Best VBS Monday Ever!!!

[TrinityJen]

I only have time for quick note. Today was the best Monday EVER!!!! I am so happy! Most of you know I had a horrible couple days last week, but with God's forgiveness and grace I overcame. I now have a deeper faith and a renewed dedication to this VBS calling. (Yes - that means I am even more VBS CRAZY!!! :eek: ) I woke up today with no worries at all and only 3 things on my to do list. I gave everything completely over to God and I had nothing to worry about all day!!

20 walk-ins, no problem. 102 in attendance, that's what we planed for (110 registered, :o ) EVERYONE said what a great day it was. Our God is a Great God and He has plans for our VBSs!!!

I will post pictures when I get a chance!

[jruckman]

Oh, Jen, that's wonderful! You're going to have a terrific week. You know, every year the final ****ysis at our church is "That was the best VBS ever!", but there was something extra magical about SWAP. It was like when we put 90 candles on my grandmother-in-law's birthday cake, and after they were all lit, there was an audible "whoooop" sound and the flames all combined to make one 3 foot high flame.
Janet

[jruckman]

Oh, and that's so funny that the system bleeped out the "a-n-a-l" part of ****ysis!
Janet

[faith]

The best VBS Monday we have ever had. Phenominal! Words can't express how I'm feeling right now. 93 kids in attendance. 54 adults (25 in the adult class the other 29 volunteering in some aspect of the park). 147 Total. Many said they were bringing their friends tonight. I have no idea where we'll put them all, (our church only olds about 200), but we'll have opening/closing assembly outside if we have to.

All of the teachers and their helpers were dressed as the park characters. In the Imaginarium, the kids made T-shirts that they will wear during the closing program on Friday. We had sandwiches, chips, and little debbie cakes in the Carousel. We played water dodge ball at the Game Plank.

It was so good to see old and new faces. We had a blast.

Will post pictures soon.

New and Living Way Bible Church in Rome Georgia

[Josh1]

I'm glad that your VBS programs are starting out on the right foot. The first day is always the hardest because you don't really know how it's all going to go. The other days you have more of an idea about what to expect. May God bless you and your SonWorld Adventure Park VBS!
God Bless,
Josh:rolleyes:

[TrinityJen]

Tuesday was great too! 108 kids!!! 1 phone call to a mom (but she couldn't get back more than 15 min early). She will be in K in the fall and just wanted Mommy. She was OK walking around w/ me wail we waited, but wouldn't go back to class.

OK - so our VBS is 5 years - 5th grade! Why do people think if they sign up 7th & 8th graders we will 'find' something for them to do? I am not sure how many 'extra' 6th and 7th graders were added to the 5th grade group. The 1 8th grader I talked with then moved to a younger group for him to be helper. I have several helpers from 'outside' the church, some I know, some grew up coming to our VBS, some might have filled out the form on-line and some were just dropped off. I guess I will need to make a plan. I had a Sunday morning 'training' maybe next year I will schedule a couple of 'training' and if you can't come to those you can't come w/o my approval.

Plus I have some 6th graders helping in the nursery that like to 'group' around the 1 year old instead of helping with ALL the kids. I hope they were better today.

Good news - we did an art project involving bleach and children and it worked out well! They bleached crosses onto colored t-shirts. So COOL!!!

All is going well! I will have to shuffle a little on Thursday, 1 of my music teachers and her sister (a guide) just lost their grand-father and the funeral is at 12:00. Of course I will teach that class myself if I have to and I have a few favors I can call in. Luckily she already has a helper and her 'teen helper' from past years (a guide this year) is willing to fill in. I just need to make sure the other 'guide spots' are taken care of. Oh- and another guide usually rides with them. I know it will work out. I feel bad I wont be able to go to the funeral myself.

Overall we are having a great time at SWAP!!!


BTW - Josh, have you had your VBS yet?

[Josh1]

TrinityJen,
It's great to hear about your SonWorld Adventure Park.

This year God told me that I needed to take a break with directing VBS and focus on some of my issues. SonWorld Adevnture Park was a bit iffy as well though on the Doctrine. Grace Brethren people believe that Jesus accepts us and we don't Choose Jesus. I probably would be used it anyway though but some people that go to my church might have questioned it.

