It all starts today.

We started going to a Presbyterian church in May or June or so (frankly, I can't remember all that well; I just knew the end of school was near and that was the only carrot dangling in front of my eyes). Since we bring down the age average about 25 years, I thought the best way to get to know some people was volunteer with VBS. After all, it's not like I had an excuse NOT to give up my time and energy. I couldn't very well be selfish the whole summer. See, there is a short children's message every Sunday, but I just couldn't figure out where all of the parents were. All I saw was white hair.

So I signed up. Now, since I teach for a living, I really didn't want to teach more. Especially small children. Set up, clean up, decorating, baking, games, administrative stuff, anything in that area was good for me. Except that they needed teachers and assistant teachers. So there I was, assistant teacher. No biggie. Just as long as I get with the oldest kids possible: 5th and 6th. Nope. 1st and 2nd. Hey, like my sister says, at least it's not Pre-K or Kindergarten. She's right!! Whew!

We had a meeting yesterday about general and specific stuff. Pat is the "craft lady" and I would like to personally give her a gold medal. "Crafts for Crowds" is what her specialty is, and let me tell you: it is a true gift from God.

Here's what she did:
For every grade level, she gave us a huge sterilite platic bin. Inside that bin was EVERYTHING we need for EACH craft EVERY DAY. I'm not just talking about craft supplies like stickers and streamers and googly eyes and straws in a big heap. I mean, she had PRE-COUNTED and PRE-SORTED into ziplock sandwich backs the exact materials EACH student would need. In other words, there were 12 bags of 3 popsicle sticks, 12 bags of 4 streamer pieces, 12 bags of 1 yard of twine, 12 bags of 10 cotton balls, etc...  *AND* each of the baggies for that day's craft was inside ANOTHER manila envelope, so you couldn't get confused with what supplies belonged to what craft even if you tried. Looking inside that bin is like getting a glimpse of heaven. To top it ALL off (oh yes, my friends)... she included A SAMPLE CRAFT for each of the crafts inside EVERY sterilite bin.

I had to sit down I was so thrilled and in awe. I aspire to be this woman.

So today was the first morning and I SURVIVED!!! Everyone was pretty well-behaved and the only "discipline" we had to so was try to re-focus their attention to the story or adult talking. There are 10 kids in our group: 5 girls and 5 boys. The boys are much rowdier than the girls, but they are also more engaging. I got a hug from a girl at the end. The same girl who, after learning my name said, "I have a fish named Rebekah!" then "It died." so matter of fact.

The hardest part for me to understand/wrap my brain around was when they kids kept answering questions or making comments about a topic that we had CLEARLY moved on from.... like 10 minutes ago!!! We'd be talking about Abraham and Sarah being good neighbors to the travelers and then hands would go up and they'd say "oh, um, well, when I closed my eyes, I saw a camel!"
...
Yes, yes, dear. I bet you did. But that was just a simple activity to get you thinking about a different context. You see, that was helpful then, but not helpful now. Please pay attention to the story in this present moment. 

Ah, kids!