Planning for next year's VBS has begun!

...and a new layout!

Slimed!

One more year of VBS complete

Tonight was the closing PowerLab Celebration Program and I have to say it was a night I will not soon forget. The children shared the songs they learned this week that I hope will help them to remember how powerful God can be in their lives. Will did a wonderful job with the children, leading them and really getting into the motions. Brent was the best Professor Wilbur around, I am sure. I kind of think Craig and Mark enjoy being CC and MJ a little too much, don't you agree? Many thanks to Casey, Kim, and Carolyn for keeping the children occupied and ready until it was time for them to enter the stage. I apologize if I am forgetting people, which I am certain I am. I also want to thank Anne, Nacole, Trip and Rebecca for helping with the final part of the program...the sliming. I think.

Ah, yes, the sliming. At the end of the program, Anne revealed the final offering count for the week, including (1) the offering of the children, (2) the offering of a donor who agreed to match the children's offering if all four slime candidates agreed to be slimed, and (3) the parent's offering. The grand total was $2,560 which will pay for 16 children to go to Discovery Camp this summer. Even though that slime was ooey, gooey, sticky and cold...it was worth it to be able to be a part of giving a child the opportunity to let Jesus be the Lord and Saviour of their life. Many thanks to Jenny Dean, Will Reese, and Brent Speer for joining me in the sliming...in the baby pools...on the stage of the Worship Center...in front off all those people, forever remembered in photographs and videos. Perhaps someone will send me some of those photos so I can post them here because I didn't get any pictures since I WAS GETTING SLIMED!

Yes, it was yet another successful and fun week of Vacation Bible School at the Mulder Church. We had 160 children and 144 volunteers grace our halls this week during PowerLab. I need to stop being surprised with all the help I get from the congregation (and community) during VBS. It is a great place to be to have a good time learning about our awesome God!

But, it isn't the end...just the beginning of planning for next year's VBS!

Day 5 complete!

Get up and tell the world about Jesus! That is what we left our kids with tonight on our last night of Power Lab VBS. I pray that all of the kids left with an excitement for the Gospel and for living it out in their actions, including telling others. I think we had around 117 children tonight and have no clue how many volunteers.
I pray that all of the children that came to VBS will come back tomorrow night with their families for our closing PowerLab Celebration Program.

We ended the night with the results from our Camp Discovery Missions offering. Thank you to all of the adults who so willingly stuff our kids pockets and give them the opportunity to give. We made the offering a fun competition, but I do hope that all of the kids and adults understand that our offering is our opportunity to give back to God for what He has so richly blessed us with. That being said, last nights reveal showed that $1007 was collected to help send 6 children from inner-city Mobile to Camp Discovery at Blue Lake this summer! Of course, it also showed that I was the chosen one to be slimed! I cannot wait...and I hope to have someone join me in the sliming tomorrow night after the parents get their opportunity to try to match the children's offerings.

Several of our volunteers have been taking pictures all week and I plan to put together a slide show to play tomorrow night during the hot dog picnic in Carter Hall.

Thank you all for your help and support this week. It was a great week and one that I will not soon forget! But, it is not over yet. Everyone come on out tomorrow night for our grand finale. Please have your children in the craft rooms behind the Worship Center by 5:45 PM so they can line up to be ready for the program that will start at 6 PM. The children have worked hard this week to learn these songs that I hope will help keep the Bible Points in their heads and hearts for years to come.

Live Forever Formula

Night 4 of Power Lab VBS brought us 121 children (and 117 workers) that had the opportunity to clearly hear the Gospel of Christ. Everything we did was with the intention of showing and telling the children that there is someone more powerful than all the things around us.

Professor Wilbur returned tonight and tried to show us some Live Forever formula he has concocted...but we learned that only Jesus Gives us the Power to Live Forever! AHA!

Please pray for all of our children that heard the Gospel tonight. Pray that the seeds planted in their hearts yet again will be watered and nurtured until they reach maturity.

I look forward to seeing all those bright and shining faces again tomorrow night!

We need some help

We really need a few people (no children, please) to stay after the VBS program on Thursday night or to come in Friday during the day to help us move tables and chairs in preparation for the Program Friday night.

We also need help after the Program on Friday. We need help to get the church back in spotless condition to be ready for the Worship services on Sunday morning.

