Becky is working on a powerpoint of her Europe pictures that I will upload soon; in the meantime, one of the group leaders has a blog that I linked to on the left side of the screen.
Thomas and I went down to the Bay Area July 19th to pick up Becky from SFO. Thomas played in front of the Wilson house while we waited for them to return from bowling.
The kids worked on a banner to welcome Becky home. The Wilsons brought a couple extra kids home from bowling, and Teresa's nephews are also visiting.
John and Miresa went to SFO with me to pick up Becky. We had the largest sign there!
The world traveler returns!!
We headed back home and started working on VBS, which started the following week. Miresa and Ally came back with us to help prepare, and to make space in Teresa's car for her nephews.
I got all the shirts airbrushed for our Pirate theme
Teresa and the boys arrived Friday, and we started setting the stage and running through motions for praise and worship.
Jay from His House Fellowship in McArthur let us borrow three of his Manzanita crosses to hang on the wall in the background as masts. His work is beautiful!
The set turned out very nice.
To the right was the mainland, and a castle and stableyard
Teresa wrote and narrated the script, and our crew of scruffy pirates acted it out.
Every day we had 2 sessions of praise and worship. The morning session was led by our crew, and in the afternoons on days 2-5 we allowed the audience to lead from the stage, which they loved!
After VBS monday we took the crew on our annual trip to the falls. This was Ally and Ryan's first trip to Burney.
Teresa's nephews
The pirate crew at the falls
More fun at VBS
After morning praise and worship, we broke into 3groups and rotated through Story time, Activity/Game time, Craft time, and Memory Verse/Group Skit time.
Every day each group would perform their group skit for everyone.
Becky led the youngest group, the Dolphins.
This is the Stingrays group, led by James.
Miresa led the Starfish
We had nautical themed food for all of our snacks. This is Treasure Map quesadillas.
Starfish hard at work decorating their treasure chests
...Stingrays...
Hermit crabs waiting to go in the oven
Memory verse time outside with the Buccaneers, led by DeAngelo
Dolphins at storytime on the outside ship
(the parsonage porch, with three large Masts/Crosses made by Kenny Laughlin)
Dolphins making treasure chests
Boat race activity
Buccaneers
Dolphin boat races. The boats were on skateboards, and the kids had a great time!
Dolphins learning motions for their Memory Verse
Afternoon Praise and worship, with kids on stage leading
Please raise your hand!
Starfish!!
Dolphin skit
Lunchtime
Playing Ninja to pass the time
Everyone worn out at the end of the day
Assembling the bridge (Dock) for Friday's obstacle course activity.
Story time, with an Acrostic to help understand this year's theme, Grace
Obstacle course: Run through boulders (beach balls), climb rope ladder to rescue Princess (stuffed rabbit) from ship (porch). Run across the dock (bridge) with the princess, walk the plank, then wade through the boat and pick up a prize.
Cool prizes!!
We stocked the boat with scriptur coins, gems, necklaces, and bouncy balls with fish in them
Picture frame craft
Memory verse time for Dolphins
Starfish on the obstacle course
Buccaneers at story time
Dolphins at craft time
Thomas saved the princess!
We know our memory verses! Dolphins have great memories!
Sometimes it's good to just be foolish before the Lord!
And anyways, it's fun!
Buccaneers walking the plank...
...and sinking in the water!
Octopus and seaweed for lunch. Yum!
an over-decorated Starfish
One more trip through the prize pool!
After a busy week of VBS, we headed off to the BLM Pit 1 campground for a tween/Youth retreat July 27th-29th (the fourth annual).
Making coffee can ice cream
Keep the cans moving!
The coffee can ice cream turned out more the consistancy of a milkshake, but it is fun to make and the kids enjoy it.
Tastes great!
Getting ready for praise and worship
Campfire time.
We played some cooperative games....
Human Knots....
They had trouble getting untangled!
group juggling
Afterwards, back to the campfire. everyone had to tell as much as they could about themselves before a match burned out.
After that, we had a crazy scavenger hunt
We had bag omelettes for breakfast Saturday
Brad and David are always catching critters. They impressed everyone by cooking crawdads in soda cans after dark.
Some of the kids went on a hike to the diatomaceous earth cliffs, and brought some back with them
This year's group photo
Team building activity. The bandannas represent physical limitations; deafness, blindness, loss of a limb, etc...
The kids had to work together to get everyone over the gate
Some of the kids went a little crazy at free time with the diatomaceous earth...
we had several aboriginals invade camp...
The natives were restless...
Teresa and Becky hatched a plot to bake me a birthday cake over the fire... with semi-successful results... It actually turned out fairly well, and we had tons of S'mores to follow up with. If we do this next year, I think we will use a dutch oven.
Thomas found a piece of D.E. that looked like a marshmallow
Pastor Bud and Jeanette stopped by for dinner Saturday
Another campfire session
Hard at work
Praise and Worship
We split the kids into groups to write and rehearse skits...
...Which they then performed
(to the enjoyment of all)
The J12 logo is impervious to fire
This is the chipmunk who helped keep our campsite clean.
Another year of VBS and Camping successfully completed!!
