VBS Post 1

This has been such a fun week of VBS!  I stayed home today since the crafts were done, which I was helping with, and thought I'd post a few pictures.  I know Hosanna is missing VBS and we miss her too! Our theme is a spy theme and so we gave out these glasses one day for those that said their daily verse. Anna is too young for VBS but we couldn't help but have her try a pair on since she comes to VBS with Aaron and Naomi. They were so cute on the kids!

Silas leads the "Detective Skills" time each day.  Here he's doing a lesson on finding counterfeits and relating it to counterfeit gods.  There's only one, true God!

Esther loves VBS!  She sits on Priscilla's team and although she's little she can still say the verses and sing along and learn from God's Word.  We are so excited to have grandchildren come to VBS after all these years of working there!

I couldn't resist posting this adorable picture of little Aaron.

Don't you just love all the Bible's being raised for a sword drill?!

We took all the children and split them up among the ministry training workers and had them share the wordless book with their little group.  Between that and some of the lessons we've had a number of children trust in Christ as their Savior.  One boy wanted to know if he could get baptized and if he could get a Bible!  That's exciting!!

The favorite noontime game is Capture the Bones. It's a spin off of capture the flag, only a farm version where they capture cow bones!  When they play it seems like Silas is the favorite one to chase!

Miriam doesn't know I'm posting this but isn't she cute?!  Miriam and her cousin Hannah are the registration people and keep track of points for the contest throughout the day.  They were very excited to announce today that we hit the 100 children mark!!  We are really excited as its been a few years since we've had a group that big.

Priscilla wrote the theme skit for the year.  It's a detective skit, obviously, where Carmen steals the famous Mr. Krahn painting.  There's a list of suspects and Priscilla did a great job of putting in lines from different movies and CD's we have just to make it interesting for those that have seen or heard them. Each day when they do the theme skit they get in the theme for the day as well as the week.

We have had excellent teaching this year!  The three key lessons each day have been done by either Arthur or Aaron, Uncle Bruce, and Mr. H.  The other lessons and learning the verses is done by the younger guys who do a fantastic job!  For the most part, any of the guys that have been to the ministry training or helped at VBS for a few years, can jump up when needed and do what they are asked to do.  This could include an on the spot, teach-a-verse, lead a song, lead a sword drill or whatever.  They are so good, and I am so thankful for such good young men who not only like to serve at VBS, but serve God as well. The girls help teach some too and help with song leading! It's been enjoyable watching those that have been afraid to stand up front go to freely teaching a lesson a year later! Much of the credit goes to the Berntsons who taught CEF training for so many years and taught our teachers who teach the younger teachers today.  I know they sometimes read this blog and so we want to thank them once again for their years of service in CEF!

Here's Miriam and Hannah at the registration table.  Keeping track of points gets steadily harder as the week goes on because the children can review all previous verses for points.  We have two verses a day so that's a total of 10 verses that many of the children repeat every day with all 10 on Friday. For those that want, we also have a list of 100 extra verses to say for prizes.

For craft time this year we made two crafts.  Monday and Tuesday we made I Spy jars.  We took peanut butter jars that our church families collected, and filled them with colored rice and little things.  The idea is to shake up the jar and try to find all 20 or so things in the jar.  We taped on a list of the things to keep track of.  It was pretty neat even if it did take forever to color three large Sam's Club sized bags of rice! It was a sensory type thing and everyone couldn't help but run their hands through the rice.

It's been a good week and I think the workers, all 40 or so them, enjoy and learn as much as the children.  God is good and we are so thankful for all He has done this week! For those in the area, the children will be doing a program Friday at 1:00 for one hour.  Thanks for praying!