Preparation!!!
I’ve heard from both of our contacts in Ireland and have some fun news about our trip! Read through this carefully… there’s specific things you need to do and understand.
June 19-30 we will be working with Conrad and Sonia Hicks, doing Vacation Bible Schools in two churches for children ages 5-12. Our theme will be “God is…” with an emphasis on God’s love and the basic characteristics of God. We need to begin preparation for these VBS days IMMEDIATELY! We, as a leadership team, want to empower you to lead these days. We will all work together as a team, but we are going to divide up days and put you into pairs to plan out what we will do/teach each day. Here’s what you need to do:
· Read below to find out who your partner is. Contact your partner to begin planning your day. If you need their contact information, ask me or Ashley, we will give it to you.
· Together, plan out the name/characteristic of God you will teach about. Leave that as a comment on this blog so we don’t double up. Each characteristic should pull in God’s love (one day could be God is Love) and the relationship He wants to build with us. That pulls together the things we and our partners in Ireland have heard from God – love & relationship! Also, remember that there’s a good chance these kids have never heard of Jesus and probably know NOTHING from the Bible… KEEP IT SIMPLE!
· Pick a Bible story that teaches about that characteristic.
· Plan out how you will teach the Bible story, how you apply that story to a child’s life, and a craft or activity that will illustrate this name/characteristic.
· Plan out “time fillers” – we need games with a purpose. If we run out of “teaching” then we need to have things in our back pockets to continue teaching them about God through fun things.
· Plan out songs to teach the kids. Include actions in these songs.
· Delegate responsibilities for that day. Every person will be involved in every day. We’ll break the kids up into age appropriate groups to do application times and games and we’ll split up to lead those smaller groups. Plan out how every team member will be involved that day.
For some of you this is really exciting and you are ready to get started. For others, this is overwhelming and you don’t know where to start. First, talk to your partner. They might have more ideas and can help you get started. Then, if you need more help, Corey, Ashley, and I are here to work with you. PLEASE communicate with us!!! We want to help you!!!
You need to be prepared with this at training camp. Then we’ll come together and tweak, edit, and refine each day. We’ll make sure each day is the best it can be and that everyone understands. Also, when we arrive in Ireland, we’ll talk every day to plan for the next day. So don’t feel like you’re making a finished product… it’s not finished until it’s over!!! We’ll all come together and work it out, but you need to have something to start with.
Partners:
Day 1 – Anna Henthorn & Kristen Roberts
Day 2 – Megan McCay & Christine O’Dell
Day 3 – Colby Williamson, Kyle Lorion, & Charlotte Marchant
Day 4 – Emily Donley & Melissa Scott
Day 5 – Hope Deen & Lydia Blaubach
Got questions? Feel free to call me!
Now… for more fun information!
From June 19-30 we’ll be living at Sutton Church in Sutton, Ireland, just outside of Dublin. We will sleep on the floor of the church, using the church bathrooms, and cooking our own meals at the church. For showers, we’ll walk down the road to the tennis club and use their showers. We’ll do a VBS in Skerries, Ireland from June 20-25th and in Sutton from the 26-30th. We’ll have our Sundays off to fellowship with the churches.
June 31st will be our off day!!! On this day we will clean up and say goodbye to Conrad, Sonia, and Dublin, depending on our schedule we may have time for a little sightseeing and shopping, and we’ll debrief our time there. Then on July 1st we’ll catch a bus to Athlone, Ireland and join up with Operation Mobilization and Impact Ireland.
We’ll have a few days of orientation with OM and all the teams from many different nations who will be serving all over Ireland. Then we will join a church in Carlowwhere we may participate in a number of different ministries. Things with Carlow are still being finalized, so we don’t have anything set in stone yet. However, we could do things like street ministry or a kids club or both! Most likely when we’re there, half of us will sleep in the church and half of us will sleep in the house of a church member.
I’m excited to work with this church. We actually will only meet a few of their members because many of them are off on mission trips running kids camps and ministering in Uganda! Also, a girl named Susie will be joining us for this part. She is the daughter of an OM Staff member and has great relationships with the church in Carlow.
So be sure you are prepared to sleep on concrete floors and hike down the road for showers. Then start working on how you will teach the children and before you know it, we’ll be in Ireland!!!
