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!