Vacation Bible School 2010! "Joseph's Journey: From Prison to Palace" was our theme this year. The church was turned into EGPYT for the children by the amazing vision and dedication of our Faith Formation Minister of Children's Education, Rit Vogel. She is so awesome at bringing an idea to fruition and making it meaningful, purposeful, and Biblical! Welcome to Egypt! Shiny gold paint is awesome! The custodians loved us...sand on the floor! "Hip, Hip, Hip, Hippopotamus... Hip, hip, hooray, God Loves VBS!" Rit found the design, traced it onto a mural, and a bunch of us painted it. See what I mean about bringing an idea to life!? Too cool. Yet another amazingly colorful mural! DUCK! (where?) In the photo! Apparently, dead ducks were common in Egypt. Didn't know that. Do you like my grapes? Too bad you can't see the tri-color depth I added. Yum. The kiddos got to walk under this upon entering the Great Hall! Welcome to Egypt! Two of the many Egyptian gods. We taught the kids lots about how Egyptians believed in many gods, yet Joseph believed in the ONE true God! Cellophane + fan + light = FIRE! Only because we all adore Rit is a photo of a sn*** on this blog. She worked so hard to bring this multi-layered, slithering beast to life! Being the Celebration Leader certainly had its perks: check out my bling! ...and my headpiece... ...and the eye make-up! Ta-da! Brenda-patra in Egypt! The Marketplace: PVC pipe holding up all these colorful pieces of fabric to create an open-marketplace feel. Different stations, including basket-weaving, jewelry, hieroglyphics, etc. VBS rocks. All the adults and teen leaders were dressed up, too! Check out the urns! A water bottle fits inside! One of our blankets for the Operation Kid to Kid, where blankets were tied and will be sent to children in Africa. The Music Room was a vineyard this year. Minus the wine, of course. Hanging grapes and all! "...there will never be another..." "You are the One True God..." "...You raise me high and lift me up..." So sad this is blurry, but so happy to be dancing with Brooke! Each day, four characters explained what we were learning about for the day. Bible verses, lessons, and the main point. The 5 days included: hope, special abilities, wisdom, forgiveness, and family. You can also see our pyramid of God Sightings, where the kids used bricks to list places where they had seen God throughout their day. The kids were divided into Egyptian families this year, mixing up the age levels. It was great to see the leadership of the older kids - lots of little ones naturally paired with their older 'brothers and sisters' for the week. A God Sighting, for sure! The picture is perfectly creepy. Here's Joseph, still in the prison. Yeah! Joseph made it to the Palace! Huge celebration on Friday, with parents encircling the room, blankets being blessed, and 140+ children happily singing and dancing those wonderful VBS songs that stay in your head all year long! An energizing, exhausting and completely exhilarating Egyptian adventure! I can't wait for next year!