The end of summer?

July has gotten away from me, and no wonder. The rest of Pershing flew by, and we had somewhere around 40 parents for our ending program! A great end to a great week. Plus, we picked up a pastor to come counsel at JOY camp :-)

The next week was Promise City. This was a small one last year, and due to being fair week there, it was even smaller. But, I think they get the award for highest percentage of kids coming to camp- 3 out of 5 on the day they got registered. Peg graciously covered the last two days of Promise City so I could go out to Colorado and be in the wedding of my wonderful college roommate! It seems like I just got back to Iowa, but tomorrow I head off to JOY camp. We have had a few snags already (I remember our old half-painted school bus always being less than reliable, but I didn't expect it of the nice new bus! Thanks to camp for sending vans instead...) but that helps us remember, I suppose, that we are not really the ones in charge, and that God uses everything and works things out far better than we could.

Puppeteering

Here's a glimpse of the Kirkville puppets singing the Coca-Cola grace to talk about "those who come to me will never go thirsty." The first skit the kids wrote had to do with the Passover meal we learned about (lamb, bitter herbs, and flatbread.) It was set at Subway, where all these ingredients were making their way onto a sandwich. A second skit talked about the Last Supper- notice the elements in the form of a tortilla and a juicebox on Jesus, below. So these creative kids had lots of fun last week!

My younger kids had fun sharing their Bible verses and we all ended with "Pharaoh Pharaoh." Then some of the parents and older kids helped us pack up, and I was off to another next week- Shake it Up, Take 5!

This week we are at Pershing, and it is an absolute joy to be there. Peg helped unload on Monday, and we were both impressed right away when the pastor told us she had been preaching on the Bible stories we're doing this week. What a fantastic way to prepare volunteers! And we have some remarkable volunteers. They're taking plenty of ownership of this VBS, and it is easy to tell how genuinely thrilled they are to see all of these kids. The last time there was a Bible school in this community was when one of our adult volunteers (in her 30s or 40s) was in high school. It was hard to tell how many kids would come, but the first day brought 19 and yesterday there were 24. I'm excited to finish out this week!

Skip-bo, safety pins, and space monkeys, oh my!

Somehow summer keeps flying by...tomorrow will wrap up our 4th week of VBS. Last week, Allison 2 and I enjoyed staying with our fabulous hosts, Dick and Camille. Highlights included me driving through a massive thunderstorm on the way there (lots of praying in the van), watching a tractor move a historic school building, playing Skip-bo with Camille and the ladies at coffee, and learning to play "Pharoah Pharoah" on the autoharp.

We had somewhere around 21 kids and lots of fantastic helpers (I think over half of them were current or retired teachers.) They did a wonderful job with the kids, and will more than likely try VBS on their own next year. I have every confidence that they will do a great job. Other excitement included raising $100 for disaster relief, welcoming a boy to his first time at church, and signing up 8 kids for JOY camp!

This week's VBS is much closer to home, and while I thought I knew all the kids in Kirkville, new ones keep showing up! I haven't been counting. I've been in charge of the little ones this week, and it's a little overwhelming. We've had about 10 younger kids ranging from preschool to 5th grade, so there's a lot of differentiating to do. Luckily, I have three mothers and my own grandma helping out.

Today was a good quote day:

About the resurrection: "So, Jesus was like a zombie?"

A kindergartener, returning to show me up with hula-hooping: "The pro is back!"

Peg, making a mental to-do list: "Ok, so I need to call Vicki, and then I need to get a safety pin for Jesus..."

Tomorrow will be our closing program, and I can't wait to see what the older kids have been working on all week. Peg decided that since there were so many kids that were older than traditional VBS age, instead of doing crafts and class, they would use all the puppets from VBSes past to modernize the week's Bible stories. I've only heard snippets of their plans, but I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see how a space monkey and flamingo can tell us about Passover, living water, and communion. I'll be sure to write all about that, and hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures, too!

Blah blah blah, respect

Already half-way through week 2. It's been a good week so far. We had 22 kids yesterday with a fantastic bunch of church volunteers that I especially appreciate with this energetic group.

