KidMinspiration

Wilderness Escape VBS: Day 2

07/15/201407/15/2014 Kathie Phillips

Day 2 of our five-day Summer Bible Camp (aka VBS) was great! (Read about Day 1 here.)

I always love the chance to roam around and personally say ‘hi’ to everyone, so I took some time this morning to visit with most of our family groups. While visiting, I heard children recite Day 1’s Bible verse and hear some of their God sightings. I also got attacked (I mean hugged!) by some of our campers, which was very sweet. My heart was filled even more when I walked past two of our God Sighting posters and saw them filled with all sorts of ways that our campers have seen God around them.

Another highlight was carrying around a box of doughnut holes for our volunteers. By carrying the snacks around vs setting them on a table, I was able to personally thank them for serving and hear how their first day went. I LOVE that.

After our opening worship celebration, I was able to sit in on the drama – today the children tasted ‘quail’ (marshmallow peeps) and ‘manna’ (frosted flakes) – and see our sand art and rope making stations in action (I will share more specifics about this tomorrow).

Verse for the day:

“For your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”

Matthew 6:8

Here are a few pictures from Day 2:

Showing our volunteers a little love – they were a BIG hit!

These personalized onesies for our little attendees are so very adorable!

This sweet girl loves her Wilderness Escape onesie!

Moses in his 'tent', sharing how God know what we have have need of without our needed to ask — Moses in his ‘tent’, sharing how God know what we have need of before we even ask.

One of our God Sighting posters - the children's God sightings are written on footprints, which follow along a path. Very cool! — One of our God Sighting posters – the children’s God sightings are written on footprints, which follow along a path. Very cool!

One of our bins holding canned and boxed food that will be donated to a local food pantry that our church supports.

Some of the treasures created at the Sand Artisan tent.

Wilderness Escape VBS: Day 1 (and a picture of God’s grace)

07/14/201407/14/2014 Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

Today we kicked off our five-day Summer Bible Camp (aka VBS). Here I talked about how we were getting ready.

Yesterday was our set-up day and it was refreshing to see so many volunteers (of all ages) pitching in to transform our church into the wilderness. When the majority of the set-up was complete, I left the church in a very reflective mood. In fact, I was in a reflective mood for much of the day, thinking about the extravagant grace that God has extended to me time and time again.

You see, some Sundays I walk in to church more confident than others – yesterday was a day where I felt pretty good but I just couldn’t shake the feeling of being so thankful for God’s graciousness toward me and the ministry I lead…for the many, many ways that He has provided for our needs, for the awesome privilege it is to be able to share His love with children and seeing it ‘click’ in their eyes and the list goes on. And as only God could orchestrate, one of our SBC volunteers came up to me yesterday, thanking me for being gracious to her (she felt that she was ‘out of the loop’ because of a family issue) but the fact that she still wanted to give us a smidgen of her time, we were thankful to her!

As I stood before the campers and volunteers this morning, my heart was again filled to overflowing. All of our months of planning and preparing had brought us to this point. At that very moment, I was thankful to God for His grace for all of the details that have consumed my thoughts and time for the past few months. I was truly thankful for each and every child, teen, and adult in the room. They were my very first God sighting for the day!

As I walked through the building for the duration of the morning, children were engaged and learning, volunteers were teaching and engaged with the children (I heard, “That was soooo cool!” countless times), team leaders were leading, and everyone was owning their piece of the VBS pie. It was truly a beautiful sight.

Verse for the day:

“God answered, ‘I will be with you.’ “

Exodus 3:12

Here are a few pictures from Day 1:

Day 1's God Sighting Poster - I can't wait to see footprints covering this tomorrow! — Day 1’s God Sighting Poster – I can’t wait to see footprints covering this tomorrow!

A closer view of one side of the stage - I LOVE the color of the mountains! — A closer view of one side of the stage – I LOVE the color of the mountains!

The other side of our stage - our campfire was a big hit with the kids! — The other side of our stage – our campfire was a big hit with the kids!

It’s almost time for VBS!

07/10/201407/10/2014 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 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!

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

Each camper will receive a bag with these items

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

07/01/201407/01/2014 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?