Please stop by the Registration desk tonight or Thursday and let us know if you are available any of these times. Thank you in advance for your willingness to serve in this area!

Oh, no, you never let go...

Day 3 is under our belt and I would have to say it was a success! We had two very special visitors tonight during Sonic Sing and Play. Professor Wilbur was busy in his lab tonight, so Special Agents, err, I mean Associate Professors CC and MJ showed up and helped the children to learn how Jesus gives us the power to be brave. AHA! We learned that Jesus gave Peter the courage to walk on water. But, what happened when Peter took His eyes off of Jesus? He sank...just like we do when we take our eyes off of Jesus. Aren't you thankful that He never let go of you! I know I am.

We had 128 children and 120 workers tonight! AHA! For the past few years, Day 3 has always been our least-attended night and this year continued that pattern. We are so blessed to have so many people who want to come out and help during VBS. I am told this is not the case at all churches.

Bible blast looked like a blast and Dan is doing an incredible job telling the story every night. I love that the children don't just hear a Bible Story, they participate in it as well.

We are still encouraging the children to choose a slime candidate with their mission offerings. Tonight, Desi assisted me in garnishing more support to be slimed. I am determined to beat out Jenny for this honor. I have always wanted green slime oozing down my chin.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers.

Day Two Complete!

Well we made it thru day 2! Day 2 went very smoothly thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who showed up to help. We had 135 children and 117 workers! AHA! I was able to make it to a few more stations tonight to see all the fun the children were having. I was amazed at how quiet and under control the preschoolers were at their Wacky Works crafts tonight. Miss Valerie and Miss Sandy have some amazing powers in that room! The Preschoolers are doing very very well and seem to be having a wonderful time. Professor Squeaky Beaker (aka Miss Anne) definitely has her Lab under control.

On night 2 we learned that Jesus gives us the Power to help others! AHA! We learned Romans 12:13 "When God's people are in need, be ready to help them." We also learned that Jesus gave sight to a blind man. One of the favorite songs of the night was Amazing Grace...the souped up version! I hope and pray that our kids are starting to make connections between all aspects of worship. They may not realize how it all ties in, but by constantly repeating our Bible point, learning a Bible verse, plus hearing the powerful stories from the Bible about the great things Jesus has done will help bring it together for them. I hope that these things all work together as they form relationships with their Saviour. And for those that don't yet know Christ as their Lord and Saviour, I pray that everyday these things are seeds that are planted in their hearts.

I am really looking forward to Tuesday night as we seem to have worked out most of the kinks.

The children seem to be excited about our mission project. Well, they may actually be a little more excited about HOW we are raising money to support the project. We have 4 large water bottles on the stage steps -- one for each of four candidates: Jenny D., Will R., Brent S. (aka Professor Wilbur), and yours truly. The children are choosing who gets SLIMED based upon which water bottle gets the most money. I am a bit concerned, as a certain someone wrote a large check and dropped it in my water bottle!! But, Jenny D. seems to have a marketing strategy to ensure she gets slimed. Go figure. ;)

If you are working at VBS, THANK YOU! Everyone is doing a great job. If you are not working, stop by and see what is going on.

Day One complete!

Jesus gives us the Power to be Thankful! AHA!

I am thankful for a smooth day. I planned to blog about it last night when the day was over, but I came home and was just too tired to even blog:) I am happy to report that we had almost as many volunteers (135) as children, which is never a bad problem on opening night. We had 137 children in all and I anticipate even more tonight.

All of the Station leaders are reporting good nights and I imagine that as the week wears on they will become great nights! I didn't get to make it to all of the stations last night, but I think I will have more time to do just that. Thanks to Clark Dorsey and Pam Bergmann for taking some great pictures of the fun we had last night. I will try to take some pictures with my camera tonight that I can bring home and post tomorrow.

Please continue to pray for our kids. Power Lab is a wonderful stepping stone in our kids lives to teach not only about Jesus and His miraculous Power, but how they can realistically live out His power through them. I believe VBS is just another seed that is planted in our kids lives that point them towards Godliness. In 10 years they may not remember every story, every craft, or every teaching moment, but I pray that they will remember VBS as a time that they really began to understand and participate in worshiping their Saviour and learning more about Him.

We begin tonight at 5:50...hope to see you there!

Decorating Day!

