Blah blah blah, respect

Already half-way through week 2. It's been a good week so far. We had 22 kids yesterday with a fantastic bunch of church volunteers that I especially appreciate with this energetic group.

The beautiful thing about these kids is they haven't quite decided who they are yet. I see a lot of behavior that seems contradictory to me. A boy who one minute tells me, "You sound just like our teacher at school: 'blah blah blah, be respectful, blah blah blah,'" the next minute is showing great maturity helping the girls next to him with their crossword, and later asks if he can have extras of the blessings cookies craft (fortune cookies with encouragement inside) to take home to his family. Another boy, who seemed to spend most of his morning up out of his chair wandering around, trying to climb the pole, or otherwise finding something he shouldn't be doing, was the one who volunteered to pray at lunch-and did a fine job. A third boy who usually requires several reminders to listen and quite hitting his brother also brings his own Bible and wants to know what the passage is for the day so he can mark it. And I am constantly amazed at how quickly lots the kids can pick up the Bible memory verse and remember details from the story.

Next project? Getting these kids to JOY camp! :-)

"Thank You, God, for inventing Vacation Bible School."

One week down! We concluded today with pizza, ice cream, and cupcakes (a bit ironic considering our healthy food emphasis- but it was delicious.) On a slightly more nutritious note, we made trail mix that reviewed all our Bible stories from the week. In case you're curious how that works:

On the first day, we talked about the Israelites escaping from slavery in Egypt. They ate flat unleavened bread, which we represented with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. (A couple of kids got this connection as soon as they saw the flat cereal, which reassured me I wasn't crazy with this idea.)

Day two was the Leviticus business describing all the festivals where the Israelites made offerings to God. Since they offered up the first fruits of their grain harvest, we included whole grain Cheerios.

On day three, we talked about Jesus inviting all who are thirsty to come unto him. Nothing makes you thirsty like pretzels! (Which, in hindsight, means it probably would have been a good idea to have something to drink with the trail mix...oh well.)

The fourth day we talked about communion (or "commotion," as one boy called it.) We used raisins, as I was thinking they were from grapes just like the grape juice or wine. A 9 year old girl, still thinking about the previous day, decided that raisins were all shriveled up like your heart would be if it were thirsty. I asked if she wanted to come along with us all summer and come up with good ideas like this, but I think she had other things to do.

And today we talked about Pentecost, the birthday of the church, and how through the Holy Spirit, we can celebrate what God is doing for us every day. Good celebrations involve chocolate, so we used M&Ms.

My good idea girl also noted that she got to "shake it [her baggie of trail mix] up," just like our theme for the week.

Then it was time to try to get everything organized again and loaded back into the van! What a fast week!

Three dozen and counting!

Now, normally at a VBS in the kind of towns we go to, we expect 18-20 kids- and often we don't even get that many. Lovilia had 30 on the first day, and today we had 36! This being the first week, we are still working out some of the bugs. But, DVDs that skip offer natural pauses for discussion, easels that collapse let eager volunteers hold the song sheets (and other volunteers demonstrate their fix-it abilities...thanks, Bill....), and glue that doesn't stick at first leads to lessons in patience.

Still, I'm hoping that next week will get easier once we've learned from this week. My favorite part of leading VBS is usually finding a fun way to tell the Bible story, and somehow I'm having creative block with that this year. But I think the selections are a little different this year, too- lots of Old Testament Jewish festivals (teaching kindergarteners about Leviticus? Really?), but they do a nice job now of using that information to set the stage for stories about Jesus and what happened when he celebrated those festivals. (Hint: He tended to shake things up.)

Anyway, regardless of the details of what does or doesn't go exactly as planned, the main idea is that the kids are hearing about God and learning more about how much He loves us and what we do in response to that. I trust that God is helping them hear that message even through those of us who feel a little frazzled.

Rainy days and Thursdays...

We're about ready to kick off another summer of Vacation Bible School. The theme this year is "Shake it Up Cafe- where kids carry out God's recipe." This summer will look a little different, as Peg will do a little less, I will do a little more, and we are both blessed and thrilled to have a wonderful and beautifully-named volunteer with us this summer (thanks, Allison 2!)

Our craft research and development team (i.e. my grandma) created samples of all the crafts. We've rehearsed the puppet show, learned the songs, cut cardboard for picture frames, tested markers, figured out how trail mix can be a teaching tool, and decorated our aprons (that's right, we're all chefs this year!) The only hard thing left to do today was remember the intricate system of packing everything back up in the van. On our way back from lunch, Peg asked me to move my car so it would be easier for her to back the van right up to the garage so we didn't have to get drenched in the rain. So, she gave me her keys so I could run in to the house and grab my car keys. I did that, backed my car clear up, and waited. And waited. And waited. And wondered why on earth she wasn't moving her van! And finally I saw her colorful umbrella peek out of the van. She came over to my car and I suddenly realized it must be hard for her to move the van when I had all her keys. Oops. Once we all got done laughing, we were able to get the van loaded up while getting only minimally rained on.

