With a desire to build some ministry memories for our fathers and sons, we offered a Thursday evening Big Guy-Little Guy Nerf Games event 7-8:30pm on a hot summer evening in our gym. I read every blog I could find about Nerf Games for ideas, cautions, must-haves, and lessons learned.  The little guy had to have completed K5-5th grade. The big guy could be a dad, uncle, grandfather, big brother, etc. We did not offer prizes, other than the container of red, white, and blue M&Ms for the one who came closest to guessing how many were in the container. Prizes were bragging rights. It was a hit!

Promotion: Big Guy-Little Guy Nerf Games
All little guys (completed K5-5th grade) are invited to bring a big guy. Bring your own Nerf artillery and we’ll provide the ammunition. Thursday, June 20, 7-8:30pm. This is not a drop-off event, but a shared big guy-little guy event in the gym. Register today at… $5 per big guy, $5 per little guy

Supplies:
o Bullets and Target stickers
o Blow up rocks
o Barricades – Big boxes; panels
o Bandanas & Goggles & Ammo
o Name tags
o Black half-aprons to keep and store ammo (we use these aprons all the time)
o Overturned green buckets to raise items on tables
o Face paint makeup sticks and hand mirrors
o barriers
o Turned over tables
o Signage
o Helium balloons red, white, and blue
o 5 Back-up guns from 5Below & Walmart

Setup outside the gym included a sign-in table for name tags, bandannas green or blue, safety glasses, ammo, and black half-aprons to store ammo. (We use these half-aprons for a lot of things).
Setup inside the gym included one wall of various target shooting stations, one wall with M&Ms and water stations with camo paper cups, and a corner with 30 chairs for water break and devotion. The rest of the gym was filled with barriers, balloons, random chairs, etc.

7-7:20pm Big Guy-Little Guy photo ops and target shooting
7:20-7:45pm Various games such as Protect The President, Last Little Guy Standing, Last Man Standing, Last Team Standing, Little Guys Guard Big Guys, Big Guys Guard Little Guys, Family Target Shooting Contest, etc.
7:45pm Water break with Butterfinger snack bars and devotion led by a McEachern Kids leader who used all kinds of animals calls, then spoke about Jesus calls (outstanding!)
7:50pm Various games (see above) After each game, a whistle would blow to reload and pickup ammo from the floor
8:20pm Hands-on prayer time and clean up.

Delights? Watching a grandmother and wives/mothers viewing from the upper balcony. The laughter and giggles from the boys and their big guys. This was a summer follow-up to VBS which made for the majority of attendees being new to the church. There were dads who came without guns and dads who came with duffel bags full of them. We will definitely do this again. A colleague is planning to borrow our goodies for Veterans Day with a Veteran from her church to offer the devotion.

“He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.” Genesis 10:9

Faith Field Trips are an intentionally memorable faith-formation experience, developmentally appropriate for students who have completed kindergarten-3rd grade and 3rd grade-5th grade off-campus and during the summer. We typically share this experience with other churches and take kids outside where Jesus likely spent most of his youngest years.

There are many local opportunities for faith-formation experiences when we can engage in multiple conversations about God our Creator, Jesus our best friend and Savior, and the Holy Spirit our comforter, helper, and reminder. Details about our first summer of experiences can be found here. Faith Field Trips are typically $20 per student unless the time goes beyond 3pm, when it becomes $25 per student.  Scholarships are always available. Students brown-bag their own lunches and a stop at QuickTrip for vanilla ice cream cones on the way back is a must. K5-3rd graders go on Wednesdays, 3rd-5th graders go on Tuesdays.

Some of the results of our first year of Faith Field Trips are new and deeper friendships between students who only see one another at church; are offered as follow-up activities following VBS which are varied and many and soon after VBS; and connecting with families on a smaller, more-intimate level with special memories and Bible training.

These are the trips planned this summer for 3rd-5th graders…

• Hiking at East Palisades after preparing and delivering lunches for MUST Ministry summer lunch program. Bible story: Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee as He told others about the Kingdom of God.
• Mystery Art Bus – weaving carpets, attending new Aladdin movie (because it is beautiful and filled with colors and fabrics). Bible story: Paul, Priscilla & Aquila were tent-makers who grew in their friendship and service to the Lord even when it was tough to do so.
• Lake Winnie Amusement & Water Park. Think classic amusement park from the 1950s. Not very busy, small footprint of space, covered picnic tables for breaks and lunch.
• Red Top Mountain Paddle Boarding – Murph Surf rentals and training. Bible story: Jesus walked on water.
• Lagrange Bible Antiquities Center – there’s a bunch of stuff here relating to the Bible.
• Ambassadors Leadership Day at Mrs. DeDe’s. Bible study and more at my home with plenty of chaperones and fun things to do in the neighborhood. This year’s theme: Spiritual Gifts & The Avengers.

Faith Field Trips planned this summer for completed K5-3rd graders…

• Search & Rescue Dog training & farm in White, Georgia – Jesus wants us to be found.
• Seven Springs Water Park – Jesus was there when the sun and water were created.
• Red Top Mountain putt-putt golf and sand-castle making – parables.

One of my favorite parts of our Faith Field Trips is the opportunity to collaborate with other children’s ministry champions and spend time with parent chaperones. We laugh, we plan, we calendar, and we get to know each other on a more personal level. We share life and fabulous memories. AND when I ask my students to invite their friends, they get to meet and spend time with mine. Faith Field Trips are all about relationship-building making them win-wins for students, for chaperones, and for our local churches.

