Day 1 -
I was paired with Hewlett to do the opening and closing of each VBS day. Except that what the instruction manual counted as one VBS day = half a GBC VBS day, because well, we can do everything in half the time right!
Our segment involved skits, songs, dances, and some teaching activities.
We taught the first two bible points through our safari adventures with Hannie Bannie & Ranger H skits - can I just say that the original Ranger H name in the manual was IRVING hahahhaha & Hannie Bannie evolved from my suggestion of Hannie Bunz (Cheryl's nickname for me which I find really funny and like) to this more rhyming one courtesy of deborah.
The night before was the first time we actually practiced the first set like a full dress rehearsal - so it was only then that I realised HOW MUCH CONTINUOUS ENERGY it was going to take to teach, sing and dance the theme song, and then transform into hannie bannie and launch into the skit (remembering all the lines, emotions, and keeping the energy). In the first skit hannie bannie has a good fit of anger because she wants to sing and dance in the safari but is told by ranger H that she can't cos there are hyenas who she might wake up. to illustrate my frustration that LIFE WAS UNFAIR I had to do this SO UNFAIR EVERYTIME MY MOTHERS SAYS MY TEACHER SAYS EVERYONE DOESNT WANT ME TO PLAY BLA BLA BLA SO UNFAIR!!!! and then slump to the floor angrily - I scrunched my knees to my face and buried myself in my them so that I'd have time to recover from internally laughing after I threw the fit. I was so tired though that when I'd gotten to the floor I think all the blood rushed to my head ahahha I think my face got really red but I suppose it added to the angry effect.
Me after the first sing & play - you can't see but I'm so pooped
Besides my "station". I also was assigned a crew (group) to help look after, and that was so lovely! Even though I had to scoot off here and there to practice/prepare for the next big group session, I had good time to get to know the kids in my crew, and look out for some of the more reserved ones. Snack and lunch times were really precious, because that's usually where the kids true selves emerge - ravenous, greedy, self centered but also kind, generous, and unexpected acts of service, like listening and helping to clean up, sharing food with one another, helping each other to reach for food, leaving food so that everyone can have enough. Kids have such big hearts :)
I realised how quickly I saw differences in personalities between children, maybe because I'd already applied a 'parent' or 'observer' lens to their behaviour. Or maybe it was a 'figuring you out' lens because I was trying so many different way to engage and connect the kids all the time!
Me learning chinese dance stretches from a crew kid - being inflexible is a good thing when you're with a flexible kid who needs a confidence boost! "you got to press your foot down" "yea I am..."
On the way home after day 1 I went to Holland V to buy my floaty friend (aka a helium balloon for the next's day's bible point lesson - when life changes, God is good). I had a whole conversation with myself and God on the way home with my floaty friend. It was about how severe should we be with the children, because I'd felt that we were being to focused on getting things to be orderly and getting to military strict style with the children. I'll save those thoughts for another time though.
Day 2
I enjoyed the second day so much.
Yes, there was more fist pumping heart stopping singing and dancing.
Hannie bannie threw another fit LOL after one pre-VBS practice I did think to myself, are we playing OURSELVES, or rather how much of me is showing up in my acting. To be fair to myself, the style of the fit throwing for this skit always varied (it was a 'I DONT LIKE CHANGES' fit because Ranger H tells HB that they have to move, they can't stay in this place because a herd of rhinos are coming. Apparently it's a "crash" of rhinos.) Sometimes I'd give it a crying spin, some times shouting, some times pouting. The extent of my angsty expressions? teehee
Played fun games - second bible point was when life is sad, God is good! Caleb's idea was to play marco polo, and ask the blindfolded kids if they felt sad that they couldnt see during the game. None of them felt sad. HAHA of course! But it was special during kidvid cinema when we shared about the things that made us sad in life.
Day 3
I don't have any photos haha but basically I was exhausted, it was fun and crazy because we launched over 100 balloons on the kids at the end to demonstrate that every good thing in life comes from God, and it's way more fun when we share God's goodness with each other!!! What was great about the finale was that the crew leaders had time to 'affirm' each child in the crew, to say to them what they were thankful for that the child had showed during VBS, e.g. love to a fellow crew member, respect, patience etc.
Really my biggest take away from VBS did come from the walk home with my floaty friend. Otherwise it was more of enjoying the privilege of being in these kids lives, to love them and influence them. I did have a long chat with a sobbing girl during snack time on day three, processing why she was angry and upset because of something that happened during the wet games. That was also a real gift - I confess that I was annoyed because I thought she was forcing herself to cry after a while for attention but whatever it was, she honestly was sad and it was good to talk things through, and opportunities to remind her of the gospel.
Something that happened during one of our pre-VBS practices though. When we were revising the skit lines, and for the day 2 section of asking kids what were some of the "God sightings" (seeing God at work) they had seen, debs said we can give the example 'maybe you had a really nice dinner last night'. I scoffed complaining that that was really superficial. But thank God they both contradicted me - and they were right! nothing is too superficial, every good thing comes from God - we just take the little things we are used to for granted. I was humbled, and I hope to be humbled some more.
Thank you God for saving me.
