God, the Great and Powerful

 VBS last week had the theme of "God, the Great and Powerful".  I have many thoughts to process about it, all positive, but for now, I mostly just have time to share some photos. Enjoy!

Even the Tin Man needs to have supper!

Starting him young. The girls said they could hear Mighty Mouse pounding with "Daddy's ax" while they were travelling between stations. He's a strong little guy!

It made my night that I had my camera along and a friend available to watch my stroller-full-of-boys so that I could get this photo!  Find Mike in his Tin Man glory; then look to his left (the right of the photo). He had seen Sunny looking very serious as he was walking up on stage, so he asked her if she'd like to go with him or stay with her class. She didn't even hesitate to say she wanted to go up on stage.

Showing off their moves.

Daddy/Daughter high-fives.

The girls with the Scarecrow. Pastor Kevan as the Scarecrow needing a brain had the focus the first night of VBS. His video segment was so well done with Kevan looking so incredibly forlorn and sad that I was a little afraid the girls were going to burst into tears. They did great, though. Apparently nothing is now scary after their nasty mother forced them to watch the actual movie version of The Wizard of Oz. I guess that's a good thing.....

Girls with Tin Man Daddy.

They were asked who their favorite character was, with the caveat that they had to think of all the characters and not just pick the Tin Man because he was their daddy, and they answered unwaveringly "the Tin Man". I don't think they were alone in this favoritism because Mike had to turn away several art projects (they were suncatcher hearts.....for the Tin Man....get it? They made heart suncatchers in honor of the Tin Man finding his ability to care about and for others on Tuesday night) from little girls who thought they should give him their hearts. One little girl was particularly determined, so we have her suncatcher hanging with our girls' in the window. "Olivia loves the Tin Man" is written several times on it, and no way, no how would she allow Mike to give it back to her. I've never seen so many young women throwing themselves at my husband! If any of them had been over 12, I think I might have gotten a bit jealous! Honestly, I was just really proud to be married to the Tin Man. I always did have a crush on the Tin Man in the movie.

The girls with Dorothy. "Dorothy" is actually on sabbatical this summer and just came out of hiding for VBS. She did a great job, and it was fun to get to visit at least a little bit since visiting time with this friend is pretty limited (our families consist together of three full-time pastors and six children.....time for getting together doesn't happen often at this point!). One evening last week, though, as she and Mike and I were sitting together while Mighty ate his supper/snack, I did point out that our theological discussion was sort of an interesting one that I never thought I'd be having with the Tin Man and Dorothy.

This was the last night. The whole front of the sanctuary was really, in Kevan's words, "transformed into Oz".

They even brought out the confetti cannon. Mighty kept signing and saying "more, more, more!". 

Last, but not least, the girls needed their picture with the Lion. Mighty was quite sure Paul was a "kitty" and said, "meow! meow!". He was one big kitty! The Lion was perfectly cast as when he found his courage (by finding in the Bible that we are encouraged to "be strong and courageous"), he climbed a platform high above the stage and did a little dance to the instrumental beginning of "Eye of the Tiger". The pastors were perfectly - perfectly - cast into their characters.

Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of the girls with "Oz" himself. He had a spectacular costume the last night, too.

It took the entire weekend for the girls to settle down from the exhilarating "high" they were on from VBS. I'm so thankful for so many things in regard to this, but perhaps mostly that they were both, by the end of the week, jumping up and down with excitement about Jesus. Who would think any children of mine would feel free enough to do that???!! The greatest thing, too, is that they weren't bouncing with excitement because they HAD to or were required to or pressured to or anything like that. They were just feeding off the joy shown by the volunteers, their leaders, their pastors. Mike told me it took 200 volunteers/staff members to make the week work as smoothly as it did, which was very smoothly. Those 200 people came from all walks and stages of life; when I glanced around observing the leaders during opening worship each night, it was interesting to see the range of people. Miss Mouse's leader was a 16-year-old young man; Sunny's was a woman a bit older than I; there were grandpas, dads, moms, grandmas, teenagers, there was not an age group that wasn't represented.

And now, I have a fussy baby to attend. More on this and more photos from summertime fun to come another day!