Super Science

Summer is flying by! Last week Paige and I went to Epworth UMC in Council Bluffs. We had a big crowd- 26 kids the first night! This was a little overwhelming for everyone, especially during times when the whole group was together. We adjusted schedules the next night to make smaller groups during the rotations, and things went smoother after that.

We had some great helpers, including some who wanted to lead music- the only thing I enjoy more than leading music is watching other people lead it well. :) The kids had lots of fun with "Father Abraham" and "Deep and Wide"- and they were a lot simpler to learn than some of the fast, word-heavy songs from the curriculum. I also managed to get my favorites, "My God is so Great" and "Praise Ye the Lord/Hallelujah" in there. We had some wonderful actors who jumped in with me as Agent Eagle and Agent Falcon the first night when we hadn't figured out how to work the DVD yet. My youth craft helper was also super- she came early to make sure she had all the materials prepared. The Bible study leaders taught the kids well, and some helpers who moved between games and science did a great job keeping the kids engaged. They had to be gone the last few nights though, leaving me in charge of science.

Confession time: I do not love the science portion of VBS. I know Cherie does. It's not that I don't like science in general- I really do- but more often than not, I skip this section because I'm not used to doing it, and I don't always build it into my schedule. I've had the notion in my head that it's messy, it's complicated, and it's only tangentially related to the Bible story. So I was not especially overjoyed to be the science leader- but I have to tell you, it grew on me. We went off-script a bit with an activity with a ping-pong ball and a hairdryer, so kids got to test their own "What would happen if I..."s. We had a thoughtful discussion about moving air/wind, how like God, you cannot see wind, but you can clearly feel it and see its effects. Another favorite, though, was the activity where you stick pencils through a baggie of water. The provided scientific explanation behind this one seemed a little bit of a stretch- the baggie is made of polymers, which are long, flexible chains of molecules that essentially bend but don't break- but the bag does break- so...this was not the clearest explanation to the kids. Or to this scientist. Mostly the kids said that the pencil plugged up the hole. That made just as much sense to me. (I've since gone on to do a little more reading, and I guess if you think about other materials you would stick a pencil through- fabric, cardboard, paper- they would likely not have this magical reseal thing like the polymers do. Perhaps we should have tried some other materials to compare.)

We went on to talk about how that baggie probably didn't think it could take anymore, just like us sometimes, when thing after thing goes wrong. But with God's help, we can take more than we think we can. When I look at that baggie with all the pencils stuck through it, my brain starts singing the part of "Trading my Sorrows" that borrows from 2 Corinthians 4:8-9.

We are pressed but not crushed; persecuted, not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

As they face conflict and trials big and small, there's a message I hope my superheroes take with them.