More on VBS

God is so amazing!

We do what we can and God does what we can't.

Another inspirational year of Vacation Bible School for the kids.

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On the final day, we had 71 preschoolers, 118 elementary kids and around 30 fifth & sixth graders.

That's a total of around 220 kids!

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Here's a brief view into SonSurf VBS:

This is the entry into the preschool area

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The hallway into KidZone

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Two of the preschool classes at their opening assembly

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Snacks!

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Story time

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Crafts.

They got to make surfboards one day.

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Part of the snack area for the elementary kids.

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The elementary kids opening assembly

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Carnival after the final day of VBS

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I'm too tired to blog much and my house is a disaster from not being around much for the last few days but I wanted to get a VBS story in before I forget.

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The "old me" was very uptight and would panick over everything I couldn't control. To make myself feel better, I would try to control everything I could. That didn't end up make me feel better. It would actually make me feel worse in the long run because there was so much out of my control. It's very hard to be a control freak. Trust me...I know!

The "new me" turns the control over to God. That doesn't mean I don't take responsibility, it just means that when something doesn't go according to my plan, I turn the issue over to God and let him do the worrying instead of me.

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Practical application of this principle for VBS this week: 

I had a spectacular team this week in our preschool area. Teachers, assistants, craft people, snack people, recreation people, opening assembly people and my administrative team (Maria & Brittney). We had head teachers with lots of educational, classroom and kid experience. In addition to the head teacher in each classroom, there were well-qualified teachers assistants in each room and then additional helpers - for a total of 5 adults/helpers in each classroom.

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On the second day of VBS about two hours before we were scheduled to start, I received a call from one of the head teachers. She was sick and wouldn't be able to teach that day. I also found out the evening before that one of our adult helpers in that same class was going to be gone that same day. The "old me" would have panicked. I would have run around complaining that I had everything organized and all the teachers in place and now what was I going to do?!  My emphasis would have been on "I". How was I going fix the problem? Who was I going to call? What was I going to do?

 The "new me" puts the emphasis on God and can turn the entire situation over to Him. My specific prayer in this situation was "God, you know what these kids need today and you can provide what they need."

Isn't that much easier than stressing and panicking? How often do we say that we'll let God be in control of our lives but then we want him to do it our way and don't give Him the opportunity to provide for us in His way? So I turned it over to God to see what he would do :)

As I was sitting in my makeshift VBS preschool office an hour before class was to start that day, a christian lady from our church poked her head in the door and asked if there was anything she could do to help? Did I mention that she volunteers in our elementary school all the time and loves working with the preschoolers?

Thank you God for providing a loving child-care worker for our classroom.

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As I was walking down the hallway about half an hour before class was to start that day, a mom told me that her son had filled in for another helper in the elementary area the day before, but that other helper was back today. Could I use her son? "But", she said, "he'd actually prefer to work with preschool kids if possible."

Thank you God for providing another loving child-care worker for our classroom.

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As I looked in the door as class was starting that day, I saw that same mom comforting a sad little boy in the class. She stayed and helped in the classroom for the entire VBS day.

Thank you God for providing another loving child-care worker for our classroom.

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We now had a wonderful staff in that classroom, including a retired kindergarten teacher, two teenage girls, plus the three new volunteers. The kids would be well supervised but we still needed someone to teach the half hour bible lesson. Stress? I think not! It's the "new me", remember?

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Guess who popped her head in the office door next?

Thanks God for providing a 3rd grade teacher from Volga, who also happens to attend our church and was available for that hour to teach the bible lesson in that classroom.

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God is good!

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