You can't buy living water at the Dutchmen's Store...

though they've got about everything else. Peg and I enjoyed a field trip to this Mennonite old-fashioned general store on Wednesday, halfway through VBS in Cantril. This store and a few other businesses help create a little more hustle and bustle here than some of the other small towns we've been to, but it's still certainly not a big place. The UM church has a congregation with no kids, like many other churches of its size, but several from the community came to enjoy Bible school.

We'd lucked out so far with the weather, but on day one of Bible school here, it poured down rain, making unloading a real pain and dampening any hopes we had for a big turnout. At five minutes to ten, we were beginning to wonder what if you had a Bible school and nobody came. Fortunately, in just a few minutes, we were greeted by six smiling faces. Small but mighty, the kids helped tell the creation story (see picture), made a space mobile at craft time, and listened when we encouraged them to bring friends. The next day we had 12 kids- double the first day! We stayed at about 12 for the week. I took the six youngest ones for class, and I was really impressed with their cheerful attitudes and helpful spirits (including a six year old helping erase a paper for a three year old who was distraught when he discovered "it won't come off!") Today, we reviewed our stories and sang songs for a few parents and church helpers at the program. It's hard to believe that this was our last Vacation Bible school!! Time for camp!

Promise City

As I look forward to this next week of Bible school, I realize I haven't written anything about last week yet! How time flies...

This past week we were in Promise City. This was a new town for us, and the United Methodist church here was recently closed down. We had VBS in the community center, which is a very nice building with air conditioning that we especially appreciated on Wednesday, dubbed by weather people as the hottest day of the year.

We started out the week with 8 kids, and we had a handful of others who came on some days, so I'd say we had a grand total of 11 or 12. Of those, we now have 5 coming to camp- so exciting! This was truly a great group of kids. They were very good listeners and sang well enough to make up for their small numbers! The first day, they weren't quite sold on the songs yet, but on the next few days, we had a few kids who got there as soon as we did, headed straight for the CD player, and listened and sang along with some of their favorites. We also got to make some music with the boomwhackers and gave a mini-performance for our kitchen helpers- fun for everyone. On the last day, a man who helped organize for us to come treated us all for ice cream at the No Name Cafe across the street.

Ice cream and good music aside, the kids learned a lot this week. I heard many good discussions coming from the older class about peer pressure and taking time for God. In the younger group, we reviewed the stories and talked about what we can learn from space- like how comets look beautiful when they're close to the warmth of the sun and how we look beautiful when we're close to the love of God. Some of the students brought their own Bibles this week, so we practiced looking up Scripture references. A student barely old enough to read proudly showed me her Bible, flipped through it, and explained that she usually just skipped over the red stuff. I asked her if she knew why those words were red, and explained that those were the best part, because Jesus said them. She looked at me for a minute, decided I was telling the truth, and then yelled across the room to her brother, "Guess what! The red words are the best part! Do you know why?...." We also had a chat about how "the new part of the Bible" (the New Testament) was not really that new, so even old Bibles would have it included. :-)

All in all, this was a week well worth the daily hour and a half drive from Kirkville. This coming week, we're off to Cantril, home of the Dutchmen's Store!

Dr. Pastor Cowboy Doug

First of all, if you had trouble listening to the radio show Sunday night, it's because evidently they're going to broadcast it this Saturday at 6pm and Sunday at 2pm. Check out their website at http://radiogodscountry.org/ListeningArea.html to figure out what station works best for you.
Second of all, WOW! I could not have been more impressed or more proud of our kids. I walked in an hour or so before the concert started, and there were already several people there, bustling around, checking sound levels, and staking out seats. The music was wonderful. While I had to readjust to clapping on 1 and 3, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a nice variety of music- Bill Gaither and Casting Crowns, Gold City and Kutless. The Kirkville kids sang some VBS songs and even taught the radio host, Cowboy Doug (who also is a pastor and a doctor- a combination of titles that makes me smile) the karate song, complete with actions. We also played Jesus Loves Me and Amazing Grace on the boomwhackers. A little four year old girl had the high C, and she could not have been more adorable!! It all went very well, and Cowboy Doug offered to take us on the road instead of his band (much to the protest of his band, who decided they wanted to come with us and play the boomwhackers.)
It was absolutely heartwarming to see how many people were there and to see their faces as they listened to the music. Whether they were VBS parents, grandparents, or friends, or whether they were devoted fans of the groups that performed, it's safe to say that a good time was had by all :) Pat, who runs the store at Kirkville, told us she stopped counting at 120 people. Other counts offered 129- that church hasn't seen that many people in...who knows when. There are a few more events to come in the following months, and we hope that all the excitement will help the small church to grow.

Tune in tomorrow...

Today was our last day of VBS in Kirkville. 24 kids have come for at least part of the week, which is super exciting! Even more exciting, though, is the fact that we're having a program tomorrow night (Sunday) that will be broadcast live over the radio! 106.9 FM God's Country is going to be coming and performing some live music. Our space cadets will be performing some of the songs they've learned this week, Kirkville's very first boomwhacker choir will make its debut (curious? You'll have to listen to find out what a boomwhacker is...), and Galileo may just make an appearance (so if you want to see him, you'll have to come in person- he probably won't show up well on the radio.)
So, tune in at 6:30 pm Sunday night (the 11th) at 106.9 FM KJOY or 89.7 FM KRNF or come join us at Kirkville United Methodist Church!

