VBS 2018

Last week, we had our annual Vacation Bible School at church. This is the twelfth year we've done a VBS, and I think this was one of the best years we've ever had! It has been amazing to watch this outreach grow through the years.

This year's theme was Noah. It was an easy theme to decorate for, and I think we were all happy with how everything turned out. This was a much easier theme than some we've had in years past, for sure!

The main hallway

We made "water" out of table cloth rolls . . . the 3d effect was nice!

On the other side of the hallway, we put animals and the daily memory verses.

For the past several years, I've taught the 4, 5 and K class. This is probably my favorite age to teach, so I was happy to take that class again this year! 

My classroom door

My classroom

We're always thankful for the ladies who help out with serving snacks!

I took the photo below to show the bulletin board, and Brianna's class being in it was just a bonus! Brianna was very purposeful this year about who she wanted to invite to our VBS. She had a small list, and of course we let her invite those people. I was nervous that no one would want to come, but she had two of her friends accept her invitation and they each brought a sibling. Her friend, Gavon, and his little sister, Blake, came each night and were both a pleasure to have in class. Her friend, Allena, and her brother, Joshua, also came each night. We picked them up on our way to the building since they live just down the street from us. I was thrilled for Brianna that she had two friends there each night, and she was too!

Brianna, Chloe, Allena, Gavon

For the auditorium, I think this is one of the most fun set-ups we've ever done. We constructed a boat to look like it was coming out of the wall. As you can see, we also had animals, a rainbow, and an altar. I'm so thankful for my handy husband that not only built the frames for the boat and altar, but also painted the waves for our display. He's a man of many talents, for sure!

While it turned out really neat in the end, putting all of that together was a bear! It was probably one of the most difficult times we've had with set up. I was so thankful for Tia's nephew, Gabriel, because he kept my little girls entertained. Brianna loved Gabriel when she was little bitty (and he was too back then), and Brooke and Brecklyn have definitely followed in her footsteps!

Gabriel was staying with Ross and Tia because his parents were on a mission trip in Jamaica at this time. It just so happened that my Dad was on that same mission team, so I was trying to take a few pictures to send to my dad to show Gabriel's parents. As you can see, no one was being very cooperative :-)!

I never really know from year to year how many kids I'll have in my class. Last year I taught the same age as I taught this year and only had Brenson most of the week. I planned for five students, and honestly thought that might be overshooting it a bit. However, I quickly reached five on the first evening of VBS, and the students just kept coming! It was pretty stressful to have to rush around at the last minute making copies and collecting extra supplies. Tia helped me gather supplies during the opening songs, and I was thankful to have a few extra minutes to collect myself!

Chris leading the opening songs

Chris is our VBS director and always does a great job!

My class ended up having 8 students . . . 3 more than what I had planned for! I was so grateful for a big class, and I was able to work through the supplies issue that first night. Then, I spent all day Monday preparing more of all my activities for the rest of the week . . . a GREAT problem to have!

Because of the size of my class, using my table and chairs wasn't going to work. There was no way I could get that many chairs around my table even if I had them! We just rolled with it and had class in a circle on the floor. It wasn't perfectly ideal, but we made it work!

I'm not sure what our average attendance was throughout the week, but I do know that we had consistently larger classes in all age groups each night. What a blessing!