Sunday, July 29, 2007

VBS Closing Program

The week has finally come to a close. We ended tonight with our closing program. There were about 180 kids, parents and members present. Every class sang a song that they had worked on all week and we saw the live conclusion of Gospel Man and Bible Boy. In the end all of their enemies came and apologized and turned to Christ. These videos were just priceless. James and Davy are already planning new episodes for next year! I think they just like all the hype and recognition they get as super heroes! LOL!

We gave away two bicycles tonight - one to a boy with perfect attendance and one to a girl with perfect attendance. It was so neat to see how excited the winners were. I hope they enjoy their new bikes and always remember their week at New Life. Hopefully many seeds were planted this week. We're already starting to see some fruit from all that went into this week. We had several VBS visitors this morning and we picked up four kids on the bus so we're off to a start. Now comes the task of following up with the kids.

All in all, VBS was a lot of work but definitely worth it. It was awesome to see what can be accomplished when you set your mind to something and seek God's will. I'd like to give a big shout out to everyone who helped with VBS in any way. We counted that there were about 80 people who played a part in bringing this week to pass! You guys are awesome and we love you so much!

Now I'd like to be able to say that I'm going to rest, relax and recuperate but we head out tomorrow for a week of tent camping at Hillsboro Family Camp in Hillsboro, Ohio with a bunch from church. Oh well, it's probably for the best. If I ever stop I may not get started again! That's what happens when you get old.

Friday, July 27, 2007

VBS Night 6....

Well, we survived the week. Unfortunately the rain came down hard tonight which affected our numbers but we managed and we still had a good time. We were blessed to have 5 days of good weather. Even with the rain we still had 100 kids and 42 adults so that's nothing to complain about. Over the course of the week we registered 200 different kids for VBS and 68 of them still had perfect attendance as of tonight.

Tonight Gospel Man and Bible Boy took on Stealing Steve. After a chase that was slowed down due to a little run in with Officer Thurman, Stealing Steve managed to capture our two heroes with a huge net. When we left them they were hopelessly tangled. We'll have to wait for the live ending on Sunday night to see how it all turns out.

For our special activity tonight Thurman made a daring cycle stunt jump over 5 cars, a fire engine, and a bus. We had been really talking this up all week so the kids were really excited. The excitement was building all night and the kids were in a frenzy. Thurman prepared himself for the jump by donning his Superman shirt, protective gloves, a bulletproof vest, and a helmet. The cars were lined up and the ramps were in place.....and Thurman wheeled into the auditorium on his tricycle, surveyed the placement of the ramps and cars and began his approach. Unfortunately his legs were too long for him to be able to pedal the trike and he just didn't build up enough speed to be able to clear all the cars and the jump ended with Thurman and his trike overturned in a heap on top of the cars. He had to be carried from the stage but soon recovered and we're happy to say that he'll live to jump another day!

We've just had such an awesome week. God really showed us this week what we can do if we put Him first and seek His will with an open mind and a willing heart. Just as scripture says, we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. We just have to believe it! A special thanks to all the people who made this week such a success. We are so blessed with such a wonderful group of people here at New Life. We thank God for each of you daily!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

VBS Night 5....

We've made it through night 5. We're almost there. The end is in sight. We've had fun but VBS is still undeniably hard work. I'm definitely ready for a rest.

Rain threatened to ruin our night but the weather cleared up just in time for VBS to start. We shuffled classes around before VBS started because it looked as though the rain was going to hang around but we ended up being able to move back outside before the night was over. Have you ever tried serving refreshments to a group of 35 kids at a time in a church foyer? It's not much fun. We are in such need of additional classroom space. Hopefully we'll be starting on our building addition soon so this won't be a problem next year.

Gospel Man and Bible Boy managed to escape the girl thugs thanks to Bible Boy's quick thinking and a can of pepper spray but their mission was foiled by Bible Boy's lying tongue. I wish everyone could see these videos. They are absolutely hilarious. I can't believe Darren convinced grown men (Davy Hamilton & James Watkins) to make absolute fools of themselves. In today's episode they wore their costumes to the Dairy Queen!

We had water games tonight which is always a kid favorite. We had two huge inflatable water slides, a slip-n-slide, and about 400 water balloons which sounds like a lot of balloons but when you've got 126 kids it's really not. They just don't go very far. Everyone had a great time.

The best news of all is that we've already had one parent call and ask if we could start picking her kids up every Sunday for Sunday school and church so we're already beginning to see results from VBS. God is so good!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

VBS Night 4....

Night 4 of Vacation Bible School is behind us and with it we are over the hump. Tonight was our largest crowd of kids. We had 136 kids and 46 adults. Everything ran smoothly and we all had a lot of fun.

