Surf Shack – 2016

This week it’s Vacation Bible Camp (VBC) at FUMC where we are…

Catching the wave of God’s amazing love at
Surf Shack!

(Be sure to visit all of the days of our hanging out at the Surf Shack.)

We started off our morning with everyone — the “Surfers” — gathered in their crews with their leaders — AKA “Lifeguards.” (We are totally into surfer lingo here dude. Hang 10!).

Tidal Tunes was a blast! We learned some catchy tunes, including Shine Bright and Great and Awesome. Those got us ready for the waves!

We met Skippy and her friend, Snappy the Crab. Snappy is funny! I hope we get to see more of Snappy this week. Somehow I think we might!

Each day during VBC we are learning about God.

Today we learned that:

God Creates!

(Incidentally, whenever we heard, “God Creates!” — we responded by saying, “Amazing!”)

Yes, God created everything! We can read all about God creating, in the Bible in Genesis 1. During Epic Ride (our Bible story telling time) our storyteller shared how God created the world for all of us. We encountered the majesty of the creation process! And we discovered that God is still creating and that everyone is a part of God’s creative plan. God’s creation is better because we’re in it!

We were introduced to a Scripture Treasure, a special magnet which we could take home with us! (I hope we can collect a set — one for each day!) It has today’s “Wave Words” — “God Creates” and it has our pop-up Bible verse for the day:

How majestic is your name throughout the earth!   Psalm 8:1b

That pretty much says it all when it comes to how we feel about the fact that God creates!

Here’s briefly what your kids did today, as shown in a few pictures.

Ask your kids to tell you more about what they did! (There are more photos in a slideshow at the bottom of this post.)

The preschoolers went off to Preschool Pier…

 

Meanwhile, elementary kids…

Our “older” elementary kids in our Grad Group are working every day this week on various mission projects – both local and global! They are going to be reporting on our collection progress. What are we collecting? Glad you asked…

Each year we choose a mission for kids to support. This year we have two projects to choose from:

Mid-way through our time this morning we all gathered for a healthy snack at Shack Snacks. We ate trees!

At the end of our morning everyone gathered together again for more singing. A good time was held by all!

Continue the learning at home!

Here are a couple of questions to talk about around the family dinner table.
Note: We all have questions. We don’t always have answers and this is perfectly okay. Sometimes we have to live in the mystery.

• Sit down with a box of crayons and some paper. Create! Ask: What do you feel when you get to create something new? How does God feel about what he creates? (God thinks that it is all good!)
• Did God really create the entire universe in six 24-hour days? (We read Genesis 1 as a poem — not all poems must rhyme. This poem was told around camp fires when someone, probably a child, asked, “how did God create the world?” It helps if we think about how this poem explained to it’s original authors, who God is, how God relates to his creation, and how we are to relate to God.)
• Review today’s Bible verse from Psalm 8:1. In what ways does creation tell us that God’s name is majestic (stunning, superb, awesome)? Go out and look for some of God’s majesty!
• There are actually two creation stories! (Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a and 2:4b-25) Why do you suppose there are two of them?

Enjoy the slideshow! (Start it by clicking the triangle button.)

See you tomorrow!

~~ Carol, on behalf of the VBC Team

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photo credits:
Surf Shack images used by permission of Cokesbury.
Rest of photos courtesy of various volunteers at VBC!

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Welcome back to highlights of our Surf Shack – day two! It’s Vacation Bible Camp (VBC) at FUMC where we are…

Catching the wave of God’s amazing love at
Surf Shack!

(Be sure to visit all of the days of our hanging out at the Surf Shack.)

Tidal Tunes was once again an epic time! (Did you know that “epic” is surfer lingo for “awesome.”) We learned new songs, and of course we had to sing the “old” ones. Singing is so much fun! Even Snappy joins in.

We were just getting started and Skippy got a call on her “shell phone.” (Yep, it was a shell.) That meant we needed to watch the video feed from the Surf Central Factory. I wonder what sort of board they will design today? It will have something to do with helping because today we learned that:

God Helps!

We heard about a time when God helped a small baby named Moses. It was interesting how God helped Moses. God didn’t flash lightening bolts, instead he worked “behind the scenes” — it was a case of God at work helping, through people.

