Survived the VBS Week in Babylon!

57 kids.

5 days.

4 tribes. 

1 destination: Babylon!

Now, you may be thinking that there is now way a VBS about the Babylonian exile could be either tasteful or relevant to kids today, and if you thought that, you would be way wrong. The themes and situations that "Daniel" talked about I found to be extremely relevant to kids today, themes such as "when you are lonely, God is with you," "When things change, God is with you," "When you're scared, God is with you." The songs were catchy (a little TOO catchy, nearly), and the skits taught the stories with a very nice balance  of humor and seriousness. 

We sang, we crafted and games, we donated money to fight Malaria, and we listened to Daniel and his silly friend Ashpenaz (he's really in the book of Daniel - look it up!). 

I just have to sum up the fun we had this week with a few awesome pictures:

Here I am helping Donna, our VBS coordinator, lead the "opening celebration." You can see a glimps of the awesome Hanging Gardens of Babylon that our youth group made!

 We had a wall in the Hanging Gardens that we filled with "tiles" written with "God Sightings." The kids had some really good ones!

Here you can see a little better what a great looking Babylon we had in the old sanctuary!

Here is Ashpenaz, the King's Chief of Staff, continually trying to keep Daniel out of all the trouble he gets into for believing in the One True God! They even provided me a rhyme to teach the kids how to remember how to say the name "Ashpenaz has pizzazz!!"  

  

At the parents' night on Thursday the kids wowed the crowd with their impressive singing and signing skills. Daniel and Ashpenaz even made an appearance during the leader tribe cheer! This was one of the most fun VBS years I can remember!! Now though it's time for a much needed break to recover from all the fun!!