Ladies Night and Guys Night

There have been numerous girls who have been a part of the VBS over the last many years who have grown up and are now in their late teens or early twenties. They struggle sometimes with life on the reservation because of the many pressures so we thought it would be a great opportunity for our ladies to hang out with these ladies for the night. So it was a Ladies' Night Out!!

Since all 10 of the ladies went and did the girl thing that left the 5 guys with a Guys Night Out which consisted of going to Wal-Mart and purchasing lemonade, cups, plates, napkins and picking out two "man" gifts to be handed out at the Round Up Rally. This seemed like a project where there was no way for us to mess it up. We think we did a great job! We will see tomorrow night, Sybil will let us know if we did or did not.

The plan was for us to go to Wal-Mart and then meet up with the girls for ice cream but we did not make it back in time to go to Checkers, a local ice cream shop. So we made due and bought a box of Drumsticks and ate our ice cream in the van on the way back from Wal-Mart to get the girls. The ladies did their thing, ate ice cream and had a blast. There are plenty of pictures to prove it. The guys did their thing, ate ice cream and had a nice quiet ride in the van. We were all able to focus on one conversation if there was even a need for conversation. We had a good time but there are no pictures to prove it.

Once we picked up the girls from Checkers and started to take Suquamish girls back home the van was once again filled with the uproarious sounds of chatting, an occasional out burst of laughter, numerous requests to turn the radio on (for whatever reason I don't know), loud half sung choruses from country songs and a couple of flashes from cameras.

Bible School "marches" on!

Our morning started off with at quick little stop at Coyote Coffee. Coyote Coffee is a small wood siding coffee shack parked in the middle of a gravel lot just of the side of the road. Jillian, who is a kid who grew up going to VBS over the last 10 years, works there and we thought we would pay her a visit. Unfortunately she was not working this morning but we were able to fill our coffee mugs with some local java that was absolutely amazing. It is true, people in Seattle, drink coffee all the time and we joined right in with them. We plan to stop by tomorrow morning to see Jillian and to get us a little pick-me-up in the form of a hot black liquid. I can't wait!!

Bible School got off to a little bit of a late start which is fairly typical but it didn't phase us at all. We had 34 kids this morning and they all showed up ready to have some fun on Avalanche Ranch. Our Bible Point for the day was God is Strong. WAAAAAAAHOOOOOO!!! And our verse for the day was, "The Lord is my strength."

Songs were great today!! Brittany taught the kids the song All in All and Caitlin taught the kids Awesome God. Since we were talking about God's strength, it gave us a perfect opportunity to sing My God is So Big. If you have never done this song with 34 kids crammed into a small space then you are missing out.

Today's story was about the battle of Jericho. Doug taught the lesson along with Sara's help and they did a phenomenal job!! Doug and Sara took the kids outside, lined them up into two lines and marched them around the little church just as if they were the Israelites. Doug and Sara were dressed up in Biblical costumes and were playing the roles of leaders in the Joshua's army. They played each part perfectly and the kids laughed and learned a lot.

For crafts Alison had the kids make prayer bears. They made one for them and one to give away to a friend or family member. It is so neat to see the kids get into making these craft projects. We were much better organized in the last half of the day than we were yesterday. It helped cut down on the chaos in the room. I really think this craft project helped calm the kids a bit as well.

Another great day of VBS has come and gone. We have just two more days with the kids but we have our Round Up Rally tomorrow night. We have invited the kids and their families to show up at the "slab" tomorrow night for pizza, music, and lots of fun. The kids are going to share some of the songs they have learned as well as the Bible Points and verses for the week. A local church Calvary Chapel is helping us put on the event. They are not a big church but they have been a great help to us this week. They really have a heart for ministering to the Native people and want to be around as much as possible. Some of their kids have come to VBS and it has been a great experience for everyone.