Vacation Bible School!!!

Pre-seminary, I was the Director of Youth and Family Ministry at a wonderful church in Duluth, MN.  I LOVED my job and would have happily stayed there until retirement.  My favorite part, without a doubt, was Vacation Bible School (VBS).  I got to be ridiculously enthusiastic and bubbly for 3 hours, and then send the kids home and crash in my office for the rest of the day.  :-)

This year, I have the honor of directing the VBS at Jeremy's internship congregation.  I even wrote the curriculum!  The theme is "SPLASH! into God's Baptismal Promises" and it starts tonight!

I'm playing the music for opening/closing...something I never imagined I'd be capable of.  I still doubt my abilities, but thankfully the kids have low standards.  ;-)

The main set

Registration table in the commons

"Kiss the Pig" contest- our mission challenge...doesn't Jeremy look cute as a scuba diver?!?!   Our pastoral staff are such good sports!

Each night starts with dinner at the "Coconut Cafe."

Impromptu centerpieces made on a whim while decorating today

Mountain range in the Fellowship Hall

When in doubt...balloons help out!

I painted a bunch of decorations for the hallway as kids walk down from registration to the fellowship hall.  We're also going to have tropical music playing throughout the building, so hopefully everyone will get pumped up as soon as they arrive!

In the hallway, each kid has a fish...this is how many we have preregistered, I'm excited to see how many more come tonight!  Isn't the turtle cute?  He's my favorite thing that I painted!   

Jeremy and I did all the decorating, which was a lot of fun in some ways and hard in others.  I'm always amazed at what a great team we are and how our strengths and weaknesses compliment each other so well.  On the other hand, I was used to having a 40 hour work week with the kids at daycare to get VBS stuff done, and it's a lot harder when there are little ones constantly around.  I also used to work with a few other churches and we'd pass the decorations between us, so I really miss having that network and it's something I hope to establish for first call.

It's always a great feeling to see months of planning come into fruition.  I'm totally psyched for tonight and can't wait to see the kids' reactions to everything!  Get ready to SPLASH!!!