Friendship

Oh the things we do for our friends! My best friend recently moved away and as a parting gift she gave me a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt.

I hate the Steelers!

I mean come on! I am a born and bred Philadelphia Eagles fan. I bleed green. But on a side note, she did buy herself an Eagles shirt to wear. It's actually very fun, at some point we both have to wear our shirts and we will exchange them before the start of the football season this year. Well, with football fast approaching, I decided to give it a shot, and here's my proof. I'm not just staying at home and hiding today. I've already been to the bank, Turkey Hill for a coffee, a friend came over to cut the kids hair, and we will be going to the library as well. I know my friend did wear her Eagles shirt already because she came over after work wearing it. I will say that I am looking forward to exchanging the shirts back but at the same time am sad because of my friend moving. Oh the things I would do for her!

The Finale

VBS ended last night. All the decorations came down and were passed along to another church this morning. It was an amazing week with a wonderful turnout. We had 136 students come through our doors and we were able to spread the word of God to each of these kids and their parents.

With the close of another VBS I'm sad and excited at the same time. It is difficult being the person in charge; trying to get people to sign up to work, planning the week's events, and dealing with the issues that arise. But the feeling of elation at seeing all of those kids learn about Christ makes it all worth it. Now that it's all said and done I realize that I won't be the director next year. I've stepped down from the position so I can do something else, be part of the worship team.

I worked on the worship team a couple years ago and I loved it. Being director made me miss it since I was unable to help because I was running around doing other things. I like doing the music and the motions, I guess it's the cheerleader in me. I'm excited to be part of worship next year, I might even be in charge of it. I'll make the final decision for that later when I find out the date of VBS and the date of when my hubby is going out of the country next summer. If they coincide then I'll have to make a choice of Bulgaria or VBS. But that's next year.

Overall I am very pleased with the events of this week. I'm thankful for all of the workers who helped, especially the ones who stayed until 11:00 last night to help take down decorations. Next on my plate -- clean my whole house and do a ton of laundry before my hubby comes home from Turkey tomorrow.

Survival or Obedience?

Tonight was the first night of VBS at my church. I have been planning and working for the last 6+ months getting ready for tonight. I was amazed to see 66 kids had preregistered and we had a total of 84 kids come tonight. I was unsure of how many kids and workers we would have and as director, I stress over the numbers. But there was one thing I had to keep reminding myself...

Whomever God wants to be at VBS this week will be there.

God wanted those 84 kids there. He wanted each of the 41 workers there. He wanted us to teach those kids through the music, games, craft, and lessons through the night. He wanted to be in control and me to let Him.

Letting God be in control is the hard part. The easy part was to sit back tonight and watch it happen. Basically, my job is over. Sure I have administrative work to do but that doesn't take too long. I get to spend my nights this week going around and giving small gifts to each teacher and worker. I get to walk around and watch the classes. I get to see the kids get excited over the songs and crafts, the games and lessons. I get to watch the teachers sit back and see the joy in the kids faces. I've done my best to prepare the church and workers for VBS but I was just the middle man. God is the one who prepared these teachers and I am thankful that He did.

I've been so worried that things wouldn't fall into place. I've been absent from the decorating of the church due to family commitments and so when I arrived Sunday morning to church and saw all the amazing decorations I about cried. I can't even begin to tell how awesome the whole church looks. God sure put a creative spark into our decorating committee and I hope they never stop using their talents. (God skipped that talent when He made me. But He did give me the admin qualities that I need for this role.)

Why have I been so worried for the last month? Why can't I remember this elated feeling when I'm preparing for something like this? I know I felt this way last year but I couldn't remember that. I just got worried and stressed and angry and and and... If I had only let God really be in control I would have saved so much heartache. Thankfully, I have the ability to learn from what I have done and hopefully I will learn from this.

Praise God for His blessings.