You see, Moses was living in some tough times. There was a king called “Pharaoh” who was afraid of the increasing number of Hebrews that were living in Egypt. So to try and stop them, he tried to kill all the Hebrew baby boys. But it didn’t work with Moses!

Our surfers met three awesome women: Moses’ big sister Miriam, Moses’ mother and Pharaoh’s daughter. God helps Moses by helping these women make bold choices. And Moses’ life is saved! Surfers realize that they too can trust in God for help in their lives.

To help us remember this, we’ve got another Scripture Treasure magnet! It has today’s Wave Words — “God Helps” and it has our Pop-Up Verse for the day, which is:

Your help has made me great.   Psalm 18:35b

And of course we also reviewed the Overall theme verse for the week: Nehemiah 4:14b.

Remember that the Lord is great and awesome.

Down below, at the bottom of this post, is a slideshow of pictures that tell the story of what your kids did today. Ask your kids to tell you about their day. And check it out, more pictures have been added to yesterday’s report.

Today our “older” elementary kids in our Grad Group worked on a local mission project. They headed out to the veggie garden at Green Wood, where they harvested produce and spread wood chips. Everything that comes out of this garden gets donated to the Food Gatherers Faith and Food program. Do you know that today’s vegetable haul was the biggest amount ever from our garden? 85 pounds!!!

They were back in time to report on our fund-raising progress. Keep it coming dudes, we aren’t done yet!

At the end of our morning we all headed back into the Sanctuary for some more rowdy singing.

Continue the learning at home!

Here are a couple of questions to talk about around the family dinner table or wherever your family gets together:

• When is a time when someone helped you?
• When are times when you’ve helped others?
• When have you been God’s helper, or how do you suppose God may be inviting you to be his helper?
• A good time to remember that “God Helps” is when something scary happens. What should you do? Look for the helpers. God sends helpers. (Mr. Rogers came up with this answer.)
• Here’s a couple of Bible questions: What Testament is the book of Nehemiah in? Do you know what the small “b” means in Nehemiah 4:14b? Look up this verse in a Bible and see if you can figure it out. Need some help? Try looking up yesterday’s Pop-Up Verse, Psalm 8:1b. See a pattern? (Check for punctuation marks.)
• Interested in studying more about Moses and about God working through others? Take a look at this.

Enjoy the slide show!

We are having so much fun with your kids! See you tomorrow!

~~ Carol, on behalf of the VBC Team

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photo credits:
Surf Shack images used by permission of Cokesbury.
Rest of photos courtesy of various volunteers at VBC!

It’s day 3 at the Surf Shack — Vacation Bible Camp at FUMC and we are…

Catching the wave of God’s amazing love at
Surf Shack!

(Be sure to visit all of the days of our hanging out together at the Surf Shack.)

We were amped for Tidal Tunes today! (Did you know that “amped” is surfer lingo for “really looking forward to a surf.” Yep, we were amped.) We learned one new song — Go With the Flow — and sang the “repeats.” Watch this:

If reading this in an email, you may need to watch the video at this link.

 
Skippy and Snappy the Crab were back. Snappy sure used some big words today: Crabulous and crabtastic! What will Snappy say next?

Each day we are learning more about God. Today we learned that:

God Loves!

In particular, we heard about a big way that one day God gave some “thumbs up” type of love. It happened in a river. (Have you noticed that all of our stories this week have been about water?)

What was the big thumbs up? Right after Jesus was baptized God told everyone…

This is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him.

That is from the Bible in Matthew 3:17b. We can read all about this event in Matthew 3:13-17, and in John 1:29-34. I’m sure it was a crabtastic experience for Jesus!

To help us remember today’s Wave Words — “God Loves” and our Pop-Up Verse, we got another Scripture Treasure magnet!

Are you lining yours up on the fridge? Are you able to say them all? That’s like storing up God’s good words in your “heart.” (Need other ways to help your kids learn Bible verses? Check this out.)

 

At the bottom of this post, is a slideshow of photos that tell the story of what your kids did today. Talk about it while you look at the pictures.

