Checkers goes to Weldon

When I spoke at Weldon a few weeks ago, there were about fifteen people at the service. About thirteen of them stayed after to hear more about vacation Bible school. This was a very promising sign.

This church had never had a VBS that anybody could recall, and their pastor and his wife requested that MUMMs come to help them get started. The pastor and his wife had been at Kellerton when I did VBS there a few years back, so they were pretty familiar with how it all works. We really encouraged knocking on doors and going out to talk to people to let them know personally that we wanted them to come, and at our meeting the people were already brainstorming who lives in so and so's old house, they've got kids! Still, you never quite know how many to expect.

On the first night, the kids kept coming and coming. Soon there were 24 kids around that same table where volunteers had planned not long ago- they even had to hunt for more chairs. The church members had grins so big they about fell off their faces. The energy in the room that night reminded me all over again why I do what I do.

The kids were fantastic. They really got into the Superman singing grace; they loved Checkers the Cheetah; they anxiously watched the G-Force Power Meter climb all the way to the "Share" level. We had a home-made Power Meter due to some technical difficulties the first night where we had a live performance of Professor Voltz and Clipboard instead of the video. (Note to self, pull up everything on the computer first, THEN plug in the projector. Do not try to go in any other order.)

There were roughly ten volunteers who came and helped in some way or another. Everyone's favorite part was recess. The volunteers played with the kids. I want to say that again. The volunteers played with the kids. We had ages seven and seventy tossing a frisbee around and a group of boys reveling in the attention of a man playing football with them. One big community, one family, as church should be. It made my heart happy.

They took up an offering and decided to put it toward the cross on top of the church as they put on a new roof, so that anytime the kids looked up they would see it and know that they were a part of that. Pretty cool.

And it gets better. Some of the kids are interested in having Sunday school this fall. Six of them are going to JOY camp this summer. So God's doing some pretty cool stuff in Weldon, IA. I'm thankful I got to be part of it.