VBS - round 2

Braden attended VBS in June at East Union, then got another round of Bible School fun at our own church, Parkview's Kids Days in Kalona.  This year instead of having traditional VBS during the day at the church, we had several sessions of VBS in different communities in the evenings and called it "Kids Days." The idea was to reach more unchurched children to share with them about Jesus.  Apparently at Parkview's traditional VBS only about 3% of the kiddos were from non church attending families, so it was decided if those kids weren't coming TO the church for VBS, we should go to them.  

Our small group helped organize the Kalona Kids Days, and we had a great turn out.  The first day we were planning on 30ish kids (we had about 15 registered, mostly kids from our church and a few others) and had 65 show up!  Wow!  It was one of the biggest turn outs in one of the smallest communities.

My jobs for the week were to help register/check all the kids in each night, and then to be a photographer for a couple of the sessions . . . so I have a lot of pics.  :)  The first night Billy and Elise stayed (though she's really too little) - but she loved it.

Snack time!

Bible Story time

The first day's theme was "Jesus loves you even when you are alone," and the Bible story was about Jesus healing the leper. To help illustrate how people with leprosy were treated, the half the kids were given stickers to be their spots, then they were isolated from the rest of the group.  B loved putting spots on E!

Games - B always loved the games

On Tuesday it was sooooo hot.  (The other evenings were great - but Tuesday was a "typical" hot and humid Iowa summer night in July.) Can you tell B is sooooo sweaty?

Games on another night

Craft

Snack on the final night was ice cream!

I think it's safe to say that VBS was a success.  We have a few kiddos invite Jesus into their heart - what could be better than that!  Braden really enjoyed it . . . but on the 2nd night when we were getting ready to go, he said, "Mom, they just talk a LOT about Jesus at Bible School." (At least we know he was listening!) ;)