This years VBS theme was “Upward Bound.” Once again I was on the skit team for the start of the day and did the fundraising information for at the end of the day. Just like last year, the girls got a kick out of coming early and seeing us rehearse the skit. Nadia especially liked knowing what was going to happen in advance. I was a puppet names Molly and our Youth Pastor Jacob was a puppet named Calvin. Pastor Darwin was Dunbar the Mountain Goat and Ian was Timothy the wanna-be goat herder.
The girls had a wonderful time with their friends and learning about God and following the “guidebook.” Nadia told me each day that I did a great job as the puppet and mid- week she asked me to come see her in crafts each day to take a photo.
It was fun, fun, fun!!! And by the end we were all tired, tired, tired. The best part of the week was telling the kids about the 2 children we were going to try and sponsor for a year. Rose from Bangladesh for the girls and Clerson from Haiti for the boys. The kids broke a record and raised a combined $768!!!!! The grown ups made up the last little bit to get them a full year. It was wonderful and I was brought to tears many times by the stories the kids told me about how they raised the money for the kids. This year I think it meant a lot to them that it was real kids that they could learn about that the money was going too. It was VERY exciting.
And one day this week Nadia said she wanted to “work for real” to earn money to help Rose. Mike had her working for a full hour. She swept the front and back patio and then sprayed the back patio & patio furniture down with the hose. She was sweating and guzzling water and saying it was so hard. But she kept at it and we used that time to remind her that most of the kids in the world don’t have the life she has and that MANY children work hours and hours everyday. Mike paid her $8 and told her she could do whatever she wanted with it. She kept .50 and said the rest should go to help the little girl Rose. *proud parents here*
Nadia said that the singing and dancing was her favorite thing for the week. Amelie said playing a game in her class was her favorite.