Vacation Bible School season is one of my favorites of the year. June and July are truly Kingdom-building months.  The Leadership Luncheon is a great way to kick it off and let the ones totally sold out (like this church lady) get a jump start on what to expect and plan.

This year we will be having 2 vacation bible schools: a night time in June and a 3-day daytime in July. The night time will be Kingdom Rock published by Group Publishing. My servant leaders find it very leader friendly and it does a great job of addressing all the learning styles of students and servant leaders.

Post cards to invite everyone to the Leadership Luncheon went out 3 weeks ago to everyone who served last year, all the retired folks on our church roster, and all the families.

Lunch will be PB&J sandwiches cut out with castle cookie cutters found at Wally World in Orlando at the CPC conference, fruit kabobs on sword toothpicks, and Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies.

The Confirmation class will be setting up the room with gold table cloths, paper plates, cups, and napkins. The tables will be set with colored balloons for the table centerpieces.

For fun we put together a Royal Bible Quiz that included the following items with tshirts to the winners:

Royal Bible Quiz

1. What woman’s name is translated “princess?” (Genesis 11-25)

Diana      Sarah      Deborah      Bathsheba

2. Who was the first King of Jerusalem? (1 Samuel 10:1)

David      Og      Abraham      Saul

3. Which is the first Queen mentioned by name in the Bible? (1 Kings 10:1)

Sarah      Tahpenese      Sheba      Esther

4. Which King danced half-naked in public? (2 Samuel 6:16)

Solomon      David      Joash      Hezekiah

5. What was the fate of evil Queen Jezebel? (2 Kings 9:30-37)

She was thrown off a high place     Trampled by a horse
Eaten by dogs             Died a natural death
All of the above           None of the above

6. Which King ate grass like an animal for 7 years? (Daniel 4:25-32)

Ahab      Nebuchadnezzar      Ahaz      Artaxerxes

7. Which King did God say was a man after His own heart? (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22,26)

Solomon      Samuel      David      Paul

8. Which King wrote Psalm 23? (Psalm 23)

Ahaz      Paul      David      Samuel

9. Who encouraged Queen Esther to do the right thing? (Esther 1-9)

Haman      Artaxerxes      Holy Spirit      Mordecai

10. Nehemiah was the cup bearer to which King? (Nehemiah 1:11, 2:1)

Artaxerxes I      Nebuchadnezzar      Ahab      Pharoah

11. Who was 8 years old when he became King, and reigned in Jerusalem 31 years and did what was right in the sight of the Lord? (2 Kings 22:1)

Ahab      Hezekiah      Josiah      Jehoiachin

12. Who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? (1 Timothy 6:14-15, Revelation 17:14, 19:16)

Jesus      Jesus      Jesus       Jesus

And we’ll give everyone a chance to make a crown to wear in June to help publicize the event.

Gotta go…on my way to Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree for goodies!

“Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.” Isaiah 26:4

Serving on staff at a local church calls for a calendar assessment at it’s basic level: Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, Summer Vacation Bible School. What about the rest of the year?

Ministry takes place every day of the week. Ask any Church Secretary or Admin and you’ll be told what happens on Monday, Tuesday, etc through Friday. This is why we must be ready for “company” all the time and not just on the big 4 holidays.

I am a big fan of parking lot greeters. Folks who come early, armed with a smile and a peppermint, who chit chat other folks all the way to the door. They toss up their heads in acknowledgement. They wave.  They talk about the weather. They can say “Good Morning” with such a lilt in their voice that you’d think they were singing. And you know they mean it when they say, “It is SO good to see you today!”

This is the easiest and best way to meet new people, work on your handshake, and get “face-time” with everyone from the widows to the little people. This is not a time for long discussions, just a kind and gracious Christian greeting. This is not for huggers, but for wavers and shakers.

I recall a sermon during my children’s teen years of the importance of greeting at home. The first 3 seconds can change your home into a sanctuary by a loving, kind, and enthusiastic greeting. In this simple 3 seconds, whether they are coming or going, I can express to someone how important he/she is to me. Now that my kids are young adults, an enthusiastic “HEY!”; a humorous, “Friend or Foe?”; a kiss on a Mama’s cheek when #1 Son comes home or leaves; all these are life skills that express value and love.

We’ll be practicing this life skill of greeting this summer with our youth and little people during Summer HEAT (Helping Everyone All Together). We’ll finish Sunday School 10 minutes early to cover the front lawn and parking lot. We’ll teach our young people how to start a conversation, shake a hand, continue a conversation, and show in their faces the joy and skill of a Christian greeting.

“When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it; the light of my face was precious to them.” Job 29:24

As a christian educator, we teach the Christmas story and Easter story every year. To keep it fresh and exciting this teacher tries to learn something new every year. This year I learned…

1. Thanks to a message shared at Children’s Pastor’s Conference by Beth Guckenberger, we must be ready with a tambourine and a dance when God rescues and leads us to something different.
As told in Exodus 15, Miriam has rushed to pack what she can carry along with all the Israelites leaving Egypt. Of everything she could have taken, “a tambourine made the backpack.” She is led from all she knows to the unknown, yet she is ready to sing and dance before the Lord. Thanks to a great friend, I am now packing a tambourine in my purse. You never know when a song and a dance is just what is needed.

2. The visual art of history makes a literal stamp upon the mind and heart for Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
Reading James Bryan Smith’s “The Kingdom and the Cross”, he challenges the reader to build in margin during the season of Lent to look at sculpture, ancient cathedral drawings, watch a couple of movies, and visually add to the biblical texts of the Easter story. Profound for this visual learner.

3. Building in margin in my daily walk with Christ, has helped me be fully present rather than run around like a baby chick looking for what is next.
Taking a season with other women of faith, we are taking The Apprentice Series together. We gather monthly around my kitchen table to speak of our strolls through the scriptures, building in habits of sleep, solitude, margin, the 23rd Psalm, counting/listing our blessings, lectio divina, and reading the Gospel of John along the way. Holy habits of Christ, we are experiencing in our own lives.

4. Bunny Ear headbands are the “candy” of youth.
Our youth have taken an active role in “hoppin’ in” to lead the little ones in their faith. On Easter Sunday, after they prepared Hygiene Kits for a Honduras mission trip, they made and placed fish hook bracelets on little people, and themselves, to begin praying about where God wants each of them to “go into the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Seeing a young man in his formal suit AND a pair of bunny ears in the sound booth made me and the little people during services smile. This same young man served on Easter Sunday from the sunrise service through the last one of the day.  Looks like I’ll be shopping for headbands where ever I go.

What did you learn this Easter?

“Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing.”  Exodus 15:20