Friday's Find: Something to help you weed through your VBS options...

     Tony Kummer at ministry-to-children.com has written a fantastic article describing most of the 2012 VBS themes. This list is comprehensive and provides dozens of links to publisher information, products, and decorating ideas. If you are persistent and scroll past all the most popular publishers and a long survey, you will find a little section that lists and links to some lesser known and undated VBS programs (a few of which are free!). Of course there are many other VBS options out there that they could not include in this article; but if you're still struggling with choosing a VBS this is a great place to start.

Read the article here: Vacation Bible School 2012 Curriculum Themes

Let me know if this helps!

Friday's Find: Free Curriculum from Bread of Life Ministries

     Bread of Life Ministries takes bus ministry to a whole new level. Twenty years ago they started their mobile soup kitchen called Street Connection and took it to low income areas of their community in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As their ministry has grown they have expanded their routes and now serve over 200 people in four areas, distributing food and clothing. For four years they also ran a mobile Sunday school. Although they no longer have the volunteers to continue that ministry, they have posted all of their self-written curricula on their website, just to share it with kidmins like you and me. These curricula are themed and vary in length. Some are only two or three lessons long and would be great for weeks when your in between curricula or to have on file for substitute teachers. Others such as "Fruit of Spirit" or "Armor of God" are a full 6-8 lessons long. All of them include drama, games, object lessons, and memory verse activity. Check them out. You might be surprised.

Bread of Life Ministries - Children's Ministry

Kony 2012 Video

     As kidmins, I think we should all be concerned and praying for the welfare of children outside our classrooms and around the globe. I'm still reading the literature, but from what I've read and seen so far, I fully support Invisible Children's KONY 2012 campaign. I've watched the video, and I'm going to a IC event on Wednesday. I'll post more about it after that. In the mean time, if you haven't already done so, watch the video. It's PG-13, but it's a story of hope not of despair. Joseph Kony and his rebel group have been committing war crimes, abducting children and forcing them to become his army, for decades. Now people know his name and have demanded that the African and global communities fulfill there promise to capture and try him for his crimes. This is something for your to be aware of as ministers and advocates for God's children. Kony will be stopped in God's timing as He wills it, and I will do my part to raise awareness of IC's mission and support the restoration of those affected by Kony and his rebel leaders.

For more information:

• Invisible Children Homepage
• History of the Conflict
• "Who is the LRA?" - Video about Kony's rebel group
• IC's responses to some important concerns and critiques

Disney Puts "Spring" into Arts and Crafts

     I recently went with a friend to Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. While we were there we found out they were having their annual Flower and Garden Festival. Every spring they deck out Epcot in topiaries, outdoor arts and crafts, and gardening technology and demonstrations. As you know Disney is all about creativity, innovation, environment, and detail. Could we expect anything less from their gardens?

     One garden in particular was filled with art and planters made out of cheap reusable items and instructions on how to make them. Of course, they were executed to Disney perfection, but, still, I think you might get some inspiration from them. Let the creative juices flow!

Photos taken by Courtney James:


No brainer - but still fun



They glued chicken wire to the bottom of these concrete blocks and layed landscaping fabric on top of it so that the plants wouldn't fall through.

This eye-catching fence is made from spray painting common items - hula hoops and garden tools.

Could this be done with cups? bowls?
What else could you make with this technique?

These mosaic globes are decorated with seeds, grains, and cinnamon.

  

Stamped and painted birdbath.

These dogs are made from bark, moss, seeds, and the like.

Got any ideas yet?

Friday's Find: Hope 2 Others

     Hope 2 Others is a non-profit organization and community project created by two teenage sisters looking for a way to provide immediate help for those in need down the street. After learning about homelessness and displaced peoples at a missions camp, they started filling lunch sacks with essential items like food, water, socks, and tracts and giving them to the panhandlers and homeless in their community. The idea caught on and now there are H2O ministries all over the country.

     Our own kids love filling H2O bags. They know they are really helping someone. They love knowing that this mission was created by kids for kids. They love that the grow-ups in "big church" want to help them reach others with the gospel when it's usually the other way around. We sometimes adjust what we put in our bags depending on cost, season, area, etc. We also have found it helpful to partner with a local shelter.

     This project can be done at relatively low cost and makes a great ongoing outreach program. Go to their website (http://www.h2obags.com/)to learn more about how it works and what goes in the bags. Once you're ready to start your own H2O ministry, just sign up to gain access to detailed instructions, ideas, and promotional materials.

Friday's Find: Adding Some "Wow" with Illusions

     Every kidmin wants to find that little extra something that will make their special events even more special. I know our ministry is in full swing planning Easter; and if, like us, you're looking for something that will set that day apart, here are a few Gospel "magic" sites that we have found helpful. Even if illusions aren't your thing, you're sure to find something simple that can bring out the "oohs", "aahs", and "WOWs." In fact we like them so much that we put them in our RPS Ultimate Resource Guide.