The beautiful thing about these kids is they haven't quite decided who they are yet. I see a lot of behavior that seems contradictory to me. A boy who one minute tells me, "You sound just like our teacher at school: 'blah blah blah, be respectful, blah blah blah,'" the next minute is showing great maturity helping the girls next to him with their crossword, and later asks if he can have extras of the blessings cookies craft (fortune cookies with encouragement inside) to take home to his family. Another boy, who seemed to spend most of his morning up out of his chair wandering around, trying to climb the pole, or otherwise finding something he shouldn't be doing, was the one who volunteered to pray at lunch-and did a fine job. A third boy who usually requires several reminders to listen and quite hitting his brother also brings his own Bible and wants to know what the passage is for the day so he can mark it. And I am constantly amazed at how quickly lots the kids can pick up the Bible memory verse and remember details from the story.

Next project? Getting these kids to JOY camp! :-)

"Thank You, God, for inventing Vacation Bible School."

One week down! We concluded today with pizza, ice cream, and cupcakes (a bit ironic considering our healthy food emphasis- but it was delicious.) On a slightly more nutritious note, we made trail mix that reviewed all our Bible stories from the week. In case you're curious how that works:

On the first day, we talked about the Israelites escaping from slavery in Egypt. They ate flat unleavened bread, which we represented with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. (A couple of kids got this connection as soon as they saw the flat cereal, which reassured me I wasn't crazy with this idea.)

Day two was the Leviticus business describing all the festivals where the Israelites made offerings to God. Since they offered up the first fruits of their grain harvest, we included whole grain Cheerios.

On day three, we talked about Jesus inviting all who are thirsty to come unto him. Nothing makes you thirsty like pretzels! (Which, in hindsight, means it probably would have been a good idea to have something to drink with the trail mix...oh well.)

The fourth day we talked about communion (or "commotion," as one boy called it.) We used raisins, as I was thinking they were from grapes just like the grape juice or wine. A 9 year old girl, still thinking about the previous day, decided that raisins were all shriveled up like your heart would be if it were thirsty. I asked if she wanted to come along with us all summer and come up with good ideas like this, but I think she had other things to do.

And today we talked about Pentecost, the birthday of the church, and how through the Holy Spirit, we can celebrate what God is doing for us every day. Good celebrations involve chocolate, so we used M&Ms.

My good idea girl also noted that she got to "shake it [her baggie of trail mix] up," just like our theme for the week.

Then it was time to try to get everything organized again and loaded back into the van! What a fast week!

Three dozen and counting!

Now, normally at a VBS in the kind of towns we go to, we expect 18-20 kids- and often we don't even get that many. Lovilia had 30 on the first day, and today we had 36! This being the first week, we are still working out some of the bugs. But, DVDs that skip offer natural pauses for discussion, easels that collapse let eager volunteers hold the song sheets (and other volunteers demonstrate their fix-it abilities...thanks, Bill....), and glue that doesn't stick at first leads to lessons in patience.

Still, I'm hoping that next week will get easier once we've learned from this week. My favorite part of leading VBS is usually finding a fun way to tell the Bible story, and somehow I'm having creative block with that this year. But I think the selections are a little different this year, too- lots of Old Testament Jewish festivals (teaching kindergarteners about Leviticus? Really?), but they do a nice job now of using that information to set the stage for stories about Jesus and what happened when he celebrated those festivals. (Hint: He tended to shake things up.)

Anyway, regardless of the details of what does or doesn't go exactly as planned, the main idea is that the kids are hearing about God and learning more about how much He loves us and what we do in response to that. I trust that God is helping them hear that message even through those of us who feel a little frazzled.

Rainy days and Thursdays...

We're about ready to kick off another summer of Vacation Bible School. The theme this year is "Shake it Up Cafe- where kids carry out God's recipe." This summer will look a little different, as Peg will do a little less, I will do a little more, and we are both blessed and thrilled to have a wonderful and beautifully-named volunteer with us this summer (thanks, Allison 2!)

Our craft research and development team (i.e. my grandma) created samples of all the crafts. We've rehearsed the puppet show, learned the songs, cut cardboard for picture frames, tested markers, figured out how trail mix can be a teaching tool, and decorated our aprons (that's right, we're all chefs this year!) The only hard thing left to do today was remember the intricate system of packing everything back up in the van. On our way back from lunch, Peg asked me to move my car so it would be easier for her to back the van right up to the garage so we didn't have to get drenched in the rain. So, she gave me her keys so I could run in to the house and grab my car keys. I did that, backed my car clear up, and waited. And waited. And waited. And wondered why on earth she wasn't moving her van! And finally I saw her colorful umbrella peek out of the van. She came over to my car and I suddenly realized it must be hard for her to move the van when I had all her keys. Oops. Once we all got done laughing, we were able to get the van loaded up while getting only minimally rained on.

We take off bright and early on Monday for VBS #1!