We're off to a great start in Oregon!

[Tina]

As a first time director, I have put in hundreds of hours and spent many nights waking up in a cold sweat over all the details (and I know all of you know what I mean!) but today was SO incredible, it was worth all the effort and preparation. We started with a opening program/family night on Sunday, and Monday we had our first day of morning classes for the kids. We are a small church, just under 200 people, and we had 67 children come to Vacation Bible School today. I had not known what to expect, since our church has not done a VBS in over 20 years, but I had asked God for 60 kids. :)

We are totally amazed at the way things are moving along. Months ago when I first watched the SonWorld promotional DVD, I rememember thinking, "how could I ever pull off something like this?" And today I watched the kids as they were screaming happily (I taught them to throw their hands up and scream like they are on a rollercoaster ride whenever I say, "Are you ready for the ride of your life??") and many of them were wearing pirate or cowboy hats or tiaras, and they were all excited about making their rice krispie treat cars, and singing "Choose Jesus", and later they were reciting their Bible verses... and it was just so special and so incredible to see the way God has brought this all together so beautifully.

Our decorations turned out great, and I will post photos as soon as I figure out how to do it. :o

Heartfelt thanks to all of you for your ideas and encouragement. This forum has been a tremendous help to me.

[faith]

Tina, that is so awesome. I can't wait to see the pictures. Isn't God good?

____________________
Faith
New and Living Way Bible Church
Rome, Georgia

[raitapilvi]

Tina,
wonderful news! So exciting to hear, what happens in Oregon!

I am myself second time VBS director and I know what you have been going through...lots of sleepless nights and hours and hours of planning ...

Our VBS started on Monday and we have so far 36 kids, who just LOVE it!!! I am so amazed and thrilled to see what God is doing here - in the Netherlands. We are a small international church, only around 30 regular members from over 20 nationalities. Still God has helped us to prepare for VBS (which is already a miracle I think - we have 16 workers!!!) and many children who participate are either dutch or german. Even though children are not able to understand everything we say, God has worked in amazing ways! And kids just love it!!!

This forum is great and a HUGE support! Thank you all for sharing your ideas and experience!

[Tina]

Our VBS ended Thursday and was a great experience. We had 70 kids... 36 workers... 4 decisions for Christ... and over $250 raised for missions in India. Things were organized nicely and it was lots of fun. Every one of my helpers said they'd do it again in a heartbeat. We are very thankful to the Lord for such a good turnout. At least 2/3 of the kids were not from our church.

I can't figure out how to post more than one attached photo, so I'll try posting more messages with more photos. I'll also post some of our decorations on the decorating forum.

Thank you all for your ideas, advice and words of wisdom. This forum has been a huge blessing to me.