June 12, 2007

Sampler Day 3

“God don’t make ugly.” That was what I overheard from the yard outside the church this morning. Apparently one of the children had called the other ugly. A third jumped in with that little matter-of-fact statement. It gave me such a great feeling.

There was an influx of kids at VBS this morning. We more than doubled in size. And honestly, that helps out in music quite a bit. More kids mean more voices. More voices and more excitement. I had forgotten just how much fun kids can be – and how much energy they bring to things. This is addictive. Kids are surprising. I came back Monday night, after not getting much of a reaction from the littlest ones and planned a bunch of songs that had motions, thinking that motions might get them more involved. However, just the opposite was true. I struck out again with the littlest ones, but the big kids were so into Pharoah Pharoah that it totally took me off guard.

The group is really bonding well. I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point today, they stopped being individuals and started to be a group. I haven’t noticed that anyone in particular always sits together or rides together in the van. That’s really cool.

I’d comment on tomorrow’s lesson, but I don’t have a clue what it is. I know that the animal of the day is a fish, but that is about all. I have started working on a sermon for Sunday. It is kind of ironic. Here I thought that when I did sampler this year it would be easier because I would not be preparing a sermon every week. But now I am preaching this Sunday and also the Sunday after the kids leave. So, yeah . . . so much for that. Speaking of that, July 1 will be me professional preaching debut in the greater Pittsburgh metro area, so if you call that place home (even temporarily) shoot me a note and I will give you all of the specifics.

Finally, it looks like being tired is going to just be par for the course for these few weeks. I was so spent this afternoon that I actually laid down for a 20 minute nap. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but it has been at least 2 months since I took a nap in the middle of the day.

This is such a blast. Don’t tell Pastor Ruth (the one who signs the paychecks) but I’d probably do this for free.