What happens when Messy Church and VBS get together?!

It's the day after Messy Church, and I'm writing in the middle of the eye of the storm that's also known as Vacation Bible School. All the kids are settled in to their first full day of VBS. I just heard one of the K3 kids declare that it's snack time! Whoo hoo!

Yesterday's Messy Church was fabulous! We focused on the story of Queen Esther. She was the first story of our VBS this year (Workshop of Wonders by Cokesbury, in case you're wondering!) Queen Esther is one of my most favorite stories! She's a pretty unlikely hero until she is called on to make a big decision - to play it safe or to step up to save her people. Esther chooses to take a bold step. She goes before the king unannounced and asks for the salvation of her people. 

We had some pretty fun activities to go along with Esther's story.

We did face painting, tattoos, stickers and all kinds of fun stuff for "beauty treatments." As you can see, even the adults got into the fun. I had my face painted with a heart (with lots of glitter) - just in time to preach at the 11:00 service. I wonder how many times our congregation has seen a preacher with their face painted??

 Since the theme for VBS this year has to do with imagining and building with God - we had some boxes (lots of boxes) out for the families to build a palace. We built lots of palaces! Every time one was finished, it came

I'm not sure how many kids fit into this palace!

tumbling down only to be rebuilt. It was a blast!

Here are puppets for Haman, the King, and Esther

We had two crafts this time. One involved making puppets to help the kids tell the story of Esther. Kids could make puppets for Mordecai, Haman, the King, and Esther. The idea had been to use wooden spoons for the puppets but in reality paint sticks (FREE paint sticks) worked just as well. We told the story of Esther both in Messy Church story time but also during our worship service. I invited the kids to hold up their puppets while I was telling the story during my sermon. We had a front row full of kids and I loved watching them hold up their puppets! They really did pay attention to when I was talking about a particular character. And the puppets were great!

Kids also had a chance to draw a self portrait. The frames included the theme verse, "Perhaps you were chosen for such a time as this." A good reminder that we are all called by God. The self portrait picture I have posted is from one of our rising 4th graders, Alex. I didn't even need to see the name - I knew it was Alex as soon as I saw it! He did a great self portrait!

Our snacks were are royal themed - a kings scepter (lollipop), jewels (candy), etc. Nothing like sending the kids into worship with plenty of sugar! :) Always fun!

The story of Queen Esther really is a great story - for kids and for adults. I know some of the older kids think they are too cool for Veggie Tales, but the Veggie Tale version of Esther really is the best around. It doesn't romanticize the story too much and stays very true to the Bible.

I'm starting to hear the kids running around to another class for VBS - I probably should go get ready for our closing assembly! I need to practice the music again!