God Home: VBS 2009 (caution: there are a LOT of pictures)

This is Jerry. He was one of the co-directors

This is Jerry and his wife Joyce. She has been the VBS director many times, this was Jerry's first year. I'm sure he benefited from her knowledge of the inner-workings of VBS. Joyce is the Children's director of our church. She does a great job.

Meet Carla. She is the one in the blue shirt. She was co-director with Jerry. She is also a close friend. Amanda is in the red and white shirt, she was a teacher with her boyfriend for one of the little ones class.

She made a shirt for the week. Can you tell she loves Bible School?

This is Cricket and MaryAnn they were there to help kids know where to go, and to keep tabs on the number.

Next are pictures of what the sanctuary looked like.

Every service began with three pledges.

One to the American Flag

One to the Christian Flag

and

One to the Bible

Next is offering. No Bible School is complete without an offering contest. The kids were in three groups and came up to put their money in the suitcase designated for them. In the end the kids raised over 700 dollars for bible quizzing around the world.

Here they are giving offerings of praise. No song is complete without motions. Believe me there were MANY MANY motions. They were really into it, it was great to see them so excited, once they get too much older the 'attitude' sets in (wink,wink)

Cricket was also the storyteller for the week.

She did an amazing job at engaging the kids in the story of the day, at the final program the kids showed that they were really paying attention.

Then the kids had class. Looks like right now they are having their snack.

This is the little kids classroom.

Every night they went outside and played with Josh. He was in charge of helping them memorize their verses for the week. At the end program most of them knew the verses. I was impressed, as you can see they had a lot of fun, and had a chance to get some energy out.

Josh after having a tub of water poured all over him.

Now it seems to me that there were a disproportionate number of kids with mohawks. I say let kids do their hair as they please, it is something for them to have control over and a way to express themselves, so I just LOVE this picture.

There were two crafts for the week. Tye-Dye shirts, and small prayer pillows. The first two nights were focused on the shirts. They tied the shirts with rubber bands the first night, and dyed them the second. Amazingly most of them kept relatively dye free. They were very well behaved.

This is L dying his shirt

and then L showing me the final product. Looks so CUTE!

Thursday, 34 children accepted Christ. I pray that experience stays with them and that God will place people in their lives that will be there to help them grow in Christ.

After the final program there were sundaes for the children and their family's outside.

Then the clean-up begins.

There is truth in the saying that

Many hands make light work.

We thought we could give J some jobs to help us. He was a great helper and really enjoyed getting to clean up with us

This is J showing me the tape he got off the back of the picture. Every piece of tape taken off was a victory.

This is Jayme her Husband Kyle and she are in the states for about a month right now. They will be in town this week visiting her parents (Joyce and Jerry at the beginning of the post) and her brothers Jared (my oldest and best friend) and Josh with his wife Mindy are coming in tomorrow to spend time together as a family. I am so happy for them to have this time. It has been a year and a half since she has been home. They are doing a great work in Europe and I am sure God has placed them exactly where they are needed, his fingerprints are all over their story. If you'd like to know more about them you can go to their blog the difference that YOU make.