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you.” John 15:15

Summer ministry with children and families is at warp-speed. Last week was a great week of Vacation Bible School in my local church, but this Enneagram 3 has hit the wall. I’m weary, and soul-tired. Not only was last week filled with Vacation Bible School, there were several meetings which stabbed my heart, and on the very day when our theme was ‘When life is sad, God is good,’ our wonderful family dog of 13 years passed away that morning. I grieve the loss of my faithful, morning quiet time partner. Our home is much too quiet. Did I mention that I’m weepy, too.

Yesterday, I packed the car to head to Athens, Georgia to serve as a delegate for my district at the 2019 North Georgia United Methodist Church Annual Conference. I’m not thinking my energy will improve with the anticipated contention which has been talked about for months.

It’s an election year. As a lay delegate, I will be voting for other lay persons who will represent me and my local church at the next General Conference, the law-making body of the United Methodist Church. My mailbox and inbox has been filled with people asking me to consider voting for them, laying out their qualifications, credentials, along with various expressions of their love and loyalty to our Savior lived out in service to the UMC Body of Christ. I read each one hoping to read, “I teach children’s Sunday school,” or “I serve every year at Vacation Bible School.”

I trust in a great God who chose the church as His representatives to a lost world. He sent His Son to die for it. He will indeed be present. We’ve prayed for Him to be there. We’ve asked Him to empower us to show His love to one another in word and in deed. As in the local church and life, there will be celebrations and disappointments.

Then next Sunday we’ll gather for Father’s Day at each local church. We are Sunday people. We’ll sing, we’ll teach, we’ll read our Bibles, and we’ll give. Children and their families will come to church earnestly seeking Jesus. Pray with us. Be informed. This week will not be easy, but just because it’s hard doesn’t mean His hand is not in it. And He is with us always.

“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning; and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” Ecclesiastes 7:8

Vacation Bible School is a major event. VBS is as part of the American summer as swimming pools and lemonade. In 1894, an Illinois Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Miles, wanted more time to teach the Bible to children, so she began a daily Bible school lasting four weeks during the summer. In 1898, Ms. Hawes started an Everyday Bible School in New York City for slum children in a saloon which was the only place available for rent. She added music, memory verses, games, crafts, drawing, cooking, and more to an array of Bible stories. She kept at it for seven years so that by the time she retired, she supervised at least seven separate schools.

Yet it is Dr. Robert Boville who is credited with establishing VBS as a movement recommending other churches do what Hawes was doing. He eventually established a handful of summer schools which were led by Union Theological Seminary students. By 1923, Dr. Boville was promoting VBS internationally and founded the World Association of Vacation Bible Schools. Standard Publishing would take the credit for popularizing Vacation Bible School by creating a full scale VBS program in 1923, dividing it by grade level in 1948, introduced the single-theme concept in 1952, and offered more than 120 tools to equip local churches to host their own VBS by 1987. By 1998, Standard reported that more than 5 million kids attended VBS programs each year.

We started our VBS on Sunday night and these were my first thoughts the morning after…

Good call on not serving food – More than 15% of our student’s registered reported various allergies on their VBS registration forms. Most were food allergies, but one has a glitter allergy and another a watermelon allergy. Students are with us for just a couple of hours. I’ve never dealt personally with allergies, but it must scare the daylights out of a parent to entrust their child with a community. Our community is not food scarce so we don’t need to offer food. We can serve water and lots of it.

The secret sauce of any VBS is the volunteers – The best way for kids to know and love Jesus is to be with people who know and love Jesus. At VBS training I remind our servant-leaders that this is the week they can get their Jesus freak on and they must. The kingdom depends on it!  Think: What if every follower of Jesus was just like you, would kids want to become a follower of Jesus?  Their YES to VBS means they will sing, dance, smile; high five, play games, and dress up. I tell them not to be concerned with decorating; we have a fabulous team for that. Just be ready to build relationships with their students and with one another. We even have personal post cards the travel guides will write to each student which I will address, stamp, and mail the following week. I don’t like the trash of lots of paper and plastic, so our decorating team builds VBS vignettes in strategic places around campus made up of a few large items. This makes it easier for us to pass along our decorations to other churches the morning after our last night. We can be the Jesus freak and do it every day.

It’s OK if someone didn’t get the information – Even if I overwhelm families and volunteers with emails, texts, social media posts, bulletin notices, fliers, posters, banners, and face-to-face, I still can’t reach everyone and folks are going to be surprised when they arrive. Smile and let it go, let it go…yes, I’m breaking into song. VBS and ministry with children is what I live and breathe, but not everyone else. Families are just finishing the school year, attending awards ceremonies, juggling summer camps, sleepovers, and adjusting to a new normal of late mornings and late nights. Just the change in a daily routine can turn families for a loop. We can serve grace and lots of it.

According to the latest Lifeway Research:  Most parents (95 percent) say VBS was a positive experience for their child. A similar number say VBS helped their child better understand the Bible (94 percent) and influenced their child’s spiritual growth (95 percent). Most (95 percent) also say that VBS is one of their child’s most meaningful church experiences. “People still believe Vacation Bible School is good for kids. Even parents who don’t go to church want their kids to go to VBS.”

In the words of our Senior Pastor who leads our Preschool Bible room all week, “Winner, winner, chicken dinner.”

Sending you great VBS vibes for an ext-ROAR-dinary week! For those of us in the trenches, we know that VBS is not about a week, it’s about eternity.

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8