Thanks to all the folks who showed up to help us start the serious decorating: Jenny Dean, Debra Hamilton, Casey Hudson, Lauren Adam, Vicky Hollenbeck, Kim and Brent Speer, Wendy and Brittany McCartney, Jean and Sidney Bing, Taylor Stewart, Lee and Abby Carter, Barbara Brown, Valerie Dixon and Sandy Smith. I hope I didn't forget anyone!

119 and counting?

Registrations just keep flowing in at a steady pace. I am so grateful to all the parents who have helped by pre-registering their children this year. It will make check-in go ever-so-smoothly...and I know our registration mavens will be appreciative of that fact:)

I finished up the crewbag tags and printed the volunteer nametags earlier this morning. Our VBS decorator extraordinaire, Jenny Dean, suggested some additional decorations for the hallways that I hope will come to fruition...still working out the logistics.

Kim & Courtney Wallace finished up putting the tags on the suncatcher crafts. Thanks! Casey Hudson will be calling crew leaders over the next few days to remind them of their assignments:) Thanks, Casey!

112 and counting...

We are now at 112 children pre-registered and will be closing online registration on this Friday, June 6. This does not mean we are closing registration, just the online version. This will give us the transfer time necessary to move over to manual registration on Sunday evening. We will still have registration forms available at the Welcome Center outside of the Worship Center on Sunday morning.

More great volunteers

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Ken Hollenbeck and Ray Wall for the hours they spent in the hot sun today setting our Blue Ridge Mountain water bottles with concrete and PVC pipe to be used to hold our information and direction signs. Because of their willingness to help, I was able to finish printing out the signs to go on the pipe and the crew bag tags just in time before I needed to head back home to be Mom again.

Thanks also are due to Brent Speer who has agreed to a last minute 'cast' change for our opening skit:)

I also must thank my daughter, Lauren, for entertaining her brothers for a few hours while I got a little more work done at home this afternoon.

I want to share an off-topic subject. I am thrilled to report that my son, Max, has decided that he wants to be baptized. We are planning on a Father's Day baptism!

Decorating Divas

Thanks to our creative Decorating Divas who showed up this morning to help get started with the backdrops and other necessary administrative preparations: Jenny Dean, Kim Wallace, Anne Payne, Kim Speer, Debra Hamilton, Sandy Smith, Casey Hudson and I think Michelle Meeks may have sneaked in at some point -- along with a handful of children who joined in service:)

Jenny, Anne and Kim W. made a huge dent in the stage 'laboratory' backdrops, Debra made a cool DNA strand, Kim S. took a hold of prepping more crafts, Sandy S. created some cool gears, Casey laminated hundreds of trading cards and Michelle finished up some science fair boards.

Tomorrow's plan of attack: (1) concrete & PVC pipes in the Blue Ridge Mountain Water bottles as our sign bases (with the assistance of Ken H. and Ray W.) and (2) finish up the laminating of the trading cards and start on the signs for the water bottles.

Breaking 100

As of tonight, we have 105 children registered and I think we have enough crew leaders to handle 105 more. Thanks to all the newly registered volunteers!

We still need a few more volunteers to help with Snack Oversight and Transport. These people are needed from 5-6 pm only. After that time, they are more than welcome to stay and help in other areas, or they may leave.

Come on out and help on Tuesday

Do not forget that this coming Tuesday, June 3, we will be meeting at the church to work on decorations from 9 am - noon. Meet downstairs in the nursery area. Tuesday is also voting day, so be prepared for a full parking lot. Just enter through the downstairs doors and head through the double doors on your left into the nursery hallway. Just listen for the sound of people having fun and you will find us:)

Busy, busy, busy

We had good luck with registrations at church Sunday morning and are now up to 92 children pre-registered. Many thanks to Vicki Jackson for helping with the registration table!

Some last minute chores before VBS starts in TWELVE DAYS are:

1. Finishing the prep work on the crafts
2. Start work on prepping for decorating
3. Copy, laminate and cut Bible Buddy Trading Cards
4. Finalize and copy Bible Story pages
5. Decorating Day on Saturday, June 7 from 9 am until we finish. Pizza provided for lunch to those who come!
6. Wait for last part of order of Science Kit from Group Publishing
7. Wait for nametags and laminating sheets order
8. Find crew leader bags hiding in the Supply Closet
9. Create, print, laminate and trim Schedule tags for crew leader bags

If you can help with any of these activities, please let us know:) Thank you in advance for your willingness to volunteer!