Over the course of the week we have registered 182 different kids and 76 have perfect attendance so far! Wow! We are just completely excited and blown away by what the Lord is doing here!

Our special activity for the evening was a visit from some local heroes. We had two City of Flemingsburg Police cruisers, a City of Flemingsburg fire engine, and an ambulance from the Fleming County Ambulance Service. Thanks, guys! The kids got to check out the vehicles and get stickers and all kinds of goodies. We gave all of them a police badge to take home. Noah especially liked the fire truck. As we were walking back to the church the fireman blew the horn on the fire truck. Noah jumped, looked at me, and said, "That scared my britches, Mom!" I couldn't help but crack up.

Gospel Man and Bible Boy were being beaten senseless by the Girl Thugs at the end of tonight's episode. I wonder if they'll be able to escape? We're waiting breathlessly for tomorrow's episode to find out!

Please continue to pray that the rain is held off for another couple of days!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

VBS Night 3....

We're home from night 3 of VBS. Tonight ran really smooth. We got started on time and everything else just ran like clockwork. We had 128 kids and 49 adults so our numbers are holding pretty steady. It's just so exciting to look around and see so many kids who are rich soil ready to be planted and cultivated for Christ.

Tonight Bible Boy had to overcome some pride issues. He fell hard when it was discovered that the rare "diddlewhopper" he found was really only a pop tab. Poor Bible Boy! and poor Gospel Man. He was left to attend to a mission on his own which really wasn't working out for him too well when we left him tonight.

Our special event was a forty (yes, I said 40) foot long banana split. Now that's a lot of bananas and ice cream! Yummy!

Also, we got two calls today. One of the balloons we let go last night was found somewhere in New York state and one in Clarksburg, Pennsylvania. How cool is that!

Keep praying that God holds the rain off for us. We're excited to see what the rest of the week holds! Til' tomorrow.....

Monday, July 23, 2007

VBS Night 2....

The second night of VBS is now behind us. It was a little hairy but overall I think it went very well. We had 131 kids and 48 adults for a total of 179 people! We experienced the normal VBS glitches like getting started on time and trying to stay on schedule but it could have been much worse. Now that we know what we are doing things will go smoother (I hope) tomorrow night.

Gospel Man and Bible Boy took on the menacing Mirror Man tonight. It took some doing but they were able to turn him away from his vanity and put him back on the straight and narrow path. Our special activity for the night was a balloon send-off. Each person had a helium balloon with a tag which had their name and the church's address written on it and then we let them all go at the same time (at least that was the plan) just before VBS ended. It was a pretty cool sight. We're excited to see if any of the tags are returned and where they may come from.

Well, I've had a long, exhausting day so it's off to bed for me so I can get up and start over tomorrow!

VBS Opening Night


VBS is finally underway. We worked all week last week advertising. We were out every night passing out fliers and making runs through the city on our "VBS Ice Cream Bus" passing out free popsicles and fliers. Gospel Man and Bible Boy even came along for the ride along with our VBS clown and lots of adults and kids who were so willing to come help. We've spent a fortune on advertising what with the newspaper ads, radio spots, and signs but it looks like it's all going to pay off.


We kicked off last night with a free carnival. We had 10 carnival games complete with all kinds of neat carnival prizes, a huge inflatable slide, popcorn, cotton candy, sno cones, funnel cakes and deep fried candy bars, a professional clown who tied balloon animals and hats and stuff all night long (Thanks, Daisy!) and a photo booth where the kids couild have their pictures taken with Gospel Man and Bible Boy!


When it was all said and done we had 122 registered kids from ages 2 through the 8th grade and 70 adult helpers and parents for a grand total of 192 people! We are absolutely thrilled! Now we've just got to figure out how to get our groups split up and decide where were going to put everyone! Pray that the Lord holds the rain off this week so we can utilize our outside grounds for much needed space!


We're looking forward to a fun week of learning, crafts, music, refreshments and the adventures of Gospel Man and Bible Boy as they take on the menacing Mirror Man, Stealing Steve, and the Girl Thugs!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Little Legends



Last Friday, July 13th, Noah and I went to my Dad's company picnic at Applebee's Park in Lexington while the rest of our family went in different directions. Jacob was invited to a friends birthday party and Darren and Jarrod went to Kentucky Speedway with a group from church.

We got to hang out at the ballgame with both of my sisters and their children and my parents so we had a lot of fun.
They had fireworks after the game which really excited the 2 and 3 year olds in our family (Jay, my youngest nephew, who is 7 weeks old, amazingly slept through the whole show). If you've never attended a Legends game when they had fireworks then you don't know what you're missing. They are awesome! Really much better than anything I've ever seen on the the 4th of July.

