Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

You know the exhiliaration of coming off a roller coaster ride? You're coasting into the final stretch as they apply the brakes, your hair flying backwards, or, if it's short, straight up. You have this silly grin on your face, that if you're lucky, the picture they just took makes you WANT to buy it.

That's how I've felt the last couple of days. So, if you've been reading my last couple of blogs, you saw the spiritual warfare taking place, mostly in our business. Then, early last week, our marriage was attacked. Fortunately, it was only a couple of days and by the time VBS started, we were on good footing again.

VBS was great. It was a spiritual high. Such a reward could only have been preceded by warfare, as the enemy knew what was coming. I have to say we were very drained. It sucked every bit of energy out of us but it was all worth it to see many kids come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

VBS itself was only 2 hours each day for three days, but we were there for 5 hours each day, which included setup, registration, and tear down. Much easier if we had our own building and could have transported everything needed once.

We started in the sanctuary with worship from Turlock Christian's Worship Band, which was great. Here they are practicing before we started the first day.
After worship, a few instructions and an introductory skit (written by Alex Gutierrez and performed by Alex, Jessica Bardini, Kristen and a few others as extras)
the kids were separated by age group and started their rotations. Some stayed in the sanctuary for a time of Bible lesson teaching (the theme was Heroes of the Bible) and the teaching separated girls from boys where the girls learned about Esther and Ruth and the boys learned about Gideon and David Wednesday and Thursday respectively and Friday everyone learned about the mystery hero, Jesus. Some kids went to crafts, led by our Sunday School teacher Amber Hutcheson and some went outside to play games that had to do with the theme and hero of the day. One of the games was throwing water balloon bombs at a 9 foot tall plywood Goliath, made by Dick and Mark Pritchard and painted by Kristen, when studying David. Goliath had signs attached to him like gangs, drugs, gossip, selfishnes, pride, etc.
After game time outside, it was snack time. I got to be in charge of registration and snacks and loved doing both. Their snacks were trail mix with cheetos and m&ms and cereal, brownies, mini cinnamon rolls, goldfish, and fruit cocktail. They also had lemonade, tang, and water.
Before VBS the first day, we got to play jumprope. Here's Greg and I giving it a try. I won! At the end of the day the kids came back together in the sanctuary and got to see the resolution to the intro skit from the morning. Sometimes they got a new skit. Before and after VBS the kids got to go into the Dora the Explorer bounce house. After VBS each day, the kids were treated to popcorn, manned by our actresses Alex and Jessica. The crafts included paper machet balloons, painted rocks, and bookmarks.

As VBS progressed, kids were rewarded with stars for attending, bringing a friend, memorizing up to 4 Bible verses a day, winning games, doing acts of heroics (like praying for someone, comforting, peacemaking, serving, etc.) and a few other things. At the end of VBS the highest performers of each age group were given their choice of prizes, like t-shirts, games, CDs, posters, etc. The kids were also given an opportunity to accept Christ the last two days and many did for the first time. Some were kids that went to our church, and others didn't go to church or went to other churches. That was the highlight for me!

To see all the pictures from VBS, look at the slide show below.