VBS

One of my favorite weeks of the year is volunteering at our church for its Vacation Bible School (VBS) camp.  Stephanie is the director and since I was 11 years old, I have volunteered to help, as a crew leader and eventually a station leader. Unfortunately last year I was unable to help out because I had to be at ISU for training. Because of that, I wasn't able to be at my station and it was given to different volunteers. So this year, I took over Doug's station which involved me taking pictures for a slideshow each day.

 

This year theme was Pandamania. We spent the week in the bamboo forests hanging out with pandas while learning about God and his great power.

 

 

We had some pretty cool decorations created by my parents all over the church, including a big happy panda hiding in the leaves, and a bridge over a pond in the bamboo forest. 

 

We had a very cute visitor, Panda Patty, visit us each morning. She also learned along with us as learned about Bible stories!

 

Every morning, we also were introduced to the Bible buddy for the day. Each buddy helped us remember the Bible point and the Bible story. They are usually a really big hit during the week of VBS! You should see how many kids want their picture taken with the buddies at the end of the week. :)

 

 

 

 

Each day we learned the Bible point. Whenever the Bible point was said by anyone, the kids were to respond with "Thank you, God!" and fist pump. Some times we would be really obvious about saying, and other times we'd sneak it in. It was fun to see their reaction throughout the week!

 

We displayed all of the Bible points above our panda throughout the week to remind the kids what we've learned.

 

Imagine the church jammed with 82 kids just like this one... with big smile and excitement on their faces!

 

Me and Stephanie, the director, together after Day 4 - sports day.

It was a wonderful week with Stephanie, the kids, and the volunteers. I'm already excited for next year!