Both of my sisters and I were pregnant at the same time in 2004. We almost drove my poor mom crazy! Braden was born on May 30th, Eli on August 27th, and Noah on October 16th. Everytime we're together (which is not often since Janella lives in Paducha) we try to get pictures of the three of them together. They all really enjoyed their trip to the ballpark. And thanks, Uncle Jon, for the cool Legends hats!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Moving Day

I spent the morning and early afternoon helping our friends, Chris and Jen Jones, pack up the rest of their house. Wow! We flew around getting things boxed and loaded and/or stored in the attic for later so that the new renters/owners could move in right behind them. We really accomplished quite a lot in a short period of time.

It was a bittersweet day. I was glad to be able to help but at the same time I will miss Jen a lot. She went out of her way to make me feel included when we first arrived at New Life. She made the transistion so much easier for me and I am so grateful to her for that. There are some things about life in the ministry that only another preacher's wife can understand and relate to. I know we'll keep in touch but it won't be the same as having her just a few miles up the road. I'll miss you, Jen, and I love ya'!

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Praise to God

I just got home from tailgate service a few minutes ago. I really enjoy the laid back atmosphere of our summer services and tonight was especially awesome. We had two baptisms tonight. Darren and Jackie Pollitt went to see a couple this afternoon and tonight they gave their lives to Jesus Christ! What a wonderful ending to this Lord's Day. It is so neat to know that there are angels rejoicing in heaven over these two souls. God is so good!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

I Love VBS?

Okay, I have to be completely honest and say that Darren is driving me insane (or at least more insane than usual)! This is Wednesday and I have not been home one day this week so far. Where have I been, you ask. Well, we are gearing up for one huge shindig of a VBS. I went to church Monday morning with the intention of making three VBS signs for the church yard. You know, nothing fancy. Just simple signs with all the required information. But no, my husband turned something very simple into something very complex. My three simple signs turned into one 8 ft. x 8 ft. sign, two 8 ft. x 4 ft. signs, and two 4 ft. x 4 ft. signs. So, I've been painting signs for the past three days. I finally finished them right before Bible study this evening. Then he hands me 12 more smaller posters and tells me they need to be transformed into Bus Stop signs (front and back) to be posted all over town. So I set to work on them after Bible study and finished them at about 9:30 p.m. tonight. Am I done yet you want to know? Of course not. Now I have to make signs for the side of the VBS Ice Cream Bus that will be running all over town next week to do some advance advertising. Will it never end?

Sunday, July 8, 2007

A Long Day & Night

Am I the only one who likes to sleep in on Saturdays? Well, that was my plan yesterday but as usual my plans seldom come to fruition. I woke to the sound of Darren's cell phone ringing at 7:15 a.m. A person (who shall remain nameless) was calling to see if we were interested in buying a lawn mower they had found at a yard sale. Now first off, we most definitely don't need a lawn mower and secondly, who in their right mind is thinking of mowing the lawn at 7:15 in the morning? But regardless, the damage was done, and I was wide awake so there was nothing left to do but get up and get moving. The day never got a whole lot better......

At about 10:30 Darren called from Maysville (where he had gone to pick up some supplies for church) and asked if I wanted to meet him there and go to the Ceasar's Creek Flea Market in Wilmington, Ohio. The boys were all for it so I told him we would be there in about 45 minutes. Again, so much for plans. We got ready and went out to start the Durango and nothing happened. Not even a spit or a sputter. The battery was flat. Now this is usually not a problem since we have three vehicles so there is always a spare to get a jump from but not so this day. Our van is in the shop having its transmission rebuilt and Darren was driving the car so there we were. Lucky for us our neighbor just happened to pull in about that time and saw the hood up. He came over and gave me a jump and we were on our way...about 30 minutes behind schedule...but on our way nonetheless.

We went to the flea market and looked around. We didn't really buy anything except lunch and some ice cream but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. We came home about 7:30 p.m. and I headed for the pool a little while later to do some much needed vacuuming. I came in at 9:30 p.m. and decided to just let my hair dry and save the shower for this morning which is something I never do. I ALWAYS shower immediately after getting out of the pool but oh no, not this time. What was I thinking!?

