Our church, Northview Christian Life, has their version of vacation bible school each year but instead, we call it "Adventure Week". It is a huge production and you can't think of this as the same VBS that we went to as kids, where we sat at a table in the basement of the church, hearing stories and doing a craft...it's on a much different level. The theme this year was "Knight In The Museum" and for those of you who have seen the movie, we had Dum-Dum with an actual moving mouth, Rexi the Dinosaur and then each night, we focused on someone out of the bible such as Joseph, who dressed up in full attire and "came to life" and taught a lesson in a large group setting. We then did crafts, outside activities complete with bounce houses and water play, and then small groups where we taught the children and did activities. It's 2-1/2 hours of non-stop fun. Caden and Samuel actually love going to this and here's a pic I found of Caden and his group.
This year, I volunteered to be a "small group leader" and what that basically meant is that I was in charge of 13 four-year olds and taking them from activity-to-activity and then each night, teaching them the bible lesson for the night and answering any questions they may have. At age 4, I was able to capture their attention during our bible lessons for about a whole 5 minutes before they tuned me out and turned their attention to the girl/boy sitting next to them. But, it was such a blessing to be part of their lives each evening for 4 nights and I plan to volunteer for years to come, Lord willing.
The last night of the week, it was a very fulfilling moment for me because all the volunteers and children gathered in our auditorium for worship songs blasting out of the speakers and all of us doing the hand movements that motivate the children to get up and sing. To give you perspective though, we had 600 children and 300 volunteers in this auditorium. To see all the kids singing and excited for the Lord was quite a "lightbulb" moment when I realized how many lives, at such young ages, are being impacted.
This year, I volunteered to be a "small group leader" and what that basically meant is that I was in charge of 13 four-year olds and taking them from activity-to-activity and then each night, teaching them the bible lesson for the night and answering any questions they may have. At age 4, I was able to capture their attention during our bible lessons for about a whole 5 minutes before they tuned me out and turned their attention to the girl/boy sitting next to them. But, it was such a blessing to be part of their lives each evening for 4 nights and I plan to volunteer for years to come, Lord willing.The last night of the week, it was a very fulfilling moment for me because all the volunteers and children gathered in our auditorium for worship songs blasting out of the speakers and all of us doing the hand movements that motivate the children to get up and sing. To give you perspective though, we had 600 children and 300 volunteers in this auditorium. To see all the kids singing and excited for the Lord was quite a "lightbulb" moment when I realized how many lives, at such young ages, are being impacted.
Photos taken by Shanna Banks, Northview.
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