VBS 2011: Gold Rush...Searching for the "Rock of Ages"

Quinn is finally old enough to go to Vacation Bible School at our church!  Tonight (Sunday) was the first night of VBS. Our theme this year is "Gold Rush....Searching for the Rock of Ages."

The Bible verse for tonight was John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me."

The stage of the sanctuary was set up to look like an Old West town.

The fence area was where the puppets would come up and interact with the children. One of the puppets, shown here, kind of scared Quinn a little bit, but thankfully I got him settled down and we were able to enjoy the rest of the time. 

One thing I found comforting was that first part of Bible School was saying the pledges to the American Flag, Christian Flag and the Bible.   The only thing was that the pledge to the Christian Flag that I grew up saying was NOT the same pledge that was said last night!  I'm not sure what that's about.  I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, and this church is an Independent Baptist....but the flag is the same.

(Perhaps some of my church friends who read the blog can chime in here!!)

The buckets at the front of the stage were for the kids to place their offering in each night. Apparently the church is famous for having a "Penny War" between the boys and the girls. Each year the money is designated to go towards a certain missions group or need within the church. This year, the money will be given to our College/Career class for the upcoming missions trip to New Zealand.

The church was smart to have plenty of pennies on hand for kids to swap their dollars, quarters, etc. They had set up a booth called the "Gold Exchange" and had boxes and boxes of rolled up pennies. Quinn was so excited to put his "corns" (coins) in the "blue bucket"!  Because Quinn is in the youngest age group, he got to go first!  Unfortunately the girls won the first penny war.   

The first activity was Craft Time. Two of the ladies in charge of Crafts are sisters and friends of mine, and having read both of their blogs, I know how creative they can be!  Tonight's craft was a horse. Take a white tube sock, paint the toe area brown for the nose, attach a couple of googly eyes, and add some brown yarn for a mane. Attach it to a paint stick and voila...a horse!  Quinn was really proud of his horse!

After craft time we went back to the sanctuary for singing, story time, and more puppets. When we got back to our seats, he said "Mommy, I not scared now. We watch da movie again?"  He meant...more puppets please? He really watched during the puppets, and I wonder if it reminded him of when we went to see Veggie Tales?

The song tonight was Jesus Loves Me, and Quinn sang along to every word! He enjoyed Mrs. Pam's story and was super excited when more puppets came out to tell the story of Jonah! That's one of his favorite stories, again, thanks to Veggie Tales!

After this was snack time (grilled cheese, chips, and a cupcake.) Then it was down to the gym for game time. The game workers tried to adapt some of their games so the little ones could play but that proved to be a little difficult. Quinn is pushing 3 and a half, but a couple of the little girls in his group won't be 3 until the fall, so getting them to understand "rules" for a game was pretty hard. So in the end, the kids just ran around the gym, which was perfectly fine with Quinn!

We had a great time and can't wait to see what tonight holds for us at VBS!