Friends of Flat Stanley

Flat Keldon, Flat Sk., Flat Parker, and Flat Sy. came to VBS as stand-ins for their "not-flat" counterparts. (If you never read any Flat Stanley books, check him out here.)

Keldon is a just-finished 6th grader that is having chemo treatments this week. Parker is a just-finished 1st grader that had hip surgery last week. Sk. and Sy. (soon to be 4th grade and kindergarten age) are a brother and sister that will soon be heading (with their parents) to Costa Rica for language school and then on to Lima, Peru as full-time missionaries. These 4 kids would have been here for VBS this week if BIG life hadn't kept them from it. So someone had the great idea to create giant paper dolls of them and to take the "flattened" version to every class, taking pictures along the way. The pictures will be sent to the live 3-D kid showing him or her what they would have been doing had they been able to be here. (El tells me that Flat Keldon got sucked into the A/C intake and had to be rescued... rather wrinkled but still intact!!)


I love the people in charge of our VBS. They "get it."

Note: Thanks to Brittney (who worked with the preschoolers and posted LOTS of pictures to Facebook) I found this picture of Flat Sy. with her class.

Family Night

I love VBS family night. There are lots of people that come to see their children have a good time. We have tried to make it as family friendly as possible. We have hot dogs, drinks and chips for anyone who shows up. There are inflatables, a train and a rock wall for the kids. This year we had a dunking booth. Mark told the kids that if they raised $500 by today for our missionary project, he would get in the dunking booth. He was looking pretty soggy when I was closing up my office!

And I got pictures of none of that! I was too busy inside and by the time I got outside and located El, she was on her way down the rockwall! And I had choir practice, too. I'm betting someone else has pictures they'll post.

What I did get pictures of tonight was the line up outside at just before 6:30.

There were kids everywhere.

This shot is of 1 section of our sanctuary. It was reserved for the preschoolers and babies whose moms were working in VBS. I love the 6 seat stroller. That's it on the front row next to the lady on her knees.

I know it's selfish of me, but my favorite part is when ALL the kids get on the platform together and sing a song that we have worked on during the week. I get to lead 200 voices and 400 hands praising God! I live all year for that moment. I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father asks me to do this job for Him.

VBS Day 2

The word of the day today is WORSHIP. Why should we worship Jesus?
Because of Who He is.

And because of Who He is, no one can do the things He can do.

We talked (and sang!) about 6 of the miracles He did. We wondered if Jesus' feet left ripples on the surface of the Sea of Galilee or if maybe His feet didn't even touch the water.

We wondered if maybe the only reason He turned the water into wine at the wedding was because He was an obedient son Whose mother had requested it.

We wondered if Jairus got his money back when he canceled his daughter's funeral. (We figured he probably didn't care!)

We talked about whether the crowd thought it was icky that Jesus made mud with spit and then rubbed it on the blind man's eyes. We figure the (formerly) blind man didn't think so! He may never have wanted to wash his face again!

I asked if they knew of any other of Jesus' miracles. I love to see how much they know. One young man brought up the soldier in the garden whose ear was cut off by Peter and then healed by Jesus. We wondered if it left a scar and think not because Jesus healed it perfectly. We wondered if it changed the soldier's attitude about arresting Jesus. Could he have been the same soldier who, at the foot of the cross, looked up at Jesus and said, "Surely this man was the Son of God."?

I think today, we wanted to emphasize that these are not just stories. These things were written down by eye-witnesses so that we'd know what really happened. I wanted our kids to put their imaginations to work and wonder what would it have been like to BE THERE.

VBS musical

Here are some pictures from our VBS musical. El had one of the speaking roles.

Her longtime friends Kel (plaid shorts)and Emmie (blond) are there, too. Will in the hat is a bit younger. and somehow I missed Ash altogether. I'll have to look and see if I got her.

This is from tomorrow's song. I can't wait.

My Didgeridoo

My didgeridoo is finished.

Mr. H did all the mechanical stuff (cutting, heating, fixing the spray paint can) and I did the rest (painting and making the wax mouthpiece).

It's made of a piece of 2" PVC that is about 4 feet long. We belled out the bottom a tiny bit by heating it and stuffing a bottle into the end while it was soft.

We did the same thing in reverse by tightening a hose clamp around the other end after heating it. Krylon makes a spray paint especially for plastic and that's what we sprayed it with. The color is Sun-dried Tomato. I wasn't too sure I'd like that color, but it's not bad. Then I just free-handed some graphic designs, mostly dots. The mouth piece is melted paraffin wax that has been pressed around the top to seal better against your face/mouth.It looks pretty cool. I just wish I sounded as good as my husband. If it's a musical wind instrument, he can play it.

Didgeridoos don't really have a wide range. They are mostly drone instruments. The technique is mainly blowing raspberries into it. The kids will have fun!

VBS Preparations

Our Vacation Bible School starts next Monday. I have never been in a church that does such excellent job of preparation. They will be working all week to turn ABC into Australia.

This is our church sanctuary. There is another large poster of a train station on the other side of the tree. This is where I'll be leading the music stop next week.

This is a pass-through area from the old building to the more recent addition of the sanctuary. It is a suggestion of the Sydney Opera House. There is a big poster of the Opera House on the wall opposite these curtains.

This lighthouse had made an appearance in several bible schools and children's musicals since its construction (thank you, Mr. H) about 10 years ago.

This is a tree constructed for decoration in our fellowship hall. Yesterday afternoon the koala was in the top of the tree. He must feel safe enough here to come to ground level.

And with all those ladies putting all this wonderful stuff together, someone has to look after their little ones. There are always a bunch of kids here during prep week. Sometimes the big ones help with the decorations and sometimes they take care of the younger ones.

And these guys will be making an appearance!

Forthcoming...

I promise I will post pictures and recollections from our trip to Natchez, but we've been very busy the past 2 days. Some things just must take precedence ( like the tail gate party and a new phone for Em.....)