Mary's Musing's: Vacation Bible School 2010

I survived Vacation Bible School!

Yes, it is true! I really did survive! ... Oh, and the kids survived too... :)

After the usual Monday craziness I was starting to wonder about the rest of the week but by the grace of God, schedule flexability, and gummy bears, by Wednesday, Vacation Bible School had settled down to some sort of routine. I never would have made it without Clay! He's the one who primarily helped brain storm

curriculum ideas, teach verses, was a team leader, lead games at the end of week fair, and in general, kept everything (mainly me) from going crazy! I don't know what I would have done without him! Favorite memory... Throughout the week, we had skits about Jeff and Ruby, a brother and sister who were attempting to grow the biggest and best pumpkin for the county fair that fall. As they were pulling the

rocks and weeds from their garden they found a box! An old box, with a lock! (OK, so it was a cardboard box with masking tape...) What could be inside? Just as they were about to try to open it... Oh, my, we are out of time! I guess we'll have to find out tomorrow! (The kids were so disappointed!) The next day Jeff and Ruby's next door neighbor, Wayne, (the kind of neighbor that always causes trouble) stole the box! Clayton, the ever popular story teller, asked the kids what they thought was going to happen. A five year old shouted out 'Adriel (the boy who played Wayne) is going to repent!' As you could imagine, the room quickly erupted into a fit of giggles! How often do you hear a five year old use the word 'repent?' I owe a huge thank you to everyone who volunteered their time during VBS week! You all are amazing! Between crafts, snacks, playing with kiddos, acting in skits, filling water balloons, and dealing with my repeatedly changing mind, you managed to survive as well! I'm not going to attempt to name everyone, because I know I'll inadvertently leave some one out, but since a picture is worth a

thousand words, here are my favorite shots of some of the guys interacting with the kids ;) I'm not sure who had more fun, the guys or the kids!

Clay is somewhere in the dog pile...

Some highlights from the week...

Vacation Bible School would not be complete without catchy songs and verses with amazing hand motions! The boomerang song made a surprising (or not so surprising) come back this year, though I think the favorite song was '12 Men went to spy in Canaan.' (which had absolutely nothing to do with anything we learned that week, but who cares, its fun to sing!) The kids did a great job learning the verses! (and Clay did a great job teaching them) They even said some of their verses in front of every one at church on Sunday! I feel sorry for other churches, we have all the best kids at our VBS!!!

The boomerang song

Learning verses, but I'm not sure what is so funny...

More verses

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...

12 Men went to spy in Canaan (the big and strong part)

Of course you can't forget the lessons and skits. Its not called Vacation Bible School for nothing :)

Here, we are learning about weeds, not just the kind that grow in your garden, but also those that grow in your heart.

Jeff and Ruby with their pumpkin

This short guy showed up one day to hear us say our verses

Pictures of smiling kids are so reassuring!

Game Time! Need I say more?

We finished the week with a 'county fair!' Though the pumpkins we planted on Monday were not ready, we had fun with balloon sculpting, face painting, tug of war, three legged races, marshmallow eating contest, and a make shift dunk tank!

Levi did a great job on the picture board!

The marshmallow eating contest

Tug of war!

The Dunk Tank! Here is how it worked. Some one would stand on the top of the play structure with a bucket of ice cold water from the hose.

Under them, sitting on a chair, was the person (or people in this case) who were to be 'dunked.'

There was a target to hit with a ball that others would try to knock over. When the target was hit...

Bombs away!

Oh, did I mention the extra credit verses? The older kids were given a challenge of eight extra verses to memorize during the week. If all eight were said, they got to put a pie in the face of the leader of their choice! The incentive worked, as you can see...