Happy Campers

In preparing for my new teaching position, I picked up a Rick Wormeli book called Meet me in the Middle, which (among many more practical ideas) suggested taking your middle school students camping. My initial reaction of, “You, sir, are crazy,” faded a little as I realized I had, in fact, just taken a bunch of middle school students camping. The idea of doing it through school and not VBS still seems a bit out of place to me, but here are some of the things I see in my 9-16 year olds at JOY camp every year that keep me coming back. 

• At camp, you are free from self-consciousness. Really. “Making melody in my heart unto the King of Kings- thumbs up, elbows in, knees bent, turn around….” means nobody is worried about how ridiculous they look. They’re too busy laughing. 

• You have a taste of independence. Will you still brush your teeth if Mom isn’t there to remind you? How many times will you leave your water bottle some place you can’t go back for it?  

• You experience conflict resolution done right. All these wonderful new people you just met, and far more often, those wonderful friends you brought to camp with you, become world’s most infuriating people by Wednesday. Having a place where you can practice settling those conflicts in a respectful way led by some amazingly patient people- wow. There’s a reason they’re called counselors. 

• You can test yourself out with new experiences. This is a great way to learn things about yourself. You won’t immediately become an expert at archery/canoeing/climbing the rock wall, but what a chance to try something you never tried before. This gets even better when you try challenges as a group.

• You have people to look up to. Counselors are old enough to be cool and in charge, but not old enough to be old. Watching counselors interact with each other- and watching campers watch counselors interact with each other, temporarily joining into this community- that’s a highlight. 

• You are part of an intentional community there to celebrate God. Watching a stage full of kids singing and dancing to some super praise music, hearing testimonies of people whose stories have been changed, seeing teary kids go down to pray- it is more than worth all the sunburn, homesickness, and bug bites.  

 

Bonaparte

The second week of July started off with filling in for the pastor at Marengo United Methodist to talk about Change a Child's Story. For being a church of roughly fifty people, I was very impressed with how much they are movers and shakers. The lay people are very active in ministry, and church service blended with meeting as they talked about their ideas for getting involved with reading in their community. 

 

The next day, I was off to Bonaparte, where there's always a wonderful crew of kids who help me unload. The kids kept coming, and we had 31 the first day (many of them preschoolers.) Most of the taller people were occupied with the very shortest, so it was a very good thing that the upper elementary kids were so…almost aggressively helpful, haha. I'd better explain what I mean by that. 

Case in point, from my journal that Wednesday:  

So when I get there this morning, there aren’t a lot of adults there yet. In the middle of my trying to troubleshoot yesterday’s video problems, the kids are coming up to me every five seconds. “Can I talk to you? My brother keeps sitting by me and I don’t like it.” “Allison, we have a problem!” “How do we make this work?” “Can I be the science teacher today?” “When should I take the offering?” “Allison, can I take the offering?” “Allison, can I be the science teacher today?” “Can I help her take the offering?” “Allison, can I run the computer instead of doing the science today?” “Allison? Can I HELP her do the puppet?” “Can I help?” “Can I?” “Allison, can I HELP her be the science teacher today?” We are ten minutes past our start time and the natives are growing restless. My mind begins to think unmissionary-like thoughts, like how if I hear my name again I might just scream. But right in the middle of that, right as I’m about to start, one little boy (who happened to be playing the Spirit in that day's Bible story skit) comes up to me and said, “Allison? You are like a grandmother to me,” and he gives me this wonderful hug. He fits right under my chin, so he cannot see the huge laugh I am holding back. I thank him whole-heartedly. I swallow the laugh and it fills me with strength, and in this way we started Bible school today. 

 

More wisdom from small humans:

I was casting a Bible story skit and asked one boy, “Would you be Jesus for me this morning?” He replied with far more than his nine years. I wish I could remember his exact words, but it was something like “Of course. It would be an honor to be Jesus this morning.” I was struck by what we had just said: I think everybody we come into contact with asks us, “Would you be Jesus for me this morning?” Rarely do they use those words, but the request is real and you can see it in their eyes. May I always respond as gracefully as this little boy did. 

"Why are you talking about God?"

Illustrating the Bible story of the day

We had a small group at first at Weldon, but it grew steadily throughout the week to somewhere around fifteen. We started out with two shy girls who turned very energetic when a few of their friends showed up. After checking out each room of the church, investigating the secret corners of the puppet stand, and finally consenting to slow down enough to sit at the table, they tried to read my shirt, which read “Surf Shack- Catch the Wave of God’s Amazing Love.” Whether from actual opinion or from six year old silliness, I don’t know, but they said, slightly disgusted, “Why are you talking about God?” When I told them that’s what we were all doing here this week, they said (jokingly?) that they were going home.  But half an hour and a couple hot dogs later, they were smiling and singing with the rest of us- “My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do. Hoo-hoo.” I’m guessing that they, like most of us, had their own notions about what it would be like to sit in church and talk about God- but it turned out better than they expected.

Pastor Rick and Snappy's surfing moves

Music was fun here. Last week I think I overwhelmed my computer by asking it to play music, show words, and play the video. This week, for just the three days we had VBS, we did camp songs and ukulele. With the sounds of the ukulele and the warmth of June, it was a lot easier to imagine we were transported to Hawaii to the Surf Shack.  We got a little creative in singing as well- “We are marching in the light of God” didn’t take long to become “We are surfing in the light of God.” 

You're never too old for recess.

 For a congregation its size, this church always impresses me with how many people come to help. We even had some folks who came to enjoy the opening and closing times with us, which made this feel like more of a church-wide community event instead of a project that only a few people  are responsible for.

