Today was the first day at VBS and I have to say, I was very excited to finally meet the kids and start getting to know them. I sat at the front gate with Allie and did registration for the kids. One of the little boys who came up with his dad was Tristan. Tristan is five years old, is about 4 feet tall, and has big brown eyes and glasses. He was so cute and happy to be at VBS! After talking to him and his dad for awhile I learned that they were from Austria and spoke German. That made me so happy because I can speak German, but I don’t have any friends that can speak it with me. So I got to talk to Tristan in German and I think that made him feel better about leaving his dad to hang out with a bunch of strange kids for the day.
I also saw two of the kids that were in my group last year that I remembered and I was so glad they came. One girl, Kenesiah, had been at the Sunday night service we had last night at the church and when I asked her if she was coming again this year she told me she probably wasn’t. She didn’t say why, but I figured she probably had a good reason. I was still sad though. But when I got here today, she and her brother Kevaughn showed up right on time, and I was so happy. That was an indication to me that this week was going to be a good week. Despite some of the set backs we had getting here, things were only going to get better from this point on. And they did! We had a great first day of VBS and the kids, young and old, all had a great time. Afterwards, we were supposed to go paint a community center, but since no one was there, our plans changed and we ended up spending the afternoon snorkeling as a group at Hawk’s Nest Beach. That proved to be quite tiresome, but it was totally worth it because we saw a shark, two stingrays, and a sea turtle! It was so neat just to be right in the middle of one of God’s amazing creations and experience it upclose. After the beach we went to dinner to celebrate John’s birthday (won’t say which one). I’m looking forward to tomorrow because I want to see how the kids respond to us and what we’re telling them about Jesus, because that is really all that matters on this trip.
Hey Julie,
ReplyDeleteThe last sentence you wrote on this post made me clap my hands and shout amen! I'm glad you are on this trip!
I wanted to leave you with some sciptures before tomorrow. You're all in my prayers!
-"All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth." (Colossians 1:6)
-"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction" (2 Timothy 4:2)