It should be noted that we had CONSIDERABLY MORE kids at VBS today than yesterday. The main room of the church was filled nearly full TWICE. We split the younger kids from the older and rearranged the order of things today for the older set so as to accommodate everyone and better allow for everyone to co-exist at the same time. There will likely be more rearranging to be done tomorrow.
Lessons went well and we can tell people are praying. Pray specifically tomorrow for the younger kids to be able to sit during the lesson and or bible talks. A few of the younger kids seem to have the most difficult time with this and it is distracting for the others to have a few of the kids constantly getting up, disrupting or running in and out of the room.
Some pictures.
Each night we have a special time for the full team (all 4 families) where we gather together to pray, discuss the day and sing. Tyler Hoekwater plays the guitar and Jordan Wynalda usually plays some type of percussion (he likes the beat).It is a good time to settle down after a long day and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Here is a picture of part of the crowd from this morning. The first day we had about 22 kids (non Calvary kids). With our kids about 34.Today we estimated we had about 50. It was a bit insane at times.
This is a picture of Anton teaching. He is one of the seminary students (from Central Ukraine) and has really taken to Steve Gibson. I (Dan) have had some good talks with him as well. He is an awesome guy!
We played some games today that were a little more active. Things were a flying!
Here's a photo of group #2. As you can see, lots and lots of kids! Slava Bogu (Praise God!)
Time for lunch but time for a little bit of quick humor. We have been searching all week for a good and proper use of Steve Gibson's gifts. We have found them and thought we would document them on the blog. Suffice it to stay that Steve's intestinal fortitude was tested yesterday and he was in need of some meds. In the process he blew the seat clean off the toilet. He feels sorry for breaking it. This was quite a contribution to our program.
We also put pastor Gibson in charge of "guarding the dock". It seems that a fly landing on the dock will destroy it and it requires near constant attention. Steve seemed like the perfect candidate to use his gifts to keep children away from the tremedously tempting structure.
Of course it took 15 minutes for a baby to reach over and put her arm on it collapsing it. He did much better on day 2 and the structure is still intact.
The kids all left today with a tiny beach ball. All humor aside Steve is very much using his gifts. We all are doing our best in our own way and God has blessed us with great team unity.
Since my typing this blog is actually making me late for lunch (and disrupting team unity) I'll say GOODBYE for now. Das Vadanya!
You guys crack me up, obviously you have humor threaded thoughout the team. This is good. Sometimes all you can do is laugh when the situation could make you cry. Praise God your VBS is busting out at the seams!!! I hope you are getting plenty of rest inbetween events. Anton was with us two years ago but was gone this year. We loved him and called him "Tony" which he thought was his cool American name. Give him my greetings. Blessing to all of you and again Dan, thanks for the blog. Love, Dawn
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear VBS is going well!
ReplyDeleteDo you have preschoolers there?
As you write about young children's attention spans, maybe I could suggest something called, "Finger plays." When you notice young children can't sit still, ask them to use two fingers and act like it's a person with two legs. Have them immitate you as you use your fingers to walk over to the other hand, or jump off of their knee, swim in the water, fly, etc. You could have your finger play immitate something regarding your lesson. When you have them do a couple of things, end with "Now let's give our finger person a rest (pretend to lay your fingers down in sleep) and listen very carefully to what I am about to say!" Preschoolers love it.
Tell everyone I said hi, and tell the kids how proud I am of them!
-Pastor Joel