Round Up!

A couple of weeks ago Ashlee, Sydney, James and I volunteered for Vacation Bible School at our church.  If you have ever been to Second Baptist's VBS before, you know what a huge production it is.  They go all out reaching 1,000's of kids with the gospel of Christ. At our South campus we had over 1,200 children and volunteers that attended for the week. 

This year's theme was Round Up!  We transformed the church into a Rodeo Town.  We had a bank, jail, barn, animals, even a town store.  For a couple of weeks before hand, we volunteers spent many hours designing, painting, cutting, and assembling it all. Check out the bank sign...yes, that's my creative artwork. Ha!

Now volunteering isn't just all about the decorations. Ashlee was able to serve in a different way. She is a member of the GIGL (Growing In God's Love) dance team.  The GIGL dance team makes learning about Jesus fun for the children through dancing and singing. James loves to watch his big sis on stage and feels so loved when she comes down to the audience to dance with him.

They had many practices and dress rehearsals leading up to VBS to learn the choreography. The members have all become really good friends. And they love, love, love! their leader Mrs. Brigette.  She is a beautiful lady inside and out and we are blessed that God put her in our lives. She is such a sweet, positive influence for Ashlee.

Then there is the big show. This is a play put on by volunteers and staff members. Every day they would perform the next piece or act.  The plot this year involved Miss Georgia Peach, the school teacher, was kidnapped by the bad Renegades and tied to the train tracks.  The good Sheriff had to rescue her before the train came.  In the end, with God's help the Sheriff is able to save the day and the Renegades change their hearts and become Christians.

Meanwhile Sydney and I were apart of VBX. VBX is VBS on steroids. Ha! No really...while VBS is about Jesus, little kids, decorating the rooms, singing, dancing and the big show. VBX is about Jesus, big kids, decorating the kids, team spirit, recreation games, singing and dancing. 

I volunteered as a team leader. My team was the "Yellow Clue" team.  Each team was a color and a board game name.  Sydney's team was the "Orange Twister." Throughout the morning the teams would break into small groups where we as team leaders would reinforce the lesson of the day in the smaller environment.

Every day was a chance to win the spirit stick. High energy, team chants, color and lot's of screaming earned you this stick. My team won it the first day...we decorated it all up in yellow and carried it around proudly all day. 

 

But that wasn't the only part to VBX.  Every morning after we decorated ourselves up and checked in we went for worship. The kids sang, praised God and had a blast playing silly games like eating baby food or throwing a pie in their leader's face.

Then we would get serious and here God's powerful message through our Youth Pastor Terry. Each day he taught about the fruit of the Spirit. The kids love Pastor Terry and God works miracles through him because on the last day, several of these kids turned their life over to Christ. The following Sunday, a total of 23 children were baptized during our church service.

And let's not forget the little tots. All of the Baughman cousins came to VBS including Ava, Andrew, Aidan, Megan, Katherine,  and Berkley. Mimi Pat, Alyssa, and Shelby came to help volunteer in the classrooms.

Here the kids are watching the big show after their time learning about the fruits of the Spirit in their classrooms.