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!