• The Cross Trick - We have used this trick several times and it never ceases to fascinate our kids. Their immediate response is, "Do it again!" It is a great illustration of salvation and the cleansing of sin.
• Laflin Magic - This site is from the ministry of David and Teesha Laflin. They provide some great products and training videos at reasonable prices. They also have downloadable tricks/lessons for $1.99.
• Magic Dove Shop - This site has a lot of different types of tricks and some training videos. Prices range from just a few dollars to $50+, but the selection is excellent.
• Daytona Magic, INC - This site is similar to Magic Dove Shop. Although the selection is not as good, it still has quite a few brilliant tricks that are very reasonably priced and worth checking out.

     Happy hunting!

Winter Blast! Part 2

    "We'll just have to move everything inside." The super storms that pummeled the Midwest were heading our way. Although they'd be much weaker and unlikely to form tornadoes, they would bring heavy rains and cold gusty winds making it impossible to have inflatables and games outside. So on Saturday our children's director, Kay, canceled the inflatable obstacle course and began planning to do all the games inside. The problem was that we were expecting fifty kids, but only had access to one room for the first hour of the event or until the adult Sunday school classes let out. We ended up picking a couple of games that could be played with little room to start off with and singing some extra worship songs.

Here are some of the pictures...

Judging the snowman making contest

Frozen pancake toss

"Snowshoe" relay

Introducing the Bible point

Learning about how God created light with flash paper

Teams line up to receive their medals

     We used this event to launch in to our next curriculum series about creation. After the games we brought everyone back to the main room. The youth praise band led a few fun songs, and Director Kay presented the Bible story while one of our volunteers performed the science experiment. Over all it was a great day even with having to use our rain contingency plan.

What worked;

• Sending out postcards seemed to work; a lot of people were talking about them.
• The decorating really impressed both the kids and parents.
• The games were a big hit. We found and modified most of our games from this website, except for the Frozen Pancake Toss which came from kidology.

What we learned:

• We need more people at the registration table.
• We need to do better at communicating the bad weather plan.

This event went over really well and me might do it a gain next year. Hope this post gives you guys some great ideas. I would love to hear your comments.

   

Winter Blast! Part 1

     Our church recently decided to have a Sunday school rally day to boost attendance. We saw this as an opportunity to create a great event that kids would be excited to bring their friends to. We decided to call it Winter Blast and "say goodbye to winter" with a winter-themed event (our church is in Florida so this seemed really unique to us - half of our kids have never seen snow.) We surfed the web for some winter "Olympic" games and ordered medals and ribbons from Oriental Trading Co. We booked an inflatable obstacle course and planned some exciting team competitions to be played outside. We made flyers and  postcards to send to kids who hadn't come in a while. Then we went up to the church the day before to decorate and set up...




 Scissors (a.k.a. Caitlin) cut white plastic tablecloths into the shape of icicles and hung them on everything she could reach. Look for them in later pictures.

     Paper snowflakes - a must! Rock (a.k.a. Jessica) was determined to cut out as many as she could. On the right, Director Kay (in the yellow) discusses the prize table with one of our teachers. (They decided we needed more.)

We borrow our unofficial motto from Mythbusters: "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing." Believe it or not, you can overdo it with out breaking the bank.

Here is our Winter Blast finished product...

We invited the youth praise band to play, so we decked out the stage with icicles, snowflake streamers, snowflakes hung with fishing line, and poly-fil snow. We were unsure about the balloons on the ceiling at first, but once we got some more up there, it had the effect of wintery clouds. You can't see it in this picture, but we borrowed some cut-outs of winter scenes from our daycare and put them on the walls with some more snowflakes.

We frosted the hallway a bit to keep the theme going. It also brings parents into the world your trying to create for the kids.

We decorated our check-in table and organized it with the expectation of accommodating visiting families.

     It may seem like a lot for a one day event; but this was about outreach and was well worth overdoing. as far as decorating, the helium balloons were our greatest expense. Everything else was paper, poly-fil, and plastic tablecloths. In "Part 2," I'll tell you more about the games, how we tied in the Bible, and what we did when bad weather started threatening event day. Everyone's favorite questioin: Will we have to cancel the blow-up?!?

Friday's Find: Memory Cross

     So about now your probably thinking about Easter and maybe even VBS. Memory Cross has some great products that can add that extra something special these events. I must confess that I had know idea how useful they could be. Memory Crosses are origami style cards that can be used to tell a Bible story or teach a memory verse. Unfolding the various flaps of the card reveals more of the story or verse. They're lots of fun! You'll want to fold it over and over. They've posted videos showing how it works. You can buy finished one's, color-your-own, or blank ones to make your own stories, and they come in large and small sizes. They'll even create custom cards just for your event. Their prices are reasonable. You can sign-up to receive a free sample pack if you want to try them for yourself.
    
     Even if you don't end up buying any Memory Crosses you should visit their website, because they offer so much more. Memory Cross is all about teaching and evangelism. They make tracts, educational resources, holiday resources, Spanish resources, and even products for some of the major VBS kits of 2012, 2011, and 2010. It's well worth checking out.