While I was in the area, I also helped with Pastor Rosa’s Osceola youth group from El Pueblo de Dios. There were around fifteen kids ranging from kindergarteners to teenagers, and the older ones impressed me so much with how helpful they were to the little ones. After a get-to-know-you game, I split them up into different stations which each had a creative way to pray. We wrote letters to God, doodled our prayers, did lectio divina, and used our hands to remember people to pray for. Our hour flew by, and I wished I could stay with them longer! I did get the chance to talk to the older ones about camp. 

We take forty younger kids and around a dozen older kids we’ve found at our Bible schools throughout the summer to JOY camp. Normally by this point in the summer, we have almost everyone signed up. I was really surprised when the list from the camp registrar only had about half our normal amount. I didn’t have long to be confused, though- in my favorite God moment of the week, Pastor Rosa emailed to ask me if we had room for fourteen kids of hers. Why yes, yes we did. :)

The fish stick! Get it? Fish stick? At least the kids thought it was funny...

 

The Twelve Delightfuls

This week brought me to Farmington, Iowa. While this has often been home base as I travel to other southeast Iowa locations, it’s the first year I’ve done VBS at the church here. Throughout the week, we had 15 different kids- small for this church, but this was the same week as swim lessons and another church’s VBS. Rumor had it they were having a drawing for a bike. Now that’s an idea for attendance! Next year we’ll plan better. (Regarding schedules, not bikes.) 

Surfers of all ages loved the Snappy headbands.

True confession time: While of course I would love it if we had forty kids at every VBS, I also really love the days we have seven. This is also the reason I prefer teaching in a small school. When there are seven, I can call everyone by name the first day. When there are seven, I can teach them to build origami boats without it devolving into chaos. When there are seven, it is akin to going to a small-group Bible study vs. going to Sunday morning worship- there is something more intimate and inclusive when you cannot be anonymous. While it’s easy to get discouraged by low turnout, it’s important to remember that it’s about people, not numbers. 

My favorite kid story from this week was when someone referred to the disciples as the delightfuls. They are pretty delightful, aren’t they? We had a pretty sharp bunch of kids. While we were talking about the creation story, I had one almost fourth grader who kept raising his hand to tell me, “I have a metaphor about that!” and proceeded to wax poetic about trees. 

This weekend, I got to go speak at Reinbeck United Methodist Church about Change a Child’s Story. The former teacher who had invited me to come literally skipped to my car to welcome me- now that’s hospitality from a delightful disciple. :) They had a box of books in the back of the sanctuary, so that was a good start to things. We talked about many different ideas of what they might do for hours to help struggling readers read those books. The wheels were turning when I left. It’s always great to see an active church planning its next project! 

Being in northern Iowa also allowed me to go visit my friend Alyssa and see the Waterloo Writing Project in action. I was so impressed by this group of young writers (3^rd-10^th grade) who come together to write, share, and support each other's work. They meet in an old church building, and this beautiful place should serve to remind us as a church what we're here for!

Shine bright, stars!

How do I keep track of my hours?

Last week I spoke about Change a Child's Story at a missionary lunch at Marengo United Methodist Church. We enjoyed a delicious meal, company from representatives of many local churches, and one visit from a bat. (Ok, so we didn't enjoy that part so much.) After hearing about the strong relationship between poverty and reading struggles, people tossed around some good ideas about what they might do to help support literacy in their own communities. A volunteer from Williamsburg told us about how much fun it was to go read with students in school. She also told us about an opportunity to help with a reading program this summer. Many churches decided they could start a collection of books at their local food pantries.

In between VBS stories, I want to share with you a few ideas for some common questions about the Change a Child's Story initiative.

How do I keep track of my hours? 
We're pretty excited this summer for the upcoming arrival of an app to help individuals record their reading volunteer hours and books to help us meet the million hour, million book goal. But if you have no wocket in your pocket and you have no app to tap, this does not have to be a high tech process!

The marvelous mission ladies at Marengo had these set on every table. Made from old library pockets that were just going to get thrown away, this is an adorable way for each individual to keep track of his or her goal of ten hours this year and ten hours next year. 

Who wouldn't love a present like this!

May didn't just write her name really big. There's a page for each month. 

This week, I've been staying with the fabulous folks of Farmington for Vacation Bible School. On my way into the sanctuary, I noticed a three-ring binder in a very prominent place. As I looked a little closer, I saw it was a place for individuals to write down the hours they had volunteered this week and books they had given away. How easy is that!

Some other ideas:
-You could create a weekly hours/books form that your congregation could turn in with their offering in the collection plate.

-Some churches are collecting books up front towards the altar and blessing them as they come in.

-If you are a bulletin board person, you could sure make some kind of pictograph with little books. If you are a low-maintenance bulletin board person like me, post-its work just as effectively. Check out this example from a teacher who did a read-a-thon with her class (click here to read about her fun idea, too!)






 
-You could turn your whole congregation into bookworms. This post is about motivation for summer reading, so you could sure use it with kids for a reading program- but I think it would also motivate your congregation to turn in hours and books!


-How about a fundraising thermometer on your church website? This site lets you create a free one. It does have a dollar sign, so maybe you could use it as you raise funds to purchase books. Or you could make a giant paper version to hang up in the church- one for books and one for hours towards your goal. 


Happy reading and book sharing! Don't forget: as you keep track of your books and hours, send them in to Marsha, our super stat-keeper: jmgerot@lakeodessa.net     
Check out the map to see how all the churches are doing!

jmgerot@lakeodessa.net

jmgerot@lakeodessa.net