Week 3: Kirkville!

The four days in Kellerton went by quickly! And somehow, our van came home even more packed than it started, thanks to a tip from Galileo (the gorilla, not the astronomer). Since he's green, he gives a "green" tip every day. One day he suggested giving away toys that you've outgrown, and Peg said she knew some kids who would give them good homes. Pretty soon, the front steps of the sanctuary were covered with bags and bags of toys, books, and puzzles that the kids had brought to donate to a women's shelter, where we know they will be well-loved. On the last day, we had some parents come to hear a few songs and a review of what we'd learned that week. We also had several of our older class sign up for camp!

This week, we are in Kirkville. This is sort of our home base these days, as Peg is preaching on Tuesday nights and MUMMs recently got an office building here. During the school year, she does a Kid's Club in Kirkville, and almost all of those youth have been coming to VBS this week, plus some new ones! We've also been working on the church building this summer, and it's looking pretty spiffy now with a new coat of paint in the sanctuary, and new carpet will come soon. We're all looking forward to this Sunday night, when the VBS program will be broadcast live on the radio along with some live music from God's Country.

It's great to watch the reaction to MUMMs in this community. Kids show up when the van pulls up. On the first day, we had kids at the church and ready to roll at 9:15- a good 45 minutes early.

Let's go on a trip galactic

Well, let's see- a few highlights from the end of last week:
We learned that Samaritans and Jews got along about like Hawkeye and Cyclone fans.
My 3rd-5th graders debated whether or not heaven could get sucked into a black hole. (The verdict? Nope. Phew.)
And, possibly my favorite, on one day I was explaining how there are billions of stars in the sky and God knows every one of their names. I also said that in the Bible, we're told that God knows how many hairs there are on our heads. One student contemplated this, then raised his hand and asked "So, does God know the names of all the hairs on our heads?" Quite the thought.

This week, we are in Kellerton. It's too long of a trip to drive every day, and so Peg and I are lucky enough to be staying with a fantastic host family out in the country. Kellerton, I'm told, has about 300 people, 2 bars, and 2 churches. There's also a cafe that's open for lunchtime. We've gone on some other field trips to itty-bitty neighboring towns and seen the original Hy-Vee building and the hometown of Peggy Whitson, the astronaut.
We weren't sure how many kids to expect here- initially, they'd thought maybe ten. But Monday morning came, and the kids kept coming- we wound up with 17! They're a fun bunch with lots of energy. Thankfully, we also have a lot of wonderful helpers at the church, including several who've worked in schools. It's hard to believe we only have two days left here!

Week 1: Webster, IA

"You orbit my world in an endless revolution. You're my gravity, my strength and my solution." Day 2 of VBS, and I already know this song is going to be stuck in my head all summer! That's ok, though- it's a good one. I didn't mention this last time, but the theme for this VBS is Galactic Blast- hence the astronaut gorilla puppet and the word "orbit" showing up in song lyrics. The curriculum works in plenty of fun facts about space. Today we talked about how the moon goes through different phases, but even when we can't see all of it, it's always there- just like God is always there even when we can't see Him clearly.

Well, this week Peg is spending some well-deserved fun time with her grandkids, so I'm on my own, and I get to drive the van! I am blessed to have three wonderful ladies from the church as well as five youth helpers, and things are going very smoothly. Today we had 17 kids from Webster or neighboring towns. To give you a frame of reference, wikipedia tells me that the population of Webster is 110.

We are all ready for it to stop raining so much so we can go to the park next door to eat lunch and play. Yesterday, we played limbo with a broomstick (they could have done that all day!) and today, we sang some of the favorite Sunday school songs of Webster UMC. I learned a few new ones, but I also enjoyed hearing a girl request Jesus Loves Me-"that one song...with the Bible tells me so..." and watching one sincere kindergartener sing his heart out. Sometimes we try too hard- it's hard to beat a simple Jesus Loves Me.

Mobile United Methodist Missionaries- Take 3

This is the third summer I've worked as an intern/assistant/Peg's sidekick helping out with the Vacation Bible Schools she takes to an assortment of rural Iowa towns. I decided it was time to create a blog to share all the fun stories we accumulate and share the message of what it is that we do. So far this summer, we've been working hard preparing everything for VBS. You don't think about how much prep work goes into something like this until you're sitting there cutting 70 planets out of posterboard and punching holes into pie tins destined to be tambourines (many thanks to Peg's husband Larry, who helped with the pie tins. They're hard to punch!) Packed up into the van right now are: models of all of the crafts with neatly labeled boxes containing supplies for each day, a box of Bibles, worksheets/fun pages for classtime, games, a fantastic looking puppet stand, a green astronaut gorilla named Galileo (who's pictured here helping me make copies), an easel, beautiful hand-made song sheets (the company has switched from making song sheets to PowerPoint slides now, which would be wonderful if we had a projector and someplace to project in all the small churches we go to), and many other things. Throw in the kitchen sink, and we're ready to go!