I had just gotten in bed and laid down at about 11:00 p.m. when the phone rang. It was my mom calling from my sisters in Paducha. She was calling to tell me that my other sister, Alicia (whose husband is training to go to Iraq and has the 2 year old and new baby), had just called to tell them that she was at the ER in Carlisle with Eli (the 2 year old) and that they were transferring him to UK Med Center. My mom was upset that they were so far away and Alicia was all alone. Soooo I immediately jumped up out of bed (having had no shower and head still damp from the pool), threw on some clothes, woke Jarrod up so he could go with me, and headed for Lexington to meet Alicia at the ER at UK. They thought Eli might have appendicitis. Alicia said he just all of a sudden started screaming and holding his side. He wasn't able to walk or stand up straight and was running a fever. The ER in Carlisle felt that it was a probably appendicitis so there was supposed to be a pediatric surgeon waiting when they arrived at UK. Well, he (or she) might have been waiting but not at UK. We spent hours waiting for them to take him for a CT scan which finally occured at about 5:00 a.m. and they finally sent us home at about 6:45 a.m. The kicker is that we still don't know what's going on. They couldn't see the appendix on the CT scan but said that "it didn't appear that there was any inflamation around the appendix." The ER doc said that appendicitis is extremely difficult to diagnose in kids under 5 and that 90 percent of the time they don't catch them until they've ruptured. He said that while his blood count was elevated and he was complaining of abdominal pain that they couldn't be sure that it was appendix so they released him with instructions for Alicia to take him to her pediatrician's after-hours clinic to be checked again today. So we finally made it home (by the sheer grace of God I might add) at 8:00 a.m. this morning. I immediately went to bed and slept until 12:30 this afternoon. I had planned on trying to go to church this morning but it just didn't happen. Darren took Jacob and Noah with him and Jarrod and I were dead to the world. It felt really weird to miss church. The only other time I've missed church in the past 10 years is when I was in the hospital after Noah was born.

As of now Eli is still having bouts of intermittent severe pain where he screams and clutches his side and he still has a fever. Alicia called the after-hours clinic only to be told that they don't see ER follow-up patients and that she would need to take him back to the ER to be checked. So for now she is watching him closely and waiting. Please keep all of them in your prayers.

On a high note though Alicia and Eli got to see Rob for the first time in over a month yesterday. He was finally able to get his web cam working so they were able to have a good video chat. She said Eli was so excited that he was kissing the computer screen. I had to laugh at her because she said she looked awful. She told him that had she known he was going to get it working she would've showered and fixed her hair. I doubt he really cared or even noticed.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

A day off


Darren decided to take a very rare day off from work today. He told the boys last night and they set about planning a family activity for us. They discussed Kings Island and the Beach waterpark (both of which I persuaded them against since this is the biggest vacation week of the summer) and finally decided that they would like to take a picnic lunch and go hang out for the day on the beach at Cave Run Lake. So we went to bed last night with visions of sandcastles dancing in our heads but when we woke up this morning the weather was uncooperative. So, we had to come up with a new plan. I got online and did a web search on the Lexington Children's Museum which is now known as the Explorium. I ran it past the kids and they liked the idea and thus "Plan B" was born.

We arrived in Lexington at lunch time so we grabbed a bite to eat at Arbys in the Civic Center food court and then went to the Explorium. It was AWESOME! The whole place is hands-on and self-guided so we were able to spend as much time in the exhibits as we wanted and even move on and come back to the kids' favorites later. There were exhibits about horses, water, dinosaurs, homes of the world, a bubble room where you could enclose yourself in a bubble, the human heart and brain, space and more. There is even a play area for kids under three with a water play area, reading area, and pretend toys. Noah and I had a "picnic" complete with the basket and the red and white checked blanket. He had the fried chicken and I had a hotdog. Yummy! We spent about three hours just playing and having a good time. We would've stayed longer but Noah's diaper had reached its load limit and I didn't have a spare. All three boys loved it. It was well worth the $5 per person admission and we will definately be making a return trip. We may even have to consider a youth trip in the near future. I highly recommend it to anyone with kids of any age.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Happy Fourth of July!

Just wanted to wish everyone Happy 4th of July! We are so fortunate to live in a country where we are free. Free to have our own opinions. Free to make our own life choices. Free to think and be whatever we want. And best of all, free to worship God without fear of persecution. We have no idea how fortunate we truly are.

So, to everyone out there, take a moment to ponder your freedoms and the blessings that God has given you and remember that without God, the United States of America is simply "One Nation Under." So enjoy your freedoms and Happy Independence Day!

P.S. A special thank you to the men and women who are serving our country to make sure that our freedoms are not taken away!

Ratatouille

Darren told Jacob last night that he would take he and Jarrod to the movies. This is pretty much standard at our house. We seldom all go together because you never know how Noah will behave in the theater. I was quick to protest their plan last night because well, heck, I can't tell you the last time I got to see a movie. I'm always the designated babysitter. So Darren offerred (half-heartedly) to stay home with Noah and let me take Jarrod and Jacob to Maysville Cinema 4. So at 9:15 p.m. the three of us set out for Maysville for the 10:00 p.m. showing of the new Disney movie, Ratatouille.

After 26 minutes of commercials (yes, that's right commercials. What's up with that?) and previews the movie finally started. It was suprisingly good. I would recommend it to anyone. We all laughed and enjoyed ourselves. And hey, the popcorn was excellent. My compliments to the chef!