Author: Kathie Phillips

It’s almost time for VBS!

Kathie Phillips

For the past 5 months, we have been planning for this year’s VBS, which we affectionately refer to as Summer Bible Camp (SBC).  Like previous years, we selected Group’s Holy Land VBS, Wilderness Escape.  The intensity in prepping has picked up significantly as SBC is close – we kick off on Monday!

Let’s talk numbers for a bit just so that you can get an idea of what’s involved:

  • 17 leadership teams
  • 25 leadership team members
  • 235 campers (rising K – rising 6th Grade)
  • 45 infants, toddlers and preschoolers (children of our volunteers – we provide a scaled-back, age-appropriate SBC for our preschoolers)
  • >200 volunteers (students & adults)

This week, it’s an all-hands-on-deck approach for the entire church staff:

  • Our facilities team is prepping the building and helping with take-down, set-up, moving tables and chairs, etc.
  • Our worship arts department is prepping for our daily ‘Celebration’ times as well as Friday night Celebration Service for volunteers, campers and their families.
  • Our communications department is printing materials, ordering larger signage, and updating the website and Sunday morning announcements.
  • Our missions department is helping to coordinate our outreach project for the week.

Our leadership teams are:

  • Reviewing (and reviewing and reviewing!) notes, shopping lists, supply lists, email, voicemail…lots of details to oversee!
  • Making last-minute purchases
  • Gathering supplies
  • Meeting with team members to review logistics
  • Conducting rehearsals
  • Processing last-minute registrations
  • Reviewing volunteer assignments and making last-minute adjustments as needed
  • Drawing set-up maps in preparation for Sunday afternoon’s set-up

What about me, the SBC Director?  All things considered, I’m relatively calm.  (Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve even found time to read for the past few evenings!)  This week, my primary concern is being available to my leadership team leaders.  I have tried to clear my afternoon schedule to be available for team leaders who need closets unlocked, come in to gather supplies, have questions/concerns/a need for hugs and encouraging words, etc.  Our leaders have been working so hard that I get pleasure from supporting them and equipping them to lead well.

Here are just a few pics of what we’ve been up to.  We won’t reveal too much now – you’ll have to check back next week for more!

Our display (minus our tablecloth) for sign-ups/donation drop off in our main hallway
Our display (minus our tablecloth) for sign-ups/donation drop off in our main hallway

 

A few of our donated items
A few of our donated items

 

Our mountain backdrop - it looks AMAZING - I can't wait to see it up!
Our mountain backdrop – it looks AMAZING – I can’t wait to see it up!

 

More set elements
More set elements

 

Who knew that electric Christmas lawn reindeer could become wilderness sheep?
Who knew that electric Christmas lawn reindeer could become wilderness sheep?

 

Our wilderness campfire
Our wilderness campfire

 

Each camper will receive a bag with these items
Each camper will receive a bag with these items

 

A few of the completed camper bags
A few of the completed camper bags

We’d surely appreciate your prayers as we serve next week – come back next week for daily updates and more pictures!

Summer Lovin’: Switching Things Up

Kathie Phillips

The following post is part of a series of summer-related posts.  

Today, we’ll look at changing up your programming during the summer months.

Our ministry’s ‘summer’ began on Father’s Day, so with God’s help we have successfully survived 3 summer Sundays without our school-year volunteers (who serve Sept – mid June and get the summer off). Because we invite parents, members of our congregation and students to serve during the summer months, we wanted to restructure our ministry to still provide quality programming with the fewest amount of volunteers.

Here’s what we did. and how it’s been working so far:

EARLY CHILDHOOD

During the school year, we provide individual classes for 2-yr olds – Kindergartners at each of our two services (eight classrooms).  During the summer months, we decided to offer a class for 2-yr olds (using Group’s Hands-on-Bible curriculum) and a mixed-age group for 3-yr olds – Kindergartners (using Orange’s First Look curriculum).  This mixed-age room will be a large group/small group format that will include engaging arrival activities, large group time (live worship and Bible story, on DVD) and mixed-age small groups for application activities (crafts, games, etc.), playground time, snack and prayer.  The response has been so overwhelmingly positive from children, parents and volunteers that we are considering continuing this format this fall.

ELEMENTARY

Since we bid our rising 6th graders a fond farewell a few weeks ago, we have again decided to combine our rising 2nd – rising 5th graders for the summer.  (We’ve done this for the past few years and it’s worked very well).  Our summer programming will be just seven weeks this year, as our elementary students worship with their families during the month of August.  (Take a look at how we introduced this last summer here).  Usually I order the summer XP materials from Orange but the materials they offered this year was a repeat of materials we used last summer so I began praying and asking God to direct me to what materials we should use for the seven weeks of our Sunday programming.  I landed on teaching the kids about Moses since our VBS will focus on Moses in the wilderness with the Israelites.

