Come, Let Us Brainstorm!

Hello folks,

I hope everyone is staying cool through this heatwave we have been experiencing. While I have been trying to stay cool I have also been reflecting on VBS. We had a record number of kids from our neighborhood this year attend VBS (over 120 on the first night). We had a strong showing by the men (4)in the church showing up to be group leaders.We had the largest crowd ever for Unity Service Sunday (over 200)! I was also pleasantly surprised that over half of the adult leaders attended the training sessions. All of this went very well and thank you one and all!
After looking back over the last 7 years I would like to share with you some challenging observations I have made about Community VBS, and then invite you share yours. Then let us brainstorm and prayerstorm to find solutions to these issues in order to have an even more effective ministry for the kingdom of God.
Here are some problematic observations I have made:

* Adult leaders who cannot make all 4 nights due to busy schedules
* Too many teen helpers for too few needs
* Too much rowdiness from kids when station activity finishes early
* First night stations schedules disrupted due to kids registering and connecting with their group leaders for the first time

Do you have some other observations to add? What do you think would be a good solution to these problems? I would ask that you would join in a dialog over the next several weeks on the blog page (follow the link on the email). Please post your thoughts and concerns so we can all join in the discussion online. It is easy to do, just click on the comment section and type your heart out. As more people join in the conversation it will grow and we will be able to see where we are going and we will be asking God to show us His direction along the way as well. Please join in and visit the blog site so that we can have a VBS sit down meeting sometime in the future (winter time possibly) to evaluate where Community VBS is at and where God is leading us. Thank you and I look forward to the conversation!

Proverbs 15:22 Plans go wrong for lack of advice;
many advisers bring success.

Looking Forward to 2010

Greetings VBS folks,
year 7 of Community VBS is over and we hit some new highs. We had one of our largest one day totals on our first day with over 120 children. We also had our largest unity service ever with approximately 200 people!
One thing we do well in College Corner is unity, and it is spreading with Oxford Church of God's involvement this year. It is so cool to be a part of answering Jesus' prayer that we would be one! Mick Miller did a great job sharing about the VBS lessons the kids learned throughout the week. Jason Bantz and Greg Sears did a fine job as well.The kids sang wonderfully and Laura Powers leadership was better than ever with the Praise Team.
Thanks everyone for being involved and please pray for the future of VBS. With the pressure of busy schedules it is becoming more difficult each year to be able to have the adult group leaders connect with the kids every night. I am praying that God give guidance to our VBS committee to discern how to balance a multi-night event that so many kids look forward to with the busy schedules of adult volunteers.
We put all the concerns in God's hands and trust Him to do what is best for the kids and the local body.
Thanks again for all of your help and prayers!

John 17:20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:

Leaving Rome & Heading for Home

Hello VBS folks!
God bless us one and all! Year seven of Community VBS is in the books and I want to say thank you to all! We did a great job of handling a large number of children and the weather for the last day was beautiful. God has blessed us with a great spirit of unity in College Corner and I think it is a great witness for today and for the future of the kids.
I want to say thank you to all of you who helped in registration, praise team, games, crafts, snacks, drama and Bible story. From what I gathered in the survey we did a great job of communicating God's love. If we got that part right, I think God will take care of all the rest.
Before this week I had asked everyone to pray for each area of VBS and we have one important prayer focus to go. The children. Please pray that the children who attended VBS would turn their lives toward God. Pray that the love of Jesus would draw them into a relationship that will last an eternity. Pray that those who have a solid family life would be thankful. Pray that those who came and have unstable home life would find hope in Christ and the church. Ask God to help connect these kids to a local body where they can grow. Pray that all would share the character and good news of Christ. Finally, ask God to bless them in their up coming school year.
Thank you all again - to God and his son Jesus be all the glory and praise for all the good accomplished in VBS 2009!