Wow!

We have 75 children pre-registered and over 100 volunteers registered as of today. Many thanks to you all! We still need some help in the following areas:

Snack supper oversight and transport
Registration
Prayer

Aha!

I was so happy to see so many volunteers show up for our training last night. My closest estimate of the number of attendees is 65! Other than 'experiencing some technical difficulties' when I learned that the bulb was blown on the projector system (putting the kaibash on watching the DVD or seeing any of the slides I had put together), it was a pretty successful evening.

One of the items we practiced was our "Aha!". That is the response that we will teach the children to say each time anyone says the Bible Point during VBS week. I do not believe it is a coincidence, but a "God-incidence" that part of my bible reading today was Psalm 35. I got a huge smile on my face while I was reading it this morning. Here is a portion of verse 21 from the New Living Translation:

"They shout, 'Aha! Aha!'... "

What a perfect way to begin my day and week. Praise God for all his many blessings!

Training Session

I hope everyone that can makes their way downstairs to Carter Hall tomorrow night from 6-7 pm for our VBS Training Session. I will do my best to get straight to the points and get finished as soon as possible. I finished up the manuals tonight and will also have them available for anyone unable to attend tomorrow night's meeting.

Our t-shirts have arrived and will be available tomorrow night. I think you will like them as much as I do. Many thanks to Luckie Graphics for giving us such a wonderful price. It would have been unaffordable to have such nice, colorful shirts without their giving spirit.

Pre-registration Update

Today we had our 40th participant pre-register. I know there are many children in the church who have not yet pre-registered. Please encourage anyone you see this Sunday to register their children. They may register online at the link to the right OR there will be a pre-registration table set up Sunday morning in the Foyer outside of the Worship Center upstairs.

The more pre-registrations we have, the smoother life will be for us all on Sunday night, June 8!

Mulder Youth are great

We have such a huge response from our Youth who want to be crew leaders this year. I have just been so blessed by each of them as they have volunteered to serve the community through helping with VBS. I am starting to think we are actually going to be prepared for 300 children after all!

Thank you, Casey!

My sweet friend (and nursery coordinator extraordinaire), Casey Hudson, made a few calls today and drummed up some more volunteers! I see a light at the end of the tunnel and a load off of my shoulders. Thank you, Casey!!

What a wonderful group of people make up our church. I am just amazed at the fact that we have 92 people who have volunteered to help with VBS this year and we have over 3 weeks left before it begins.

God is so good:)

Look at our volunteer list...

We still need a minimum of 20 more people to serve as crew leaders.

Registrations

We have 28 children registered and 80 volunteers to help. Now, I do not want this information make you think we do not need your help. Although we only have 28 children registered today, we may have over 200 registered by the end of the day on June 8. We must be prepared to minister to those children. Last year we had 125 volunteers. We need at least that many, if not more by June 8.

Percentages

We need crew leaders. Right now, our elementary crew leader positions are almost 50% filled and our preschool crew leader positions are only 33% filled. So, if you have not already volunteered, be prepared for a phone call soon:)

Items needed...do you have them?

Lab Coats
One clothes rack
Microscopes
Scales (food or lab)
Beakers
Jars
Test tubes
Goggles
Periodic Table

If you have any of these items, please comment here and bring the items to the church anytime after Wednesday, June 4.

Online Registration

We have 22 children pre-registered as of today! Many thanks to the parents who are pre-registering, especially through the website (see link on the right ----->).

Stressed out much?

Please pray for me. I need each and every person who reads this blog to pray for me every day between now and June 13 (of course, you can continue after that date, too, if you would like!). I have the tendency to get a little bit stressed out this time of year (Barb is probably chuckling at the 'little bit' comment). It hit me today that VBS starts in FIVE WEEKS! AAAAaaaaaccccckkkkkk!!!!!!

...and I still need a whole lot more crew leaders. ALOT. If you know anyone in the church who is not listed in the volunteer column on the right, please encourage them to volunteer this year. It would mean the world to me.

Part of me absolutely loves the planning and seeing everything come together for a great week of VBS. The other part of me just wants to run away and hide and let somebody else pick up the pieces.

Pray that the first part comes through this year. Thank you!

