pictures and to video tape every move their child made. I was up front helping kids get on and off the stage and was temporarily blinded by all the flashes when I turned around to see what all the commotion was. We had to beg parents to clear the center aisle so that the children could get through.

Then the next morning was Avery’s program at preschool. Again, it was hot, overcrowded and chaotic, but still a success. The children at her preschool are as young as eighteen months, so as you can imagine, putting them in a costume and putting them on a platform in front of the paparazzi caused most of them to break into tears. All I can say is that the teachers were very brave! We were very proud of Avery. She did not get upset and seemed to know the motions to all the songs. She had two “numbers” where she was highlighted. She sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in three languages (Spanish, English and German) with three other children and then she sang a duet of a song in Spanish and English that we had never heard before. It was a weird but fun sensation to see her up on stage singing in a language I don’t know. She sang the duet with a girl who is much older and bigger than she is, so the microphone was adjusted to be right in front of Avery’s mouth. The older girl started leaning down to try to get closer to the mic. Avery gently but firmly reached up, touched her face and pushed her up away from the microphone. Of course, that move was a big hit with the paparazzi! Perhaps we have a little performer on our hands. . .