We take off bright and early on Monday for VBS #1!

You can't buy living water at the Dutchmen's Store...

though they've got about everything else. Peg and I enjoyed a field trip to this Mennonite old-fashioned general store on Wednesday, halfway through VBS in Cantril. This store and a few other businesses help create a little more hustle and bustle here than some of the other small towns we've been to, but it's still certainly not a big place. The UM church has a congregation with no kids, like many other churches of its size, but several from the community came to enjoy Bible school.

We'd lucked out so far with the weather, but on day one of Bible school here, it poured down rain, making unloading a real pain and dampening any hopes we had for a big turnout. At five minutes to ten, we were beginning to wonder what if you had a Bible school and nobody came. Fortunately, in just a few minutes, we were greeted by six smiling faces. Small but mighty, the kids helped tell the creation story (see picture), made a space mobile at craft time, and listened when we encouraged them to bring friends. The next day we had 12 kids- double the first day! We stayed at about 12 for the week. I took the six youngest ones for class, and I was really impressed with their cheerful attitudes and helpful spirits (including a six year old helping erase a paper for a three year old who was distraught when he discovered "it won't come off!") Today, we reviewed our stories and sang songs for a few parents and church helpers at the program. It's hard to believe that this was our last Vacation Bible school!! Time for camp!

Promise City

As I look forward to this next week of Bible school, I realize I haven't written anything about last week yet! How time flies...

This past week we were in Promise City. This was a new town for us, and the United Methodist church here was recently closed down. We had VBS in the community center, which is a very nice building with air conditioning that we especially appreciated on Wednesday, dubbed by weather people as the hottest day of the year.

We started out the week with 8 kids, and we had a handful of others who came on some days, so I'd say we had a grand total of 11 or 12. Of those, we now have 5 coming to camp- so exciting! This was truly a great group of kids. They were very good listeners and sang well enough to make up for their small numbers! The first day, they weren't quite sold on the songs yet, but on the next few days, we had a few kids who got there as soon as we did, headed straight for the CD player, and listened and sang along with some of their favorites. We also got to make some music with the boomwhackers and gave a mini-performance for our kitchen helpers- fun for everyone. On the last day, a man who helped organize for us to come treated us all for ice cream at the No Name Cafe across the street.

Ice cream and good music aside, the kids learned a lot this week. I heard many good discussions coming from the older class about peer pressure and taking time for God. In the younger group, we reviewed the stories and talked about what we can learn from space- like how comets look beautiful when they're close to the warmth of the sun and how we look beautiful when we're close to the love of God. Some of the students brought their own Bibles this week, so we practiced looking up Scripture references. A student barely old enough to read proudly showed me her Bible, flipped through it, and explained that she usually just skipped over the red stuff. I asked her if she knew why those words were red, and explained that those were the best part, because Jesus said them. She looked at me for a minute, decided I was telling the truth, and then yelled across the room to her brother, "Guess what! The red words are the best part! Do you know why?...." We also had a chat about how "the new part of the Bible" (the New Testament) was not really that new, so even old Bibles would have it included. :-)

All in all, this was a week well worth the daily hour and a half drive from Kirkville. This coming week, we're off to Cantril, home of the Dutchmen's Store!

Dr. Pastor Cowboy Doug

First of all, if you had trouble listening to the radio show Sunday night, it's because evidently they're going to broadcast it this Saturday at 6pm and Sunday at 2pm. Check out their website at http://radiogodscountry.org/ListeningArea.html to figure out what station works best for you.
Second of all, WOW! I could not have been more impressed or more proud of our kids. I walked in an hour or so before the concert started, and there were already several people there, bustling around, checking sound levels, and staking out seats. The music was wonderful. While I had to readjust to clapping on 1 and 3, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a nice variety of music- Bill Gaither and Casting Crowns, Gold City and Kutless. The Kirkville kids sang some VBS songs and even taught the radio host, Cowboy Doug (who also is a pastor and a doctor- a combination of titles that makes me smile) the karate song, complete with actions. We also played Jesus Loves Me and Amazing Grace on the boomwhackers. A little four year old girl had the high C, and she could not have been more adorable!! It all went very well, and Cowboy Doug offered to take us on the road instead of his band (much to the protest of his band, who decided they wanted to come with us and play the boomwhackers.)
It was absolutely heartwarming to see how many people were there and to see their faces as they listened to the music. Whether they were VBS parents, grandparents, or friends, or whether they were devoted fans of the groups that performed, it's safe to say that a good time was had by all :) Pat, who runs the store at Kirkville, told us she stopped counting at 120 people. Other counts offered 129- that church hasn't seen that many people in...who knows when. There are a few more events to come in the following months, and we hope that all the excitement will help the small church to grow.