Vacation Bible School

At the beginning of June, I went to visit a mentor of mine from high school, Chrisse, at church. I was going to mention that I was available to help with VBS to see if I could help in a small way and find out what dates it was taking place. The children’s minister, Meghann was available and told me of an opening to be the director for Preschool Missions. The opening just became available within the past twenty-four hours due to the previous volunteer physically unable to follow through. On June 11-15, I found myself in the position to teach three, four, and five year olds about missions in Brazil and Africa. Meghann was so sweet to decorate the room that I would be teaching in and sent me an outline for the curriculum. I had a slight freak out being overwhelmed when I found out there would be 40-60 kids coming to my classroom. The week was a great success and found many blessings throughout the week. Many of the teachers were so encouraging of the way I presented the information and captured their attention. After asking questions throughout the week the kids made me laugh quite often from their answers, and I was humbled by the genuineness of a child. Even though I was a little stressed with this opportunity before it began, I am so thankful I had the chance to love on the kids while I taught about missions.

On Monday, we learned the who, what, where, when, how and why of a missionary. Our verse for the day was Mark 16:15 “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all creation.” Each child colored a map of the world with the verse printed on it. 

On Tuesday, we learned about missionary pilots and what they do. Each of the children pretended they were airplanes as the music played and they would stop at a picture that was posted on the wall. There were pictures of different things a missionary would put in their plane. 

On Wednesday, we learned about clean water versus dirty water because our offering contributed to building water wells. 

On Thursday, we learned about the hard work it is to transport water when you don’t have a water well nearby. The kids carried water from one bucket to another within the classroom. They realized the hard work involved in the process to retrieve a small amount of water. Sarah had souvenirs from Zambia the kids were able to pass around like a blanket, pictures, and other various items.

On Friday, we had a special guest who spoke about what it was like when he flew helicopters.  

As I was taking down decorations on Friday, Meghann asked me if I was available to be a leader for high school beach camp because someone backed out that morning. The buses would be leaving in about seven hours for Panama City. I was already signed up to help with junior high camp so Liz, the girls minister, was going to call other volunteers if they would be able to help out. Jenn Darby and I had lunch and laughed about me possibly leaving to go to Panama City in the next few hours and had absolutely nothing packed. Around 3:30 driving back from lunch I received a phone call from Liz telling me she had made some calls and there wasn’t anyone else that would be available. So, I packed my bags, ate dinner, and headed out the door to arrive at the church by eight. 

New Camera

For awhile now I have been interested in a DSLR camera. I have spent time reading different reviews, asking for advice and visiting various electronic and camera stores. I finally decided on one, the Canon Rebel T2i but I was trying to find one on sale. Sarah and I were running errands and stopped at Target. I saw the camera in the display case on CLEARANCE. The display was the only one they had left and it had a small scratch so I received an extra 15% off. I was so pumped that this was the exact camera I wanted and it was at a very reasonable price for the camera that it is. I even told the sales lady that I had been praying about finding a camera because I decided so quickly that I wanted this camera while we were in the store. Haha! I absolutely LOVE taking pictures and I have a lot to learn about all that it can do.