I've already picked VBS 2009 and I'll be using another publisher. I'm pretty sure though that my church will be using Gospel Light for VBS 2009. This year my church did SonHarvest County Fair at a Park for 5 consecutive Mondays. I lead music and it was a great time. I'm hoping that the VBS Director will pick Kingdom of the Son for 2009. I love that VBS and we never did it in 2005. SonRock Kids Camp doesn't look as appealing to me as Kingdom of the Son.
No matter what publisher I use I'll always be on these boards with ideas to share with all of you.

God Bless,
Josh:rolleyes:

[TrinityJen]

Josh - I have seen you on the other boards and was glad to see you would be directing again next year. I am 90% certain we will use SonRock... I like the camping theme. I really wanted SonRiver Canyon (Canyon River?) to come back, but I wont go backward w/o GL supplies and the board. Kingdom of the Son was my 1st year directing and is still too soon to do again IMO. I really like the stories of Peter in SonRock. I will be putting the logo in my slide show for Friday!!!! But I might still change my mind.

[jruckman]

What were the GL themes prior to 2002? (That's when my kids aged into VBS.) I too thought it was too soon to reuse a theme that current VBS kids still remember. You see? We made them so memorable that we can't reuse them!
Janet

[TrinityJen]

I still don't have time for much (on vacation in Chicago now). We had over 100 kids each day and the groups were not evenly distributed due to Monday walk-ins and a few pre-registered no shows. The teachers and every one thought it was the best VBS ever. I also received good feed back for next year. It is so much more fun how to make it better than to fix the problems.

If you want to see any of the 200 posted pictures you can follow the link off my VBS website. http://www.trinitymilford.org/vbs.htm

I will post the decoration pictures when I have more time. You can make out a little how we decorated, I think you can even see my 'Dora' scene setter I used as a back drop w/ the park signs on it.

[Josh1]

Thanks TrintyJen! I would personally go for SonRock Kids Camp if you did Kingdom of the Son as your 2005 VBS. Your 4th grade and 5th grade kids coming to VBS 2009 would have already done Kingdom of the Son with you already in 2005. Just something to think about.

SonCanyon River VBS 2002 was one of the most memorable VBS programs for me. It was a great VBS!

Janet-
Here's a list of Previous Gospel Light VBS programs:

1988 - Wonderfaire

1992 - Adventures on SonMountain
1993 - Young Explorers Amazing Journey to Bible Times
1994 - SonCountry Farm
1995 - SonTown Street Fair
1996 - Kingdom of the Son
1997 - SonRise Balloon Adventure
1998 - SonLight Island
1999 - SonCastle Faire
2000 - SonZone Discovery Center
2001 - SonCreek Junction

God Bless,
Josh:rolleyes:

[TrinityJen]

Josh - One of my teen helpers (a 14 y/o guy) circled on his evaluation he would be interested in being director/co-director! After seeing his enthusiasm as a group leader I can not wait to hear how he wants to help w/ VBS. I have my own 'Josh'!

[Josh1]

TrintyJen-
That's amazing! I'm so happy for you. :D
Just one MAJOR piece of advice to you from my experience. Meet with him and discuss what your role will be as VBS Director and what his role will be as a VBS Co-Director. Make a list of what he will be incharge of, what you will be in charge and what you'll both work on together. Type it up and print it out so each of you has a copy and knows what you are doing and what the other person is doing.
I would meet with him soon if you're already planning for SonRock Kids Camp.

Also, feel free to encourage to join the forum. I'd love to meet him.
God Bless,
Josh:rolleyes:

[jruckman]

Thanks, Josh, for the list of previous years. My youngest child aged into VBS in '04, so that was the first year I could become involved without an attached junior associate (and immediately became director!). I have a vague recollection the '00 through '03 themes because of my older kids being involved. One of my first decisions as director was to open the nursery to birth-3 children of people who are helping with VBS. Every year there are at least 2 or 3 families who utilize this option, and those parents are usually tickled to spend time with just their older children.

