At the beginning of the year, my husband created a master calendar with all of the big church event dates and times. We let everyone at the church know that these were our "planned-in-advance" events and that we would need as many workers committed to help as possible.
As the dates came closer for VBS, we made flyers and invitations and began going out in the community inviting people to attend. Last year was our first ever Vacation Bible School and I was praying the God would send 10 children. He more than doubled that because 24 children came on the highest night! This year I prayed that 20 children would come consistently each night.
Our theme this year was Pioneers and Prairie Dogs. I absolutely love these Quality Speech materials! They do a fabulous job. I envisioned how I wanted the platform decorating to be and drew a sketch. The backdrops and cacti I was able to find on oriental trading company on sale! I showed Dan my sketch and asked if he could build me a 3D Conestoga wagon and fence.
Like the amazing man he is, Dan built this for me.
One of the members of our church owns horses, so she lent us the use of her saddle, rope, and bridle. We used paint cloths for the rough Conestoga wagon canvas. A few other church members donated their time on the Wednesday before VBS started to help me with the decorating.
Our Granville house had a bunch of huge burlap sacks in the basement, so I cut up two of them and a sweet church member helped me to sew up four smaller bags for our "supplies" of flour, sugar, and gold.
Originally, we were thinking we'd need to get actual wagon wheels from an antique store. One of our local antique dealers said that they would allow us to borrow any props we needed as long as we paid a deposit of the amount they cost until we returned them. But we ended up not needing to do that when Dan saw that Tractor Supply Company sells old-looking wagon wheels at a reasonable price.
That way we can reuse them, AND they all match.
VBS started on Sunday night and went thru Wednesday night.
We even had a bandit come each night! The children got excited about that!
We praise God that 32 children came on the first night and every night after that! It was exciting!
I was so thankful that one of the ladies at church volunteered to watch the girls for me while I was doing the part of the "wagon master". After four nights of competition, the red team won and brother Jon got a pie in the face!
The coins children brought each night went to the Redeemer House which is an orphanage one of our missionaries began in Togo, West Africa.
The last night of VBS, we invited all parents and guardians to join us for the program as well as some refreshments afterwards. I just love our local Stewart's shop....they donated a huge container of their amazing vanilla ice cream and all the trimmings for make-your-own-sundaes.
Since the theme of the VBS was basically that God's Word is our guide and we ought to read it, we gave out new bibles to all of the children on that last night.
I tried to take some quick photos, but some of them were blurry they were so rushed.
We had such a fabulous week, and we're so thankful for each child who came and made decisions for Christ. I'm already planning and preparing for our 2020 Space theme!
