Friday, June 10, 2011

VBS 2011 Panda Mania Hope CC

We just finished a week of Vacation Bible School at church. Luke and I worked as crew leaders and the other three boys participated as crew members. I just wanted to write down some of the amazing stories the kids learned about and what the leaders did to reinforce them. There was such creativity and love for the kids to hear the truth and remember.

On day one the Bible point was "God made you." The Bible story was the creation. Each crew was given a sack. In the sack were items that represented a certain day of creation. The kids got to use the props and act out what day they were.

On day two the Bible point was "God listens to you." The story was of Elijah VS the prophets of Baal. To demonstrate the story they had a kiddie pool filled with gravel and big rocks. The kids spread out the gravel then built an alter with the rocks. Sticks were laid. We couldn't exactly kill a bull, so something very important to the kids was to be sacrificed instead. It was a Hershey chocolate bar. The kids went nuts! . Then water was poured over all three times. And of course we couldn't really set a fire. A great helper stormed in dressed as a firefighter saying how when Elijah prayed God went a pillar of fire so hot it burned up everything and MELTED the stones. This was all after the Baal prophets had no luck getting their "god" to bring fire. The One True God listens.

On day three the point was "God watches over you." The story was Jonah and the big fish. The drama team made a belly of a fish with giant trash bags inflated with fans that about 25 kids and leaders could all go in. The fans were also blowing the scent of an open can of sardines! Even in the belly of a whale, God watched over Jonah.

On day four the point was "God loves you, no matter what!" The story was of Peter denying Jesus, his best friend. One of the church staff dressed up as Peter and talked about how terrible he felt. At the ending, another staffer dressed up as Jesus and hugged him, forgiving him. Jesus still loved him no matter, and He still loves us no matter what.

Day five the point was "God gives good gifts". The story was of Hannah. The drama team divided the crew leaders from the kids. The leaders were Pininnah, and the kids were Hannah. These two women were both the wives of Elkanah. P had lots of kids, H had none. So the leaders got lots of candy, the kids none. Then the kids each got 1 piece of candy. But then gave it back because H gave Samuel back to God. Then God blessed her with more children.

It was a great week. The leadership team did an amazing job with lots of hard work and prayer. The competition of boys vs girls with raising $ for missions was very intense. One day boys were ahead, the next the girls were ahead. All together the kids raised $1400!! The money will be divided between an India Missions League providing Indian children their own Bible club and discipleship and a missionary in Haiti who just opened an orphanage.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Banana Pops!



My friend Gwen recently shared these amazingly easy delicious treats on her blog. We made them a couple weeks ago and the only reason we haven't again is because I need to grocery shop.

Take a bunch of bananas, peel them and cut in half. Into the bottom of each half, insert a Popsicle stick. Then lay on a wax paper lined baking sheet. Freeze for a few hours.



When then bananas are frozen, make the dip. This is 1/2 cup melted coconut oil, 1/4 cup honey, and 1/4 cup coco powder. Feel free to double if you have a lot of bananas. I had 12 halves and the amount came out just right.



You can also have different roll-ins. All I had at the time was shredded coconut and chopped almonds. You could also use sprinkles, other nuts, mini chocolate chips...


So working quickly, dip the frozen banana in the chocolate sauce then roll in the toppings. The sauce hardens very fast once on the bananas. It also makes a great ice cream sauce!




I hope you will try these with your kids this summer! They'll love the entire process and it is a healthy cool treat to boot!





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