Down by the riverside...

Bonaparte looks like it ought to be River City, Iowa, where the Music Man is somehow going to teach the kids to be a band. What a beautiful little historic town.

These pictures are from the town's website, which also offers a virtual tour: http://www.bonaparte-iowa.com/

As a providential sign peeks out of the trees to tell you (as you happen to be driving and driving and driving and wondering if you are really going the right way anymore): "Slow down. Relax. You're in Van Buren county now."

Out of the town's 433 people, 30 kids and roughly 10 adults came to Bible school, plus some families for the program on Friday.

These were some fantastic kids. One little boy who came mid-week had trouble with my name- throughout the course of the week I was called simply "Mrs.," "Miss Teacher," "Alice," and I am quite certain one time he tugged on my arm he called me "The teacher," as in "The teacher? That boy is squishing my brother..." (Sometimes I think pews should come with individual carpet squares for those learning boundaries of space.)

This week, a lady from the church volunteered to teach both age groups, so I was stationed in crafts. Next year, we (or they, depending on how confident they're feeling!) will split them up into more class groups. It worked ok the way we had it, but usually the smaller the group, the better the discussion gets, especially with older kids. But those older kids managed to impress me even in craft time. We made "God loves a cheerful giver" churchy banks (as opposed to piggy banks.) They brought offering to put in them, and at the end of the week we compiled it all together and the kids decided to donate it to kids with cancer at U of I children's hospital.

It was neat to see the older kids' leadership. Some places, once you hit 5th grade, there is a terrible magic curse that makes you "too cool" to sing and do the actions. But these older kids, boys even, were in there singing "My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do, hoo hoo!" with the best of them. Also this week, I discovered that the karate song works perfectly with the daily theme that neighbors are BOLD. While there are some fairly decent songs that came with the curriculum this year, we've been doing a lot of other songs with good actions like that. (If you do not know this song, picture it with me....I (karate chop)will call upon the Lord, who (karate chop) is worthy to be praised...) Singing Scripture was never so fun. :-)