"the quest... day five! (and a celebration)"
Friday, July 18, 2008 Filed in: daily photos
| my life
today was the last day
of The Quest VBS. it was awesome!
for those of you who don’t know, VBS (Vacation Bible School) is what churches traditionally do for kids for one week during the summer. pretty much every church in America does it, and we’re no exception. (next year we might be, but that’s another story.) but this year, we decided that VBS needed a little bit of an overhaul.
typically, a VBS will have a variety of stations for kids to go to all within the theme of the week. so, the theme might be something tropical and cliche like “Living in the Son” (did you catch the ever-so-clever play on words there? Christians can be so ridiculously lame sometimes.) and each station (Bible story, crafts, worship, rec, memory verse, etc...) will have something to do with the theme. and... that’s pretty much it. not too exciting.
we decided to take it further. yeah... we have a theme (“The Quest” in case you haven’t been paying attention. it’s sorta a hybrid of “Lost,” “Indiana Jones,” and “The Goonies.”). but the theme isn’t what ties everything together (though it does play out in every area too.) we start each day with a skit (written by Stacy and acted to perfection by myself and my fellow actors). the skit sorta sets up a question or idea for the day in very broad strokes. next, at the Treasure Trove of Truth (Bible Story Station), my character gives the kids a little behind the scenes look at the quest that the skit characters are on. (i do my whole part for that station on video and we tell the kids that i’m video podcasting each night on the island. they love it.) during this time, i reveal the “ancient truth” for that day. (this is like our “bottom line” on the weekends. it’s the one thing we want to make sure they walk away knowing, understanding and remembering.) as soon as they learn the ancient truth, they get a chance to respond to it in a unique way. (some days it might be through worship or prayer or sharing stories... they actually get to decide how they want to respond.) after that, they head to small groups where Erika put together and awesome small group booklet that gives them some things to discuss about applying the ancient truth to their lives. the “Artifact Creation Station” (crafts) lets them create something (usually straight out of the skit) that they can take home to remind them of the ancient truth. the “Station of Mystery” gives them a chance to discover a Bible verse that reinforces the ancient truth. (this station is new and was completely different every day. it was awesome!) admittedly, the games station was pretty much just fun games that didn’t tie in too much. but that’s okay... fun is important too.
anyway, today was awesome because we got to see the kids really responding to what they’d discovered this week. they knew all the ancient truths and some of them even shared stories of how they were applying them to their lives already.
then, to celebrate the past year in the lives of our families, we ended the week with our annual Family Celebrate Experience. we had TK Burger, dancing, etc... and it was awesome. but holy crap... i did a lot of walking today. (i try to get 10,000 steps on a normal day. check out my pedometer for today!)
for those of you who don’t know, VBS (Vacation Bible School) is what churches traditionally do for kids for one week during the summer. pretty much every church in America does it, and we’re no exception. (next year we might be, but that’s another story.) but this year, we decided that VBS needed a little bit of an overhaul.
typically, a VBS will have a variety of stations for kids to go to all within the theme of the week. so, the theme might be something tropical and cliche like “Living in the Son” (did you catch the ever-so-clever play on words there? Christians can be so ridiculously lame sometimes.) and each station (Bible story, crafts, worship, rec, memory verse, etc...) will have something to do with the theme. and... that’s pretty much it. not too exciting.
we decided to take it further. yeah... we have a theme (“The Quest” in case you haven’t been paying attention. it’s sorta a hybrid of “Lost,” “Indiana Jones,” and “The Goonies.”). but the theme isn’t what ties everything together (though it does play out in every area too.) we start each day with a skit (written by Stacy and acted to perfection by myself and my fellow actors). the skit sorta sets up a question or idea for the day in very broad strokes. next, at the Treasure Trove of Truth (Bible Story Station), my character gives the kids a little behind the scenes look at the quest that the skit characters are on. (i do my whole part for that station on video and we tell the kids that i’m video podcasting each night on the island. they love it.) during this time, i reveal the “ancient truth” for that day. (this is like our “bottom line” on the weekends. it’s the one thing we want to make sure they walk away knowing, understanding and remembering.) as soon as they learn the ancient truth, they get a chance to respond to it in a unique way. (some days it might be through worship or prayer or sharing stories... they actually get to decide how they want to respond.) after that, they head to small groups where Erika put together and awesome small group booklet that gives them some things to discuss about applying the ancient truth to their lives. the “Artifact Creation Station” (crafts) lets them create something (usually straight out of the skit) that they can take home to remind them of the ancient truth. the “Station of Mystery” gives them a chance to discover a Bible verse that reinforces the ancient truth. (this station is new and was completely different every day. it was awesome!) admittedly, the games station was pretty much just fun games that didn’t tie in too much. but that’s okay... fun is important too.
anyway, today was awesome because we got to see the kids really responding to what they’d discovered this week. they knew all the ancient truths and some of them even shared stories of how they were applying them to their lives already.
then, to celebrate the past year in the lives of our families, we ended the week with our annual Family Celebrate Experience. we had TK Burger, dancing, etc... and it was awesome. but holy crap... i did a lot of walking today. (i try to get 10,000 steps on a normal day. check out my pedometer for today!)