Tuesday at VBS

We had a big night tonight - our enrollment jumped from about 50 to 80 kids.  All of the classes are 2 grades combined, so the three classes spanning from k-4 to 4th grade are the biggest.  Yesterday we had 6 students total from 5th grade to 12th, today there were probably 16.  (The "youth" class is offered for up to 12th grade, but I think they are all 7th & 8th graders.)  Our biggest issues have been with check in and check out.  It was a mistake to have a different kind of check out procedure for the little kids than the big kids. The big kids needed something different because they dismiss en masse from the sanctuary.  And here I see what had I known in advance I would have eliminated - missions time.

This is a surprise to me because I thought missions time was a good idea - we've done it (the same way) for as long as I've been at the church and I didn't see the err in it.  I guess sometime in the past it worked well, but it has become something "we always do" and is very stale.  The missions videos are interesting for adults, but kind of boring for the kids and I don't think they do much to give the kids a sense of mission.  We are collecting an offering for the Florida Baptist Children Homes and it would have been better to have a bigger emphasis on what FBCH does.  Then the kids could more easily connect the dots.  But the missions videos (produced by Lifeway) have nothing to do with our missions offering.  I think it is confusing.

So maybe eliminated is too strong of a word, maybe significantly altered is better.


Random missions videos - bad
Dismissing kids from sanctuary - bad too
Two check out procedures - really bad

But...recreation time - good!
craft time - good!
longer class time - good!
snacks - good!
puppet show - mega good!!!

I have not made it to the puppet show, but what I have heard from the worship rally team is that the kids are enraptured and the puppets are a huge hit.  So hopefully I will figure this director thing out before the week ends and stop having to run errand after errand (half of which seem to be to get the keys from someone, because I have no keys).

We are not halfway yet, but I can already say that the best part of being VBS director is getting to know so many people I see at church.  Some of them I knew superficially, some of them I just recognized.  But now I know a lot of them and know what they are good at. It really is a blessing.