The theme for Vacation Bible School this year was the Olympics! All of the children were broken up by grade and each grade was a country that persecutes Christians. So each day the kids learned about the country and the people and prayed for peace and for believers in that country. Nadia was in the 1st grade class and Amelie was with the 3 years olds. Last year Amelie was in the nursery so this was the first time in a class and she had a blast going to crafts, music and story time. We had a lot of guests this year and nearly 140 kids every day in attendance. I thought this year was the smoothest VBS that I have ever been a part of.
Once again I was in charge to getting the kids excited about the fund-raising and telling them a little story each day to motivate them. The girls raised money to buy Bibles for kids in Tucson, AZ and the boys raised money for the Kids of Courage through Voice of the Martyrs. I encourage you to check out their site to find out about kids who face persecution around the globe. The change up for me this year was to be a part of the skit and I was really excited because if you know me well, then you know I am a ham! I was a puppet- the famous swimmer “Shark Spitz.” The best thing by the end were the kids that came up to me to say, “Are you Shark Spitz? Or I know you are Shark Spitz!”
Each morning we had to come early for skit practice so I brought the girls breakfast. Here they are with Lyla Kate who is Pastor Darwin’s granddaughter. He was Ronnie the Rooster and the biggest hit of the skit each day.
Amelie loved the singing and dancing best, plus the teen helpers were so super sweet!
Look how cool they set up the sanctuary.
The girls saying their verses and singing with their classes. It’s really adorable to see how excited the kids are to show their parents all they learned.
It was a wonderful week, but exhausting for all three of us. The weekend ended up being a time of rest and recovery – Nadia even fell asleep on the couch Sunday for two hours while we were watching the Olympics and talking. That is totally unheard for her and Amelie took several 2.5 hour naps during the week.