"MORE THAN GOLD" Olympic Themed Vacation Bible School at Brimley Congregational Church

The girls and I just experienced an amazing week of VBS at Brimley Congregational Church. The theme was "More Than Gold," and was inspired by the fact that the Olympics are coming up in just a few weeks. The church was decorated with flags from around the world, sports medals and trophys, an Olympic flame, and Olympic rings....however the colors of the rings were changed slightly so that they would represent the colors of the Wordless Book of the Bible. Black (for sin), Red (for Jesus' blood), White (for washing away sin), Yellow (heaven), Green (growing in Christ).

My responsibilities this week included working with crafts, and leading the kids in worship with song. A few of the parents and kids asked me if they could have copies of the music we used, and I told them that I would try to find and post some of the music here on the blog so they could continue to enjoy it the rest of the summer. Also, I took a lot of great photos of the kids this week, so if you would like photos of your kiddos drop me a note and I will be happy to send them your way!

The kids learned a song that helped them remember the wordless book and we sang it a lot throughout the week.  It went:

"My heart was dark with sin,
Until the savior came in.
His precious blood I know,
Will wash me whiter than snow.
And in his word I'm told,
I'll walk the streets of gold.
I'll read my Bible and pray,
And grow with Him every day."

Here is a video off of YouTube where you can hear the tune.

Our First craft for the week was a running shoe that the kids "laced up" using needle and thread, and then decorated and placed a memory verse onto: "Let us run with endurance that race that is set before us, looking onto Jesus" from Hebrews 12. We stuck magnets on the back so the shoe could be displayed on the fridge at home.

Our Second craft was a "magic trick." The kids pounded a nail into the center of a wood block that already had 6 holes woodburned around the outside to hold the six nails needed for the trick.  The nail in the center was to represent Christ dying on the cross, and the six dark holes were to represent sin. The kids were then asked to see if they could balance all six of their nails on the nail in the center without having any of them touch the ground. We let them try for a couple of minutes or until they looked frustrated, and then discussed how it seemed impossible to balance all of the nails without knowing the secret, and how a lot of people think that they can get to heaven just by being a good person, or by doing good things in their life, but just like balancing the nails without knowing the trick it won't work....it is impossible. Then, we taught them the trick of placing the nails in a certain order, lifting them carefully, and placing them all on top of the one nail. We explained that just like there was only one way to balance the nails, there is only one way to get to heaven....by confessing our sins to Jesus, and letting him carry them all to the cross for us, and trusting in Him and what He has done for us.
The kids really enjoyed this lesson because it feels like all of the nails are going to come crashing down when you place them on the nail to balance, you have to trust that the trick will work,  and a lot of them said they could really grasp the analogy and feel what we meant by "trust" and "letting go."  Th ekids also enjoyed experimenting to see how many nails they could balance at one time...I think the record was 20! This craft also came with the 5 colored rings of the Wordless Book, and we took off all of the nails but the center one, and played ring toss with it while singing our Wordless Book song. The kids would throw each ring when that color came up while we sang and we would see who could get the most rings onto their nail each round.

My crafty partner and I had a funny conversation before we began  our third craft....it went somthing like this:

She said: "Sarah, I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow we are going to make pendants."

 I said: "Oh, I didn't know we were making necklaces?"

She said: "No...we aren't making.....well, maybe I said it wrong, we are making Penance."

I said: "What are you talking about? Penance is somthing you say in Catholic church after you've sinned?"

She said (with exasperation in her voice): "Oh...let me just show you!!!!!"

I said: "Ohhhhh, we are making Pennants!!!"

WE BOTH SAID AT THE SAME TIME: "Let's just call them flags!!!!"

 heheheeh this conversation still makes me laugh....you would have had to be there....

anyways, here are our flags...

Our fourth craft was gold medals with a 3D cross in the center, leather cord for the necklace, and beads on each side representing the colors of the Wordless Book. This was an easy craft to make. The base was circles made out of cardboard from cereal boxes. Then we glued crosses also cut from cardboard onto the circles. Then gold foil was placed over the cross an wrapped around the back of the circles. The kids used their fingers to rub around the crosses on top of the foil until they really stood out. Then they punched holes at the top, ran their cord through, and strung each side with beads. We also had time for most of the kids to make bracelets with Wordless Book colored beads.

Our Fifth and Final craft was crowns made out of craft foam, with a thorny crown made out of wreath, and rings representing the colors of the Wordless book. The gold crown was to remind the kids that Jesus is the King of Kings, and the thorny crown to remind them of His sacrifice. They really had fun adding all of the jewels and trimmings. We stuck magnets on the back so the crown could go up on the fridge with the shoe they made the first day.

 There was a lot more going on at VBS than just crafts...there were bible lessons, outdoor activities and games, videos about real olympians competing in London, Bible stories, learning memory verses,  snacks etc. Here are just a few pics:

MUSIC WORSHIP:
We all had a blast singing and dancing to our music this week. Below I have posted links to YouTube videos of some of the music we used so that we can continue to enjoy this great music. Enjoy!!!

 

HERE ARE A COUPLE OF VIDEOS THAT I  FOUND THAT I THINK ARE REALLY MOVING. WE DIDN'T GET THE CHANCE TO USE THEM IN OUR VBS, BUT THEY GO WITH OUR THEME AND YOU MIGHT REALLY ENJOY THEM:

What a great week! Autumn, Alaina and I are very thankful to all of the other volunteers who helped and kids who attended the week! What a blessing! Now we are even more pumped up for the Olympics to begin because this year it will hold extra meaning for us!!!!