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

Surfin' Into VBS Season!

The beginning of summer always seems a little crazy- there were absolutely zero days of break between my last day of school, Annual Conference, and the start of VBS- but Paige and I had a great VBS in the park. We had ten different kids over the course of the week, as well as one adorable junior surfer that Paige brought, very appropriately, the day we learned the story of the surfing baby. The puppet script writers are really on top of their game this year. If you are wondering how on earth you missed the story of the surfing baby, check out Exodus 2. 

I’ve been very involved with the Change a Child’s Story movement (find out more here or here) so I was a little disgusted with myself that I didn’t have books to give these kids, but I just didn’t get it organized this year. (In addition to the zero breaks between school, conference, and VBS, the very next day after Bible school was when I planned to move to a new apartment.) However, God is always reminding me that He’s got this under control. On the last day we walked up to the school for the summer lunch program, what did we find but boxes labeled “Free Books”! Volunteer Kelly and I, both children’s books afficianados, had fun recommending such delights as And The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon  and Parents in the Pigpen, Pigs in the Tub and watching kids take them right out of our hands. 

Something I love about this Bible school, especially now that we’ve been doing it a few years, is the feeling of family. Now this is largely due to the fact that a lot of my actual family helps, but for a few days, my actual family, my church family, and my neighborhood family- we all become church family. They are my faith community. We come together to worship a loving God, enjoy each others’ company, and bring old, important stories to life by participating in the telling of them. And that, Charlie Brown, is what Vacation Bible School is all about...