Registration

Registration forms are now available at the Visitor Center upstairs by the Worship Center for those who choose not to registration online. I encourage everyone who can to use the online registration if at all possible. The link is to the right above the Power Lab logo.

More volunteers

Thanks to the following gracious folks who agreed to volunteer during VBS:

Boyd and Carrie Taylor
Camden Smith
Betty Firman
Glenda Ray
Ahna and Buster Baggett
Kay Kirtland
Barry and Kathy Corbman
Rebecca Corbman
Lauren Adam
Jennifer and Jason Trippe
Leigh Walker
Carol Rattan
John Dean

New volunteers:)

Thanks to Mark and Misty Lampman who have volunteered to help with elementary crafts!

T-shirt update

Met with Susan at Luckie Graphics and okayed the final logo information for the t-shirts. The new Slapstick font is perfect for the tag line:) Susan was so nice, as usual, and even showed me how they screen print the shirts with the 5 colors. Don't forget to support this local business!

I also met with Mike at Play at Home to start the arrangements to rent several of their inflatables for the Friday night celebration. Ken Pogue from Mulder works with Mike at their new business located in the old Ox Yoke restaurant site. They were great to deal with when we rented inflatables from them for our Easter Egg Hunt in March.

Fonts and crew names

I found some cool new fonts to use that match up great with the Power Lab logo fonts. I forwarded that information to Luckie Graphics to use with our church name information on the T-shirts.

I also finalized the names of our crews. Our Squeaky Beaker preschoolers will be divided into the Red Moons, Yellow Suns, and Blue Planets. Our Power Lab elementary crews will be Atoms (K), Molecules (1st), Protons (2nd), Neutrons (3rd), Electrons (4th) and Nucleons (5th).

I am still searching the web for the Cinema Science Kits for our Chadder stations. The Group Outlets is out of stock. I found a company in Canada that may have them. Say a prayer!

Banner Update

I dropped off the VBS Banner (that will be posted at the corner of Firetower and Redland roads) at Luckie Graphics to get the dates changed. I also found the larger "Welcome to VBS at the Mulder Church" banner that had been missing for awhile. I happened to mention to Barb at the church office that I couldn't find it. She said, "Hmmm...I wonder if it is that banner that had been in the conference room. It's in the worship closet...here's my keys." Sure enough, it was the missing banner. Praise the Lord! I will be ordering one smaller outdoors banner from Group that we will put out front until VBS begins, then move inside to use as part of the stage decor.

Planning Meeting

A group of eleven wonderful women showed up for our planning meeting this afternoon. We met in our new conference room. If you have not had the opportunity to check out the new digs upstairs, make sure to stop by soon. It was such a nice, comfortable environment to brainstorm some ideas for Power Lab.

We had a consensus to drop the Games station this year in order to include the Cinema Science (Chadder) station. There are so many positive reasons for holding our VBS in the evenings, but one thing that is not so great is that our time is more limited than if we held it during the day. We have to cut out much of the curriculum to trim it down to fit in a two hour session.

I also shared with those who attended that we are planning for, gulp, 225 K-5th graders and 75 preschoolers. I think Anne Payne may have swallowed her gum with that last part;)

Shirts

This is kind of scary. I ordered 359 shirts today.

Last year we ordered white shirts to keep our costs down and spent around $1400. I have heard from many folks from other churches who are amazed that we give away our VBS shirts. Most everyone else charges for their shirts. . I have been a little nervous about ordering shirts, because I knew we were going to have to almost double our t-shirt order.

We got our shirts from Luckie Graphics here in Wetumpka last year because I decided we should support local businesses instead of going to Montgomery. The owner was wonderful to work with last year...a real gem. Last week I drove by their shop and saw a sign out front that made me cringe: New Owner, Under New Management. Ruh-roh, I thought. There goes our deal on changing out our dates on our banners. After a few days, I decided to stop by and check them out.

Then, God got my attention and reminded me just how great he is.

The new owner, Susan Guy, was a peppy, sweet Christian woman who informed me that the Lord brought this business to her and that, for ministries, she only charges her cost.

Our shirts are going to be great. They will be lime green with a 5-color picture of the Power Lab graphic (as shown on right) on the front, along with our church information. We will get this all for less than $2000.

Yay, God!

new blog

I saw where another church blogged about their preparations for VBS and thought, "I can do that!". And, so, voila!