Rome: looking back on day 3

Hello VBS folks,

Day 3 is in the books and all went very well. We did have one child injure his ankle so please keep Eric in your prayers.
The music has been smokin' and our stations are hitting on all eight cylinders.
How are you doing? Are you enjoying yourself? I hope you are doing well, but if not...well tonight is the last night!
Have you made any "soul eye" contact? That is what I call the connection you make when you look into the eyes of a child or teen and you "know" that they are a soul that God has put in your path to affirm. I had that happen last night when a teen named Brent who followed me around last night during the Extollo. I knew when I made eye contact that God wanted me to respond with a smile, words and actions that say, "you matter and have great value!" We all need that don't we? Kids especially these days and isn't cool God would use you and I to encourage a valuable young soul.
Let me say to all of you that you have great worth and God loves you deeply! Thank you for sharing your gifts and time with the kids this week as we wrap up year number seven of Community VBS tonight!

Rome Day 2

Hello folks,

Day two of Rome went MUCH smoother! Thank you all for being soooooo flexible. We still had almost 100 kids in the midst of the rain and an alternent site.
I was helping out with the drama skits last night and I found out the kids have the heart of Christ.
I was playing a Roman slave and when I told them I didnt have money to buy food many of the kids offered me thier own money! Is that cool or what! WWJD!

We head back to the Grove tonight and to the great outdoors - I will see you all there!

Rome Day 1

Hello folks,

day one is in the books. Chaos? Yes. Confusion? of course. Everything that we normally expected for day one happened. "Nothing new under the sun" said wise man Solomon. The unexpected was the numbers of kids! We plan for 100 because demographically the elementary numbers have dropped off for College Corner. But on day one we ran out of registration forms and the guestimation was we had 120 kids! Unexpected to us but not to God. I often forget that God does answer our prayers. We prayed to reach the kids in our community with the Gospel, and that is what God is doing!
I was pleased to note that out of our 7 Family Leaders all but 2 attended the training sessions. Forgive me for being negative but normally the turnout for training is very low. Not this year!
The Oxford Church of God showed up and did a fine job with the crafts. Things went well at all of our other stations too - well done! The registration went very well and kids and leaders seemed to be getting along very smoothly. Mikey and DJ did a great job as Paul and Brutus. DJ's Roman soldier costume looked fantastic! I also thought the song selections for the kids were awesome too!
Rain, rain go away. Come back another week! If the rain keeps up or things too wet at the Grove we will head off to the Methodist Church (heads up Mick!). The singing would be in the sanctuary and the marketplace in their fellowship area. The rest we will figure out when we get there.
Thank you everyone for your involvement and please pray that whatever God wants to do at this VBS - and I truly mean, whatever He wants to do, let us all be open to it. Whatever He desires to do.

Matthew 26:39 - "Yet not as I will, but as you will."

Pray for Our Teens

We are a just a few hours away from Community VBS. During these final days we are praying for the different areas that make up our VBS.So far we have covered Family Leaders, Snacks, Crafts, games and Bible Time. Now let us turn our attention to the teens.

We average around 90-100 kids for VBS. And we usually have about 30 or more teens show up to help as well. That means that the teens make up over one quarter of the everyone who attends VBS! That is a lot of teens. In the College Corner area many of the families do not have the financial resources to go on vacation or weekend getaways. So the teens end up hanging around town the whole summer and become very bored. VBS week is a big break in their regular summer routine!
Many of these teens are not involved with our local congregations. VBS is one of the few places where they hear the good news about Jesus. I have been encouraged how many are willing to get involved and help with serving the smaller children. They have a servants heart and they need to have their hearts filled with the savior Jesus Christ. Here are some prayer points to focus on for our teens:
* Pray that the teens will have open hearts to the Gospel
* Pray that the adults have patience with the teens
* Pray that the teens behave themselves and are cooperative
* Pray that many would repent and follow Christ
* Pray for those struggling in their relationships with their parents
* Pray that the teens find congregations that they can connect with and be discipled
* Ask God to show you other needs of the teens that you can pray for