Back To School

In the next few days, kids from this neck of the woods will be walking into those hallowed halls of learning. I don't have children of my own, but I know lots of children - my nephews and the kids at the church and many of them are not happy about this development. Where did summer go? Only three months ago, summer lay out before them like a carpet. Months of free time to sleep late, stay up late, show up late for supper and generally be carefree. Already the alarms are set and bedtime has reared it's ugly head. Parents are trying to get kids back "into a routine". To this I quote a well know poet, "Rage against the dying of the light!"
I have noticed that when my alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m., it's barely sunrise. It was so much easier to face the day when the sun greeted you in the morning. Now I have to crawl out of the nest while it's still night time. Not fair. Oh, but I digress...
The back-to-school sales have been going strong since mid-July and the big box store I visited last week had nary a stapler left for the stragglers. I used to love buying school supplies. Ok, truth be told, I still love buying school supplies. Fresh new pens, blank notebooks ready for your most profound thoughts and mindless doodles. My mother would take me school shopping for clothes and shoes as I had "grown like a weed" over the summer. I loved the thought of wearing my new outfits to school and being in fashion for a week or two before styles changed again.
Most kids really love their backpacks. They can't wait to choose their back ornaments for a new year. Will it be Hannah Montana, Spiderman or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? The choices are endless. Backpacks have gone hi-tech since I was a kid. Now they have handles and wheels to roll them along so as not to cripple the small child schlepping their homework home. Super cool!
This time of year always makes me want to put on sweaters and go to football games. I was a varsity football cheerleader in high school and always enjoyed cheering on the crisp fall Friday nights. I've taken in a couple of Mandan High School football games and they are fun. Homecoming is the best. The handsome Homecoming King and beautiful Homecoming Queen mark out at half-time. He's usually in his football jersey and she's in a dress that much to tiny for the cool fall weather.
I remember my first day of kindergarten. I was excited and scared as we walked into the big building filled with big people and big kids. I was nervous about getting lost, eating lunch in the cafeteria and finding my way home. By the end of the first week, I was a pro. I knew which water fountain had the coolest water and what side of the playground we could safely play on without getting trampled by the huge sixth graders.
Now that I'm a little older, I love to watch the first day of school scene. The child, excited and nervous, dressed in new jeans and looking very small. The parents , excited and nervous, looking very large in a hallway full of elementary aged children. The parents linger outside the building after they have dropped off their children, just in case. In only 13 short years, those children will be taller than their parents, dressed in a cap and gown. Enjoy those thirteen years. Even the calls in the middle of the morning from the school asking you to retrieve an ill child. Those years will go too quickly.
Drive safely as the children run across the street to greet their friends after a long summer. Watch out for the teary parent as they pull away from the curb after dropping off their baby. Be careful of our new crop of drivers as they navigate the city streets and the high school parking lots. Take a good look, it'll pass in a blink.

The Heart of Worship

Last night, I had the great pleasure of attending a Casting Crowns concert at the Bismarck Civic Center. Casting Crowns is a contemporary Christian band made up mostly of youth workers. They have won many Dove awards, Christian music's highest honor. Of course, being a youth worker myself, I marvel at their ability to tour, write music, spend time with their families AND do youth ministry at their local churches. When I am in the midst of Holy Week, I am lucky some weeks that I keep my pets alive -- and I have lots of help with that!
I am a music lover and am very lucky to attend several concerts a year. My tastes are quite eclectic. In the last year I've seen Fernando Ortega, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman and Third Day. I also enjoy TobyMac, the Newsboys and Veggie Tales. For a couple of years, I got to Life Light, three days of outdoor Christian concerts in the middle of a corn field offered at no cost to those attending. It was amazing to worship with 250,000 people. However, after a weekend of late nights and no showers coupled with an eight hour trip to and from South Dakota, I have bid that Labor Day location farewell.
At the Crowns concert, all of the seating is assigned. All the better for a youth group, I say. No standing in line for two hours to get a good seat. We pulled up to the Civic Center 40 minutes before the concert and walked in to a moderate crowd.
Our first stop was the merchandise tables. Items available included the usual fare - t-shirts, sweatshirts, every CD ever recorded by the band, guitar picks, jewelry and the lead singer's latest book. After picking out an overpriced, but cute t-shirt as a sourvenir, we headed to our seats to await the show.
As we walked into the auditorium, there was a haze in the air. I have experienced that at past concertsand always wondered where the "smoke" came from. Was there an accident with one of the lights? Was the sound check so loud that someone spontaneously combusted? How hot are the nachos?!? This riddle was solved by a fellow concert goer. Apparently the use dry ice fog to enhance the effects of the laser lights. Chalk that up as something learned for today.
I attended the concert with twenty-three youth and adults from my church. We were a jovial crowd, every excited about seeing Casting Crowns again. We saw them last year at the State Fair and they were terrific! Of course, we had been in the hot sun all day, so it was a mellow crowd.
The lights went out, the music blared and then --- there they were! Getting us on our feet and worshipping together. They put up the lyrics on their cool screen so you can sing along. When you are lifting your voices and your hands in worship to our awesome God, you really bridge the gap between Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, youth, adult, child, Dove winning recording artist and casual singer. We all come before God equally.
Mark Hall, the lead singer for Casting Crowns, gave a great testimony and gave the salvation invitation during the concert. He does such a great job of that. Where I fumble for words and worry about getting it right, he just lays it down there. Wow!
Music is one of the ways that I connect with God. As the concert went on, I felt like I was being renewed and refreshed to go back out into the world to witness to others about our amazing God.
When the encore had been sung and we headed toward the door, I thought back over my Sunday Sabbath. I sang in church with our other song leaders, which I love to do. We are leading some new songs and there is always strength in numbers. I have to say that we sounded pretty good from where I was standing. Maybe not "Dove award" caliber quite yet, but add some dry ice and you'd hardly know the difference. Our praises sound just as sweet to God. And He's the only one who matters.

