Where I Was or What I Did to Their Summer Vacation Part Two

Okay I mentioned the prizes and showed you the pictures. Now a little more about the program. Every day for 4 days the kids had listened to two Bible messages. They were also given 1 hour to do crafts (younger kids) or watch skits and play games (teens). They then had one hour to eat and ride the go-karts and play video games. We rented a tent. I was big enough to hold half of our go-kart course, the concession stand, a platform with a pulpit and the bleachers.

Part of the course was set up outside in such a way that if needed we could run the karts just on the inside if it rained.

All the racing flags were donated.

The kids spent their time in the tent according to shifts. The 6 - 12 year olds stayed in the tent to hear their second message.

While we didn't get the number of teenagers we looking for, we did have more kids than we did last year. Growth is a good thing. My duties, aside from transportation responsibilities as a Bus Captain included skit acting. Thankfully there are no pictures of me as Wonton Fooey and I think they neglected to record my rendition of "All My Children" meets "West Side Story". Beyond that I was on crowd control and a teacher's helper. I was glad I wasn't designated a "Baptism Floater". I'm not sure how we were suppose to take that title but I kept envisioning some hapless church member face down in the baptistery.

And just so you don't think crowd control was easy, imagine Tuesday, over 200 kids ages 4-12, hopped up on nachos and orange drink. Two police cruisers from the Brimfield Police Department just outside the tent. It was nearly impossible but we got all the kids out and in a nice group to watch the officers turn on the lights and sirens. Then one officer said over his loud speaker: "Hey kids, come on over and look inside the car."

Rookies. It was like standing in front of a heard of gazelle being chased by a cheetah. I was literally peeling kids off the car windows. The fingerprints were so thick you couldn't see inside the cruiser. I yelled until I was hoarse, "Go to your classroom". The reply was the same from every kid: "I didn't get to see the guns!"

After the flood of micro humanity receded there were two cops standing next to the cruiser wondering how a thirty pound body pulled a side view mirror off the car. Rookies. The Brimfield Fire Department had the right idea the day before. Keep the kids a good distance from the engine and fire the water cannon at them.



Wednesday the Brimfield Rescue unit came and talked to the kids. I wondered if the Coroner was going to put in an appearance on Thursday, but that's just how my mind works.

After it was said and done we had over 130 decisions for Christ and had baptized 112 kids and teens (we baptized 55 on Tuesday which may be a church record for most baptisms in a day.) In the end that is what is important.


Cross Posted to Dane Bramage

Where I Was or What I Did to Their Summer Vacation

Okay I told you real life got intense and here is where I spent a great deal of time, both in preparation and execution.


With school scarcely out, we decided to host the biggest Vacation Bible School in the area this week. We called it The Heritage 500, after our church, Heritage Baptist Church. We held classes and activities for four days from 3:00pm until 8:00pm (we the workers had to be there earlier and didn't get home afterwards until much later) Here are the busses from Monday bringing kids to our little country church in Magadore Village Ohio. Some of you are familiar with Northeast Ohio and will recognize the communities.

We reach Akron, Barberton, Kent, Revenna, and we have two busses that come from Canton. I am a Bus Captain (I drive a van since I lack a CDL) So I took two days of vacation to work 4 afternoons at VBS. Here's another shot of the busses.

More beneath the fold.

We chose a racing theme and taught messages all week about being in God's race. We wanted to attract as many teenagers as we possibly could. So we offered a prize.

This prize ('95 Firebird with T tops) comes with Drivers Ed donated by one of our sponsors and will be given away Sunday night after our annual Teen Rally. Teens 13-18 years old are eligible to win. I would love to say that we had so many teens we didn't know what to do with them but the car did not turn out to be as great a draw as we hoped.

Speaking of sponsors, Valvoline was more than happy to lend us this guy. He stands taller than our fellowship hall.

Other sponsors include Pepsi and McDonalds.

So as not to forget the little kids, we had a race oriented prize for them too. A brand new Go-kart.

Kids 4-12 years old were eleigible. We held the drawing Thursday. One lucky kid will get his go-kart delivered Saturday.

We also had a prize for one of the adults who attended our Wednesday night service during VBS.

Again you would think that a free car would pack them in but the parents we were trying to reach stayed away in droves. One lucky woman took home the Villager after the service.

I have more pictures and more to tell you but I am very tired. So there will be a part two.

UPDATE Crud. It looks like the "folding" technology i once employed no longer works. I will have to find a fix for it.


Cross Posted to Dane Bramage