It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: to shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Psalms 92:1-2 (KJV)
As a kid I loved anything related to cowboys so would have loved our VBS this year which uses a cowboy theme. For the Kindergarteners, one of the suggestions was to make western vests for them to wear and add a patch to each day using a grocery bag. Thanks, Giant Eagle, for donating the bags! Gerard and I made 50 of these!
Get a paper grocery bag and cut it open, cutting a straight line up the back of it.
Cut out a diamond shape in the center of the bottom of the bag for the head to go into.
Put strips of masking tape all along the four edges of the neck to soften the edges by the neck.
Cut along the side edges of the bottom of the bag.
On each side of the bag starting at the bottom of the bag, cut out big arm holes.
Turn the bag inside out.
Cut 2" long strips around the top edge of the bag for fringe.
Set it aside if you have a cat, and I bet they will either enjoy sitting or lying on it!
Last week I took vacation to help in VBS at our church and had a great time, even though it was extremely hot. We used Gospel Light’s Sonsurf Beach Bash material. I always enjoy helping in this because it’s quite fun with so many kids attending (roughly 700 each day, most from the community!). The offering of $2400 for the week went to the Chain of Love orphanage in Brazil.
When I asked the boys in my 5th-6th grade group what part about VBS they liked best, I got a variety of answers that included recreation, crafts, and everything. For me, other than developing team spirit and a sense of belonging for my team (who came in 1st place), I enjoyed the skits done by our Pastor and his wife each day that taught the lesson. They write their own material and play well off each other while making the point of the lesson memorable with humor.
I wish I had videotaped them each day, but I plan to next year if they do skits again. I did get the last day taped with my camcorder and an edited version of Thursday’s with my digital camera. I was disappointed that I didn’t take the video right from the beginning on Thursday, because the beginning was really the funniest part when “Shark” didn’t follow directions and got the kids playing instead of teaching the lesson. This is the shortened video that I did by inserting titles and still shots at the beginning:
Lessons for the week were:
Monday: Meet Up: Jesus is God’s Son and loves everyone!
I Jn. 4:9—This is how God showed his love for us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him.
Tuesday: Look Up: You can trust Jesus all the time because He does what He says.
Psalm 56:3—When I am afraid, I will trust in you.
Wednesday: Join Up: We need Jesus because he is the only way to God the Father in heaven.
John 14:6—Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.
Thursday: Open Up: Confess our sin and be forgiven.
Daniel 9:9--The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him.
Friday: Fire Up: Tell others about Jesus.
Matthew 28:19-20—Go into all nations and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always.
What do you think of our VBS? Does your church have a VBS week?
This week Gerard and I are helping in Vacation Bible School. It's so much fun to see all the children and to work along side such a wonderful dedicated staff. Gerard is helping in the third grade group and I am in the fifth and sixth grade group. Our Pastor, Dan Barfell, and his wife, Elena, are doing all the lessons each day and the different groups just rotate into the Family Life Center at different times for the lesson. When I saw today's lesson was on the parable of the soils, I wonder how they were going to make that interesting. Well, they did a fantastic job with it!
Working together, they acted like they were going to teach tribal children in the rain forest. The background was decorated like a rain forest, and all the kids were the tribal kids. Elena is so funny anyway so she did the silly part and her husband was the "straight man." Elena brought along great props, and made up a silly poem for teaching the story and then her husband did the explanation of the parable. It was very funny which kept every one's attention and the kids seemed to get the point that we should obey God's Word to be like the good soil.
Gerard is the only man in his group and feels a bit lonely. He would like to know why more men aren't helping.
Our church has a blog where you can see video of our VBS this week: SonQuest VBS 2010.
Although this video doesn't show it, we also had songs that went along with teaching the memory verses for the week which were I John 3:1 (Jesus accepts us), Isaiah 41:13 (Jesus protects us), Romans 10:10 (Jesus saves us) Psalm 86:5 (Jesus forgives us) and Ephesians 2:10 (Live for Jesus.) Crafts consisted of a journal, verse plaques sponge painting a t-shirt and a necklace. The kids had homemade cookies for a snack each day, rec time outside, and prizes. In grades 4-6 they got tickets for attending, bringing a Bible, saying the verse, bringing someone new, etc. and at the end each day if their number was called, they got to choose a prize. The last day everyone got a chance to choose something. Of course, we had teams competing for points all week. We had over 130 kids in just grades 4-6. Thursday and Friday we had 800 kids attend! That's the most we ever had!
This is very different from when I was a kid. I remember the whole Bible School had only about 100 kids. We had paper crafts except for one year I remember we made a sundial which I liked. We didn't have any outside time except for the one I went to with a friend one year. They had a snack the last day outside. As a kid, I really wasn't big on going to VBS. One year I remember there was about seven or eight of us in a class and we had a real old lady for a teacher who told us we couldn't leave until we said the verse. Most of the years I went as a kid were no fun at all and it almost turned me off memorizing scripture. The worst part was we had to dress up for it. It's so much better now allowing the kids to come in shorts or jeans.
Only one year I really enjoyed it and that was when I was I finished 6th grade and the couple in charge of our group actually tried to make it fun and interesting. We got to play tic-tac-toe! Whoopee! That was exciting back then compared to what we were used to. I can't remember ever having a skit growing up.
The worst year was when we had the Pastor as our teacher and I finally got my best friend to come. That week, all our lessons were all about the denomination and nothing about salvation the entire week! I was so mad and disappointed!
When I had the opportunity to run the Vacation Bible School a couple years at the Brooklyn Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, I had team competition, one key verse for the week, a softball game in the afternoon between the teams, quizzing between the teams and crafts that the kids had a choice of which to ones they wanted to make and gave out candy.
What are some of your memories of VBS? Do you think kids have it better now than we did growing up? I sure do!
