Vacation Bible School 2009

Wow! VBS stars Monday! I feel like I've been either so busy getting it ready, or knowing I need to work on it and feeling guilty about doing other things instead (blogging). I am really excited for VBS this year!

This is our fourth year of writing our own program. When I took over our Children's Ministries program, I wasn't too impressed by what our church had been buying. It wasn't that the published curriculum wasn't creative or well done--we just needed something different. I'm curious what the average size of a Vacation Bible School is. We see about 225 kids, and all the material and supplies that a published curriculum required got really expensive really quickly (not to mention took forever to prep!). Beyond that, we never actually used the songs or skits recommended by the curriculum--one of our pastors always leads worship and the skits and he has an amazing creative mind and is a phenomenal actor! I had also observed that the boys never seemed to really enjoy crafts--which was our biggest time and money consumer. And along with all of that, every other church in our town did the same thing. We wanted to stand out with something different.

So after evaluating all of those factors, and knowing what a wonderfully creative team we have, we began writing our own program. The first year I was so excited to see it all work out, but also very nervous that what I was so confident in wouldn't actually work. But it did! It was great! Our first year's theme was "Galaxy Quest" where the kids went on a space adventure to learn about the Armor of God. The skit was something like Star Trek meets Star Wars meets Space Balls. We did away with crafts for the elementary kids and replaced them with activity stations--legos, beads, clay, craft items, and taking apart electronics. The kids got to pick what table they wanted to participate in each day. Games were a lot of fun, snack was simple, and the week went great!

The next year we looked at the Fruit of the Spirit with a theme of "Willie Wantcha and the Character Factory." Once again, we had an amazing week! Last year we went on a great journey in learning all about the Bible in our "Follow the Golden Road" week. Each year I've felt was our best program and this year is no different. I can't wait to have kids to be inspired to think of all the places God will take them! We're learning about how God used kids in the Bible to do great things--how Samuel was used for great things because he listened to God, David was used for great things because he was patient in waiting for God's timing, Josiah was used for great things because he honored God, Jesus was used for great things because He obeyed God, and the boy with the loaves and fishes was used for great things because he was available to God. It's going to be great!

God has blessed us so much through giving us ideas and bringing it to life. And it all just excites me even more for what we'll do next year!