Power Up Vacation Bible School

I struggled this year with whether we would do VBS with our church. Since our campus meets in a temporary facility, VBS would be held at 3 of the other campuses. For awhile I debated on which campus I would go to because they are a bit of a drive, one more difficult than the other because it would be through morning rush hour traffic. It turns out that the more difficult one was the one that everyone I knew and my children knew would be going to. I asked Caleb whether he wanted to go and he didn't so I figured my decision was made. The Sunday before it began, a friend stopped me in church and asked me whether I was going. I started to explain to him that Caleb wasn't interested when Caleb stopped me and said he had changed his mind. What? It starts tomorrow! So needless to say, everything changed in that moment and we were headed to VBS. I was a little frazzled that suddenly I was consumed with volunteering at VBS, but also glad because I knew the kids would have fun and it would all be worth it in the end.

I was very right! The kids had an absolute blast and I did too. I volunteered at the CD/t-shirt sales table and got to meet lots of great people and also see some people that I hadn't seen since Heath and I were first married when we last attended Second Baptist. It brought back a ton of memories being back at the main campus because that was where we went when we dated, where I had my first job in Texas, where I did my student teaching, where we got married, I could go on and on. What spoke volumes to me about our church is the number of people still on staff at this church even after 10 years. Often times you see a lot of turnover but not at Second. So many of the same pastors and staff are still there going back all the way to when Heath first started going.

Anyway, back to VBS. Each day the kids went to their respective classes and learned bible stories and did crafts and made new friends. The highlight was the "Big Show" everyday. Second's Children's ministry has a group of Superheroes that were in the "Big Show" last year and appear occasionally through the year. Well this year in the show they were invaded by pirates who were trying to steal their power (not knowing until the last day that God was the source of their power). Each day the story continued until Friday when the pirates became Super Heroes as well. The music and the show was great and by the end of the week we knew all the songs and owned the CD. Thursday and Friday the Super Heroes and pirates came out for pictures and our shy little Elizabeth was all about getting photos with them.

This picture is with Zoink and he is actually the Children's pastor at our campus, so Caleb and Elizabeth have a special place in their heart for him.

This is Zip and Elizabeth wants us to do her hair like her. She might need to grow it a little longer!

Elizabeth and Zap

These were two of the pirates: Tongue-tied Taylor was hilarious as you could never understand him and Two-patch Tyler wore two patches to be more scary but ran into everything because he couldn't see.

This was Mean Marge. The funny story behind this picture is that after I picked Elizabeth up that day she told me that she didn't like Marge because she was mean. No sooner had she said that and we walked into the atrium of the church and there were all the characters. She immediately went to all of them but kept avoiding Marge. Marge was standing by herself and Elizabeth cut her eyes over at her and walked as far away as possible. I went up to Marge and told her that Elizabeth wouldn't come near her because she thought she was mean. It took us a few minutes but we convinced her she wasn't really mean and she took her picture with her.

This was Captain Zirk and by this time we had picked Caleb up from class and he joined in.

This picture was taken with the Commissioner over the Super Heroes on the last day of VBS.

Another one with Captain Zirk on the last day of VBS.

She has the biggest smile in this picture. She really enjoyed every minute of VBS!

This was Mean Marge after she became a Super Hero.

The pirates after they became Super Heroes.

It was a great week and even though our days started at 7:45 with a 45 minute drive down to the main campus (an hour and a half one day when there was a wreck!) and not getting home until after 2 everyday, we had a lot of fun and will definitely do it next year. The following week, VBS was at another campus and the kids asked to do it again, but I just couldn't! One week was enough! We look forward to next year!