On Sunday mornings, we set up a few arrival activities and lead the children in a large group game to introduce the lesson for the day.  Then we move everyone to our large group space for a fun, interactive countdown, worship, prayer, and our Bible story (led by a main storyteller).  When our large group time concludes, we split the group into 3 groups and allow the groups to rotate through 3 activity stations, which has included object lessons, memory verse activities, crafts, games and snack.  The slightly different format has worked so well that I’ve signed up a few volunteers to serve with us this fall!

In our ministry, attendance fluctuates during the summer months, so we like to take risks and try some new things in the summer.  If something’s a hit, we include it in our programming for the new ministry year.

Related article:  “Should Kids Ministry Take the Summer Off?“ by Brian Dollar

What does programming in your kidmin look like during the summer months?  What ‘risky’ things are you trying this summer?

Snack Idea: Edible Campfires

Kathie Phillips

This summer, in preparation for our VBS (read what we’re doing here), our elementary children are learning about Moses.  So far, we’ve covered his birth and God calling him to lead the Israelites.  This past Sunday’s lesson was about the burning bush and I wanted a fun snack for the children to enjoy that tied in to the lesson.  I researched ideas online but wasn’t really pleased with what I found.  Then I had an idea and ran it past my daughter (she’s my unofficial focus group!).  She loved it, so we went with it!  Here’s what we landed on:

Edible Campfires

Supplies:

  • Hand sanitizer
  • Paper plates
  • Pretzel sticks
  • Canned mandarin oranges, drained
  • Fresh strawberries, sliced

What you do:

  • Have the children wash their hands or use hand sanitizer.  Review the Bible story (Exodus 3:1-15).
  • Place a small amount of pretzel sticks on the plate.  (These represent firewood.)
  • Add the flames (mandarin oranges and strawberries).
  • Pray and then allow the children to enjoy the snack.

Whenever we serve a snack, it’s always a big hit.  It’s an even bigger hit when the snack ties in to the lesson.  Cha-ching!

VBS Volunteer Training – Covering the Basics

Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

wilderness-escape-logo-hi-res

Like many of my kidmin friends, we are busy preparing for this year’s VBS, which is taking place mid-July.  One of the key areas that we address is volunteer training.

Last night, we held our first of two trainings for our VBS volunteers.  As Director, I lead our trainings, which are usually 90 minutes in length, by using the following outline:

Welcome:  I introduce myself, welcome everyone and thank them for giving of their time and talent to help children learn more about the God who made and loves them.  I open our time together with a word of prayer.

Brief curriculum overview:  I give a general overview about the main Bible person we’ll talk about during the week and share what the children will experience through worship, crafts, drama, games, and snacks.  This year, I showed the “Day at Wilderness Escape VBS” video to give them an even better idea of what the week would look like.  I think that doing this fires up veteran volunteers as well as rookies, who have likely never seen a Holy Land VBS in action before.

Event details:  I reiterate dates/information for:

  • Week of VBS
  • Times
  • Times volunteers should arrive
  • Set-up & take-down
  • Celebration Service (our end-of-week family worship service – this year we’re moving it from Sunday to Friday night and following up with a picnic for volunteers, campers and their families to connect)
  • T-shirt Sunday (the day that all VBS volunteers where their camp shirt and are prayed for at all morning services)

Safety Priorities:  We cover 4 main areas for safety:

  • Background checks (required for all volunteers ages 18 & older)
  • Sexual abuse prevention (appropriate and inappropriate touch)
  • Restroom policy
  • Drop-off & pick-up procedures

We also cover other safety precautions (such as evacuating the building, first aid, etc) in the individual area breakout groups.

Dress Code:  We give simple guidelines for teens & adults, as we want to make sure that ALL of our volunteers are appropriate covered.

Q & A:  A time for volunteers to ask questions about anything they need clarity about.

Overview of ways to serve:  Some of our volunteers do not indicate a preference on where they’d like to serve, so I give brief overviews of each area.

Wrap Up:  I again thank everyone for coming and for signing up to serve with us.  I encourage them in how their service will impact children and families as well as impact them personally.  I close in prayer and then send everyone off to meet with their prospective groups (crafts, family leaders & assistants, games, preschool, etc.)

Setting the environment is also something we give some thought to in advance.  We:

  • Reserve rooms for the training
  • Submit work orders for room set-up
  • Email reminders to volunteers about the training dates, times and locations
  • Purchase food & drinks
  • Make necessary copies of manuals, volunteer spreadsheets, background check authorization forms, etc.
  • Set out name tags, markers and pens
  • Play camp music as volunteers arrive
  • Create/select media elements we’ll use
  • Do sound check for sound equipment
  • Distribute t-shirts

Of course, I also touch bases with our leadership team (via email or text) with last-minute information ahead of time.  I also send a ‘thank you’ text to the team after the training to thank everyone for all they did to make the event a success.

Before our last training, I get input from the team by asking them what areas we need to cover at the last training that might have gotten overlooked at the first one.  Based on their responses (or my own thoughts), I tweak my talking points and make sure we’re all ready to go for Round 2!

How do you prepare for your VBS volunteer training?  I’m always on the lookout for new, creative ideas, so share your ideas below!