On The Peak

As I stood surveying the empty sanctuary on Sunday, I marveled at how quickly our week of Vacation Bible School had went. Wasn't it just last week that we were frantically cutting out lily pads and searching for matzo crackers?!? It seemed to zoom by and I am left in a small debris field with a smile.
Our theme for the week was Crocodile Dock where fearless kids shine God's light. The setting was a bayou with lots of fishing equipment and, in a surprise appearance, a nine foot crocodile we named Ed. The volume for the week was very loud and the smiles were high voltage.
We were blessed with 36 kids last week - a record attendance in my ministry at Mandan UMC. I always plan for 40 and came pretty close to scrambling for supplies after the first night. No one is complaining -- it's wonderful to have a preschool class of ten children and have only three of them from Mandan UMC. At one point, I had about five of them lined up at my work table with their baby teeth grins telling me about Moses and the burning bush. Many of them had a firmer grasp of the story than some adults I know. This conversation declined into a jumping contest. "Look how high I can jump." "I can jump higher, see?" "Are you watching?" I am still smiling as I replay that moment in my mind.
Most of the adults worked a forty hour week in addition to the almost four hours of vacation bible school they led each night. By Thursday, my merry band of leaders were not so very merry. They were tired and looked a little rough around the edges. However, they did rebound during worship and did the actions to every song with enthusiasm that hid their fatigue. I have an amazing group of volunteers!! They do childrens' ministry because they love these children. Telling the story about Jesus' love for all of God's children is such a privilege; I often think if more people figured that out, I'd be out of a job!
We did experience some technical difficulty during the week, but our crack team of experts had it fixed in no time. I truly believe God wanted us to remember who was in charge ~ Him! The Thursday night story always includes the salvation message. This is probably one of the most important things I will ever do. I really prayed that I would get it right. Looking over my notes ten minutes before going into worship on Thursday night, I knew that something was lacking. Closing myself in the office for a bit of one-on-one with God, I asked for His words. Standing in front of the lit cross praying we wouldn't blow a curcuit or burn down the building, I knew that God would be honored that night, regardless of what I did. I wasn't disappointed.
Friday night finished with a flourish as we crossed the Red Sea and everyone hustled home for some well deserved sleep. Some of us went for a "DQ debriefing" and enjoyed a bit of ice cream while unwinding. I was sad. It had been a great week and I would miss it. When the DQ people started to lock up, we dispersed into the night, visions of sleeping late Saturday dancing in our heads.
Sunday morning, we celebrated our VBS closing worship. The little ones showed up in their pretty sundresses and sandals. The teenagers showed up sleep deprivated and a little giddy. I was, very surprisingly, cool, calm and collected. Very seldom do I ever hit any one of these on a given Sunday, but God was with me that day! We had a great attendance. As the kids rocked out to our new songs and the congregation caught glimpses of our week in the Power Point presentation, I gave thanks to God for using someone like me to do this amazing ministry. Who deserves this much? My cup runneth over!
As the last decorations were taken down and Ed was carried to his next destination, I stood on the summit, my heart took a picture and I started my climb back to reality and routine. After seeing the awesome sights that God had revealed to me, I know that I will soon be planning next years' journey. Destination: The High Seas. Guess I'll have to trade in my parka for some scuba gear. Does anyone have some adult-sized water wings?!?