So why, do you suppose, is GL reissuing '03 (this year) and '05 (next year) when there are older curricula which current VBS attendees have not already done once in their young careers? I'd like to see some of the ones we haven't done recently!
Janet

[TrinityJen]

TrintyJen-
That's amazing! I'm so happy for you. :D
Just one MAJOR piece of advice to you from my experience. Meet with him and discuss what your role will be as VBS Director and what his role will be as a VBS Co-Director. Make a list of what he will be incharge of, what you will be in charge and what you'll both work on together. Type it up and print it out so each of you has a copy and knows what you are doing and what the other person is doing.
I would meet with him soon if you're already planning for SonRock Kids Camp.

Also, feel free to encourage to join the forum. I'd love to meet him.
God Bless,
Josh:rolleyes:


Thanks Josh, I will remember to put it in writing. I need to talk with him to find out his interests and what he sees himself doing for our VBS. I was a co-director for 2 years and remember not knowing what expected of me and scrambling at the end to make up for lost time.

I am not good at delegating....or I delegate to the wrong people. :rolleyes:

[Josh1]

TrinityJen-
I would definitely talk to him about what he's excited about doing as co-director and go from there. For this year I would leave him as co-director and see how well he does. Then next year you can talk about both being VBS Directors if you'd want to do that.

I think it's great that you'll have someone who will help you with directing. I wish I could have that. I'm not a good delegator either but sometimes you need help because you have so much to do. Our church has always had just one VBS Director. I honestly think it's better with more than one person because you can add onto each others ideas and strengths. I'll be praying for you as well that everything would go well for the both of you planning SonRock Kids Camp.

Just a sugguestion for the different roles of you and him. I would break it down into basics, missions project, planning, recruiting, training, pubilicity, registration, follow-up. You could even break these down into more specific topics inside of the major topic.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have any other questions. vbsaddict (at) gmail (dot) com.

God Bless,
Josh:rolleyes:

[nana]

VBS is over and it was wonderful. Everyone had such a great time, including teachers and helpers. One of the best things we added this year was a lounge area for the teachers, a great place to take a break and visit with everyone and have a snack. Lots of ideas were exchanged in that informal setting.

Another thing everyone participated in was the "special days" at the park--Silly Sunglasses Day, Funky Footwear Day, Crazy Hat Day, and Bad Hair Day. Kids love to see adults get silly!

Our program is tomorrow, we are having popcorn at the door and the "Grand Parade" with the kids marching in with pom pom's and balloons. Our attendance was about 35 each evening, pretty good for our small church, and one child gave her life to Christ, which makes everything worth while. Thanks to all who shared their ideas on this forum, I used several and it made for a great VBS.
Nana

[Judy N.]

Congratulations Nana! It is great to hear your report. Anxious to connect with you. I could drive over this week and pick up some things! We started setting up a display at the mall Friday night, already saw a lot of new interest! Today we had an informal work day there, just in the back room...7 people came to help. That was a great encouragement. It took two people 2 hours to figure out the store lighting grid and label it so that we can turn lights off quickly for power point and such. The lights only operate from the fusebox, and because it used to be a store, the switches are labeled with titles like candy counter, card rack, cash register, bob's office etc. A fun part of the store are the 4 dressing room doors... I'm going to have opening skits back by them and our skit characters will be park mascots so they will each have their own "dressing room", funny how that worked out!

[nana]

Hi Judy,
My stuff is at a church in Colo right now, but they will be finished with it at the end of this week. They came and took it down while people were still leaving our program, they only had about 4 hours to get it put up at their church! As soon as they get it back to me, I'll post again, and we will set up a time when you can pick it up. Or if you just need the sheets, I can mail them to you. I'd love to visit with you though!
Nana

[TrinityJen]

Wial we are talking about sharing decorations - I haven't heard from anyone in Cincinnati.

I don't have much left, we didn't do too much to decorate this year. What little was worth saving went to a MOP (Mothers of Preschoolers) group, there theme this year is Adventures in Parenting. She had been looking for theme park stuff to decorate and was thrilled when her kids came to our VBS.

I had been given skit backdrops, a mountain, a castle and teapots. We didn't use the skits, I only used the teapots in decorating. I am waiting on confirmation that the original church doesn't want them back. It is all big foam insulation boards, so I couldn't possible ship it.