Big Apple Adventure

What an incredible week of VBS we had at Northside!! We had over 400 kids come, 140 volunteers, and countless hours of fun!!! I was blessed enough to be in charge of the music, and was able to recruit some teens to help me on stage as my "rockettes" to help teach the songs and dance steps for the week. We had a BLAST! I absolutely LOVE to teach kids how to use music as a way to worship the Lord. The theme for VBS was "Big Apple Adventure" - so it was all about NY. The music was super fun - very cool and had an "urban" feel. The kids thought it was awesome getting to do some "hip hop" music in church - complete with a song that included a rap of John 3:16! I LOVE getting to teach kids songs that are straight from Scripture - knowing those truths are going to stick in their hearts just thrills me!!

Our service project for the week was for Operation Christmas Child. We gave the kids a challenge to fill 200 boxes before the end of the week. If they were successful, our Children's Pastor and Youth Leader would put on a dress and get a pie in the face. We were successful!!!

We brought two friends from Jacob's kindergarten class with us every day. He was thrilled to get to be a witness to them in this way and they had a blast. Callie and Caleb loved every minute as well. Callie was actually in the VBS rotation for 4 year olds, and the preschool teachers were WONDERFUL with Caleb. (I actually think they have the hardest jobs - the older kids are in the VBS rotations with their groups, the babies are happy just to have anyone love on them - but Caleb is stuck in the middle. The teachers were GREAT - and he LOVED it!!!). We were all completely exhausted by the end of the week, but it was a GREAT exhausted!!! Can't wait until next year! What a huge privilege and BLESSING to be involved in this kind of an outreach for our community and to share the gospel with 400 kids - awesome!

David actually had to leave town unexpectedly on Thursday morning, so he missed the final two days of VBS. We got a call on Tuesday night that his Uncle Tom had passed away. This was his dad's only brother, so David left Thursday morning in order to be there for the funeral service on Saturday morning. He was thankful to be able to go and spend a few days with his family. I hated that he had to go by himself, but glad that it worked out for him anyways.