VBS ~ Day 1

When climbers attempt to scale Mount Everest , they don't just show up, put on some snowboots, get some rope and head up the mountain. It takes days for the climbers to get acclimated to the altitude. They start at Base Camp and head up Mt. Everest at a gradual pace, spending at least several hours at each camp on the way up the mountain. This gradual pace is meant to assure a safer ascent and a better chance of actually reaching the top of the mountain. In the book, "Into Thin Air", the author tells his story of his climb up Mount Everest. By the time they got to the top, they were so sick from oxygen deprivation and tired from their climb that they took just a couple of minutes to relish the view and have a picture taken before descending. After reading that book, I made a firm pact never to scale anything taller than a peanut buster parfait at the Dairy Queen!
Preparing for Vacation Bible School is sort of like climbing Mount Everest. Preparations began months before the Big Day. Much prayer went into the selection of the curriculum. Volunteers signed up and received their books. Many members of the church family gathered supplies and gave monetary gifts to support this week.
This weekend, we arrived at "Base Camp". Friday night was a Work Night. Over fifteen people came to paint, cut and create decorations and craft items for the VBS week. Of course, where two or three Methodists are gathered, there will be pizza in the midst of them. We had begun our ascent. Sunday we transformed our church into a bayou, complete with a kayak, crocodiles, bobber streamers and a watering hole. It looks amazing. I take credit for nothing! My volunteers are amazing; you ask them to create a scene and they take ownership and create. (I'll try to post some pictures if I can figure out how.)
Yesterday was Monday, the first day of Vacation Bible School. I arrived at the church about 4:45 p.m. to take care of last minute details and meet the volunteers as they arrived. I had been awake quite a bit of the night, going over everything in my mind, too excited to sleep. As the children and adults arrived, there was a buzz in the air. There was a last minute flurry of needed items to be found or small fires to put out.
We begin each night of Bible School with supper. This is a blessing to those of us who have already put in an eight hour work day. It's always a blessing to a good meal and great fellowship. We had a lot of new faces in the supper line. Lots of old friends sharing a wonderful, kid-friendly supper of chicken patties and jello. I always do devotions with the volunteers during supper and take a little time to pray with them. Then, it's time to go to the registration table to greet the VBS crowd.
We had thirty children last night, which is a very good number for us. Nine of those children are preschool aged! Please pray for our preschool teacher. The most amazing thing is only three of those children are members of our church family! They are friends and neighbors of our church family; a couple of families found us through the newspapers advertisements. That's evangelism in action!
The music cranks up and the fun really begins. The kids spend the next two hours playing games, creating crafts, watching a short video about a chimpmunk named Chadder who gets himself into all sorts of adventures, participating in a bible story and singing.
The preschools stopped bythe table I where I was working to say hello toward the end of the evening and their bright smiles and lively chatter was a huge blessing. It's also a huge indicator that they were suffering from an overdose of sugar and it was way past their bedtime. We enjoyed a contest of "look how high I can jump". Can't believe I'm getting paid to do this. I'm lovin' it!!
After the last song was sung and the children, youth and adults bolted for the door on their way to bedtimes and stories, I sat in a chair in the church and savored the blessing that the evening had been. Our prayer team had put in overtime providing prayer coverage for this week and it showed. The children were worshipping in their own unique, uninhibited manner. Everything ran very smoothly, with just a few minor exceptions.
We are climbing toward Friday. By Thursday, the volunteers and children have hit the wall. If we were climbing Everest, we would be breaking out the oxygen tanks. We are tired and looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning. I pull out the big arsenal as I give affirmation, devotion and offer a prayer during supper on Friday. I know that for all of the hard work, the reward of seeing God shining in the eyes of a child is the best reward one could be given.
On Sunday we will share our Vacation Bible School closing celebration with our church family. I'll be a little sad. We've reached the top and taken the picture. The descent promises a well-deserved nap and memories that will keep us coming back year after year. However, I don't think that God intends for us to pack up our gear and head for home. I think He's got more mountains in store for us. As long as we are willing to climb, He will supply the summits.