Monday, June 15, 2009

Oh, What A Week We Had

Well. we have had a lot of fun this past week. It was Vacation Bible School week and we had a blast. As some of you know, my husband is the children's pastor at our church so this is a really busy,exciting week for him. God showed up and we had a great week. Our theme was Boomerang Express. This is the outback of Australia, which means everything is decorated to look like the outback.

This was our verse for the week. It is such a great verse for these kids to know. I think it wraps up the gospel in one verse.









This was our motto for the week.

John Adams, Ellie, our friend, KK, Riley, and our friend, Kyle after the first day. They had a great time but everyone went home and rested. 
Let me tell you what one day at VBS consists of at Calvary. We start with a worship rally. Lots of energy, lots of great music, lots of fun!!! This is the praise team, some of them anyway. Couldn't get all them in one shot.
Our kids worshipping. We had a lot of kids, but it was awesome to see them all worshipping God.
Then we go to our classes. I helped teach 2nd grade. We had 3 2nd grade classes. I taught with 2 other ladies, Becky and Kim. We had a lot of fun together. We had 24 in our class.

We had recreation and snack in a 30 minute span of time. The teachers don't go to rec with the kids. We have our own snack at that time. As good as the potato chips and M&Ms are, we can have a little adult time and really good snacks. Think fruit, cheese balls, Cocktail winnies. Yum! Yum!
We had missions. We talked each day about a different missionary and watched a video. Actually getting to see the missionaries and see what they do was a big help in making it real for the kids. The missions teacher actually goes on a month long mission trip every year. She is great to listen to.
We alos go to crafts. This is also led by a different teacher. They come up with all the crafts and we are there to help and be crowd control.
We also take our classes to music. I love music. It was the first thing we did everyday so the kids still had lots of energy. We learned a new song everyday from our music pastor and 2 ladies. They do a great job! We learned the songs not only to reiterate what we talked about in our bible story but also to do a musical on Sunday night for their parents.
We had 2 mission projects this year. One was filling a box with goodies for soldiers serving our country overseas. Some of them actually went to relatives of kids at VBS. The other mission project was our offering. We collected different items everyday for a different place everyday. For instance, we brought paper products and travels size items one day for the Ronald McDonald House. This is a house families stay at when their child id in the hospital for an extended period of time. Each day was different. This was a great way for the kids to see something tangible and know they are making a difference to someone else.
Sunday night, we had our musical. The preschoolers sang 3 songs first. Riley and Ellie did a great job. This is the first time they have ever done one together.
Then the big kids did theirs. They did great also. Afterwards, we went to our local water park, Water World. I think the kids liked this part the most.

We had 27 kids come to know the Lord this week. It was Awesome!!! Praise God!!! Five of those kids were baptized at Water World. It is really cool seeing all those people gathered in the water watching and cheering as kids are being baptized. Thank you God for letting me be a part of what you are doing. Thank you for letting me see that you are alive and well and you are still working all around me. Thank you for everyone who helped make this week great but it would have been nothing if you had not been there. Amen.