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| |  Posted 6/28/2008 8:05:14 AM | |
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| | We finished VBS yesterday, and had our closing last night. God's power was all over the place this week. I was a Power Lab skeptic when we first saw the theme last year, but this was one of our best weeks of VBS ever! Hats off to Group for a theme that really did engage kids age 3 - 5th grade. We had 155 kids, 45 of them preschoolers and it was a powerful week. The experiments we did in Finale and Chadder, the walking on water, the games were all huge hits with the kids. Most of our kids are not from our church and we had the opportunity to give away lots of Bibles to kids we found did not have one at home. A few things we learned for those that haven't had VBS yet: Sing & Play - we always have trouble fitting everything in despite starting right on time. We ended up adjusting our schedule to make it 30 mins and shortening snack to 15 mins, that worked great for us and ensured we didn't start every day off schedule before we hit the first station! Bible Blast - Great material. The walk on water was amazing, the kids loved the boat. Day 4 was very powerful. We did find Day 5 material to be a little lighter than the rest of the days which happened last year too. Be prepared with some ad lib or fill in material for that day. Test Tube Treats - We did most treats as described except Day 1 we subbed bagels and cream cheese for the cookies, and we subbed skittles for m&ms all week due to the number of kids we have with peanut allergies. The snacks were good, we didn't have a lot of waste. Crafts - Use the 10-12 mark for water on the slime and it turns out great, more and it is too runny. We only used slime and hackys from Group, the rest of the crafts we used alternates. The shrinkys were very popular with the kids and surprisingly so were the 1st aid kits. The kids were all talking about keeping them in their pool bags or their campers so they could help people. Chadder - It was a little darker this year and we did have kids who were scared (for the first time ever). Chadder is always so popular with our kids so this was a bit of a shock. We had some parents tell us their kids were having nightmares (non preschoolers). Make sure your crew leaders are attuned to this so they can provide a lap if needed. It was a great program and an awesome week. This week really kept our older kids engaged which was so exciting. Often the older kids feel a little too old for the program. This week they really didn't. Great job Group. We pray that your VBS is powerful as well. Here are a few pictures of our decorations and VBS, thanks to all who shared their awesome ideas. God is good! Patti http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbsmTFy0cMWTjY |
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| | | Posted 6/28/2008 8:32:45 AM | |
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| Loved your pictures. Thanks for all the tips. We are nine days away and ready to start putting up some of the decorations.
Kathy
Riverside Kathy |
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| | | Posted 6/28/2008 10:36:09 AM | |
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| | We too finished last week, and it was unbelievable. We had record numbers, and 9 children became Christians! I, too, was a skeptic when the theme was announced, but the kids and leaders loved it! The daily point seemed to be reenforced better in each class, and the experiments were great! Thanks, Group, for another great year! |
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| | | Posted 6/28/2008 1:32:28 PM | |
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| | Thanks for sharing your pictures. Your decorations are great! I'm glad God blessed you and your Power Lab VBS. God Bless, Josh T. in Ohio
 Group's Crocodile Dock VBS 2009  Date: To Be Determined |
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| | | Posted 6/28/2008 2:25:06 PM | |
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| Momto3 (6/28/2008)
... Most of our kids are not from our church and we had the opportunity to give away lots of Bibles to kids we found did not have one at home...Hats off to you and your staff! Everything looks great. Thanks for sharing your experience with us especially the one above. That to me is the one most important mission of VBS, to reach kids from unchurched homes. Our VBS is an outreach to the community. 90% come from non-Christian homes (we do a survey on our registration forms) and we try to reach out to different families each year. Whether we see them again or not is not as important as knowing that we were able to plant the seed of Truth in their hearts. Please help me pray so that we too can afford bibles to give away. This is something I have been dreaming of doing for a long time.
Partnering with parents to "TRAIN" up our children in the way they should go! |
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| | | Posted 6/28/2008 5:28:20 PM | |
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| | We will pray about that for you, we too believe that it is about planting seeds. What an awesome experience to put the Word of God in these kids hands and see their excitement. We had one little girl say she had never seen a Bible until this week, and a little boy who couldn't believe we wrote his name in a Bible and that he didn't have to return it. We found really reasonable Bibles at Biblesbythecase.com. We gave away NIV and NIV Readers Bibles and found them for under $4 and $5 if we bought them 12 or 24 at a time. |
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| | | Posted 6/28/2008 5:51:35 PM | |
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| Mardel usually has cases of paperback (full size) Bibles that cost $1 each. We buy cases to keep on hand for our AWANA children (or anyone else who needs one.)
Laurie |
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| | | Posted 7/1/2008 2:25:05 PM | |
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| | Thanks so much, Momto3, for your helpful feedback. Our PL starts July 7. We're also subbing Skittles for M&M's due to allergies, so I'm glad that went over well. I have to say honestly that the snacks are the thing I'm most skeptical about because they're so sugary and unhealthy. We usually serve grapes, cheese and bread at our VBS, no matter what the theme, so this is a radical change for us. But I can't imagine the children will complain! |
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