Affecting Children's Hearts for Eternity

Vacation Bible School!!! What excitement, enthusiasm, and exhaustion!! I remember so many memories. The first was in Texas. Jenny was about two years old. The high school girls just loved her and would take turns holding her during the singing and she would just clap her little hands and try to sing along....and my heart would beat happy just to look at her. We've probably participated in 22 years of VBS now...earlier years writing all the material, directing dramas, and spending untold hours...these later years at Metro especially good as we've used all the Group materials and had so many workers involved.

So this year I am a crew leader for 5 year olds -- their first experience in elementary VBS. They are so cute. I love that they still hold my hand and sit on my lap and want to tell me everything about what they got for their birthday... The icebreaker was to tell each other our name and the hottest place we've ever been. I said, "I'm Carol and the hottest place I've ever been is Phoenix, Arizona." Alec looked earnestly at me and said, "My name is Alec and the hottest place I've ever been is Burger King."

Last year I worked in the Bible Adventure Drama. We had made a huge whale out of tarp and filled it with air and all the kids went inside to hear the story of Jonah. I got to make all the "throw up" sounds of the whale as he threw Jonah up on the land. So I spent all my time there and didn't get to see any of the other VBS centers. I was telling our Senior Minister last week that I was really looking forward to being a Crew Leader this year at Lava Lava Island because you get to see everything. He pointed out that it was good because I would get to impact the children. Duh!!! Suddenly the focus was off of ME and what I would enjoy and on the CHILDREN. I began to pray for them. I found Hawaiian words on the internet to use for our group like pule (prayer) and kokua (helper). And I spent the hours yesterday morning loving the children and praying God would impact their sweet little hearts for HIM! Mahalo (thank you), Lord. Aloha.