VBS Week

Tonight is the final evening of Vacation Bible School, which I am directing, despite the fact that I have no experience besides being a very low-responsibility volunteer a few times in the not-recent past (like high school and college!) But I figured I'd take advantage of my WAHM-status to do more at church, and I can't resist an opportunity to both organize and theme-decorate (my two greatest skills!) so here we are.

It's gone well! We're doing Cokesbury's Everywhere Fun Fair theme, which I keep describing as "county fair meets world's fair," since it's carnival-type decor with some exposure to other countries as we learn how to love God and love our neighbors who live both near and around the globe!

We start each evening with the opening skit between me and the puppet, Godwin Merrifeather, and some great volunteers lead the music!

 Then the kids, in three groups, rotate around to crafts, games, Bible story, and supper.

The country themes get woven throughout the sessions, starting with a display up front during the opening gathering, and then have cultural elements in the crafts, games, and food—and even in the Bible story, a little bit! Here are my displays for Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Zimbabwe. (I've had to wonder, if other countries were doing a "USA" display, what would they put in it? Cowboy hats and cheeseburgers?)

Here's the United Kingdom—then dinner was fish (sticks) and chips, and Matt even wove the British theme into his Bible lesson by making his Innkeeper (telling the Good Samaritan story) into a Mr. Carson-type character!

What a creative hubby I have! One of the little girls, upon seeing him in the tux, stopped in her tracks and said, with great fanfare, "Mama-mia!" 

Here he is as Zack the Tax-Man (i.e. tax collector Zaccheus!)

It's been an exhausting week (don't forget several big work deadlines on top of getting my ducks in a row for each day of VBS!) and tonight it will all end with our Family Fun Fair, where parents can join their kids toward the end of the session for a carnival of games, fair-food, and a little performance of a few of the songs the kids learned. It's been fun, and I hope the kids have learned a lot too!