What did the Grad Group do today? They worked on another mission project, of course! They delivered cereal boxes to the Bryant Community Center. While they were there they also helped clean up and weeded. They sure are being God’s hands and feet this week. Oh, and they also reported our fund raising results so far. We’re getting closer to our goal! Boxes of cereal: 71. Money for Camp Garjay in Liberia: $202.94 so far!

Continue the learning at home!

Here are a couple of questions to talk about around the family dinner table or wherever your family gets together:

• Today we learned that God loves. Who is someone that you love? What are some ways you show your love to that person?
• We can show our love to others. What about ways we tell them we love them? When was the last time you said words of praise to someone else?
• When God gave Jesus a “thumbs up,” God said that Jesus was his son and that he loved Jesus. Re-read today’s Pop-Up Verse. Have your child close his or her eyes as you say this to them: “You are my child whom I love. I find happiness in you.” (You’ve just blessed your child! Read all about the importance of regularly blessing your kids.
• Here’s a couple of Bible questions: What Testament are the books of Matthew and John in? What are the names of the four books that start off the New Testament? (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) What do we call those four books, collectively? (the Gospels) Can you tell me what the word “gospel” means? (good news) What is the good news in today’s story?

Enjoy the slide show! (Start it by clicking the triangle button.)

See you tomorrow!

~~ Carol, on behalf of the VBC Team

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photo credits:
Surf Shack images used by permission of Cokesbury.
Rest of photos courtesy of various volunteers at VBC!

Are you seeing ads? They are not from me! They are placed by WordPress, who otherwise offers a free platform from which to share lots of good-ness. If you see an inappropriate ad, please report it to support@wordpress.com. Include the URL, the date/time the ad appeared, and a screenshot of the ad.

It’s day 4 of our time together at the Surf Shack VBC (Vacation Bible Camp) at FUMC, where we have been…

Catching the wave of God’s amazing love!

(Check out all of our Surf Shack VBC posts. They are loaded with pictures!)

We got right down to singing today at Tidal Tunes. We were amped! (Did you know that “amped” is surfer lingo for “really looking forward to a surf.”) It was a few minutes before we realized that Snappy was frightened! Snappy was afraid of the stormy weather we’d had! All of that thunder…

What do you do when you are afraid? How do you calm yourself down? You saw what Snappy did! He (she?) hid! I wonder if we heard some hints on other ways to deal with our fears, as we soon learned that…

God Calms!

That’s good to know isn’t it. Because sometimes I feel all confused inside, like my thoughts are jumbled and I’m headed for a shipwreck! It is good to be reminded that God can provide peace to any situation, and can calm our fears.

Over the course of the morning we heard about a Bible story where Jesus really calmed things down! He calmed the wild wind and waves! You can read this story in Luke 8:22-25.

Today’s Pop-Up Verse is a good one to put to memory.

The God of peace will be with you.   Philippians 4:9b

What did we do today? At the bottom of this post, is a slideshow of photos with captions that tell the story of what your kids engaged in today.

Continue the learning at home!

Here are a couple of questions to talk about around the family dinner table or wherever your family gets together:

• When is a time when you faced a troubling situation. How did you handle it?
• When the storm happened in our Bible story, Jesus was asleep in the boat! His disciples must have thought that Jesus didn’t care. Have you ever felt that way – wondering if God cares what is happening in you life? Our story shows us that God does care! Knowing that God cares about us gives us something we can do during a storm: trust in God.
• Just because we believe in Jesus do you suppose that means that we’ll be less likely to have difficulties in our life? (Nope. Storms happen to us all.) Think about this: what do you suppose it would be like to go through a hard time if you didn’t believe in Jesus?
• After Jesus calmed the storm, he asked his disciples: “Where is your faith?” How would you describe your faith right now? Could you handle a frightening situation? (It is interesting to note that John Wesley often asked a similar question of his fellow Christians: “How goes it with your soul?”)

Enjoy the slide show! (Start it by clicking the triangle button.) And, a blessing for your day…

May you trust in Jesus through storms in your lives!

~~ Carol, on behalf of the VBC Team

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photo credits:
Surf Shack images used by permission of Cokesbury.
Rest of photos courtesy of various volunteers at VBC!