Theme Song and VBS Update

Well, we officially had our last VBS directors meeting last night.  When I told them that they we would not meet anymore I got some crazy looks.  But...we have next week and then the next week is decorating week!!

I can't believe it is almost time!  I will personally not know what to do when VBS is over.  I have poured uncountable hours into VBS this year!  We have seen Satan try to discourage us and get us side tracked.  But we have seen God at work in mighty ways as well.

For the first year in a long time, it's two weeks before VBS and we're not having to beg for leaders.  By all means, we could still use a few crew leaders!!  But compared to previous years, God has provided early and it makes our jobs so much less stressful when He chooses to bless us that way!! 

We have had the privilege of sending out over 2000 flyers in Madison County Schools.  You will find our publicity on Madison City School website for community events.  You will see our outreach event on June 2 listed on several community calendars online as well as each of the newsstations as well!  We will have an ad in the Huntsville Times this weekend so be sure to look for it!  And our Bryan Martin and Casey Sanders made the new Madison Living Magazine.  While we were getting pictures and videos a photographer was there from that magazine to get some pictures of the balloon and we see that there's a pic of our two famous leaders in there as well!  Too bad, they didn't just go ahead and put our VBS info alongside that picture.  All of that publicity on top of what our church members are doing.  Remember, if you've not picked up flyers, please do so this week.  Hang them up in businesses where you shop!  Put them on windshields everytime you go to the store!!  I can't predict what our publicity efforst will do but I'm praying that God will direct those flyers into hands that need to know how great His love is for them!  Please join me in praying for blessing over our VBS!

We still need all the help we can get for our outreach event.  If you're able to help, please let us know!!  Or...just show up around 10 am on Saturday June 2 and we will give you a job!   It's going to be a fun event to be apart of!

And Will Neely, you are awesome.  You have created a masterpiece theme song!!  I am attempting to download it here for everyone to enjoy as well as some pictures.  The pictures include our famous VBS characters...Bubbles, Flurpy, Rue, Pepper and Izzy!  There is also some clip art that I have used in our teacher's books and that will be used on crew leader sheets at times!  And then the famous balloon flight pictures where we got some video for VBS week!  Enjoy!!  (I really hope this links works.  If it doesn't work after I post it, when my sweet technology savy husband gets home tonight I'll obtain his help in reposting this song!!)

We have been busy leaders the last two weeks.  As many of you have seen, we had a huge VBS push for volunteers of all sorts.   We hope you signed up.  If you didn't have time to sign up, then now's the time.  Please contact one of our directors and we will get you plugged in.  We still need some crew leaders!!  And we still need people to help us with our outreach event on June 2.  So, please, look at your calendar and let us know if you can help in anyway.

It seems that we didn't express ourselves well regarding our desire to put out fliers for VBS.   I think we may have made the whole process be overwhelming.  But in reality, it's very easy!!  And not only that, we've even made it easier than we first mentioned!! We have made a flier that is two fold, one side advertises VBS and the other side advertises our kickoff event.  We will have these available each Sunday.  We are asking each of you to take 5 each week!  Please consider where life takes you during the week that you might be able to leave these.  Maybe leave one in a doctors office.  Maybe place one on the car parked next to you at the grocery store.  Maybe hand one to the mom who behind you in car line.  The possibilities are really endless.  Then I want you to post on your facebook where you left your fliers each week or email me personally and let me know where.  Between now and VBS, I know we can leave fliers all around the county!!  

Vacation Bible School is the largest outreach event of the year.  In 2010, 2.7 million children were enrolled in VBS with 83,000 children coming to know Jesus as their Savior as a result of Vacation Bible School.  We have a job to do...go into all the world and preach the gospel!  I can't think of a better group of individuals to target than children.  Even Jesus, wanted to touch and love the children!  There are many children in this world that will tell you, it is the result of someone inviting them to church as a child that their entire family now knows and loves Jesus.  Let's allow God to work through Southside this year and soar with the entire county to new heights in God's love!!  What a blessing this can be for many people as we not only teach God's truths but also help our children apply these truths to our lives!!

It's going to be an awesome adventure!  Will you join with us and agree to take at least 5 flyers every week between now and VBS? Then don't forget to let us know via facebook or email where you left your fliers!

On Your Mark, Get Set, Volunteer!!!

On your mark, get set, volunteer!!  We are ready to sign you up to help us out this year during VBS!  As I've shared before, we are planning a huge outreach event on Saturday, June 2 and we need all sorts of volunteers. We need volunteers to work the week of VBS.  We need volunteers to help with follow up!  And the list can go on and on!!  It is going to take everyone helping out to make VBS a success.  So...the next two Sundays, you have the opportunity to volunteer without pressure!!  After next Sunday, well let's just say we'll probably be calling and emailing those of you that didn't volunteer on your own!  (Just another incentive to go ahead and sign up this weekend or next!)  This week you will find an insert in your bulletin that will be a list of how we need help!  The welcome center is decorated and we'll be there after the morning service for the next two weeks, so please stop by and volunteer.

We love excited volunteers.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to choose a couple of our excited volunteers to spotlight over the next few weeks!  Their picture will make our bulletin board along with the reasons they are excited to be working in VBS.   If you are chosen as one of our excited volunteers to spotlight, we will be giving you a little surprise as our way of thanking you for your service!!  How you might make the volunteer spotlight...it might be that this is your very first year to serve in VBS and you show us how excited you are to be involved, it might be that you go above and beyond your volunteer duties leading up to VBS (we will be on the lookout), or maybe you come decked out for a hot air balloon adventure to church one Sunday and go by and encourage our children to bring friends!  I believe that you all are a creative bunch so I can't wait to see how you're going to make our volunteer spotlight!   This spotlight opportunity is open to youth workers and adults!!

Now...to give you a little update to what has been going on the past week or two...

We met last Wednesday night and discussed some follow up opportunities to be more intentional about follow up with our prospects.  We finalized the list of parks that we are going to be putting fliers out on windshields the week of May 14.   And we also discussed further advertising methods! We finalized that our VBS teacher training date is May 6 at 4 pm.  We're calling it "Takeoff Instructional Huddle".  So be sure to write that on your calendar if you will be working the week of VBS! 

And the last thing that I need to tell you...our characters have names!  If you've not been by our VBS bulletin board, stop by and check out their names!!  Thanks for helping us name our characters!! 

Video Has Begun

Last weekend, we spent Saturday evening doing our first video taping for VBS.  There are still several more videos to do but we got a lot knocked out in an afternoon.  A huge thanks to Jeff Maddox for allowing us to videotape with him and his balloon.  Big thanks to those who helped by video taping, helping with inflation, being moral support, etc!  Thank you to Bryan Martin and Casey Sanders who put some acting skills together at the last minute for me!!  It was a delightful time!  I thought I might give you just a preview of what is to come.  It's just enough for you to see there were many waits, stops, do this again, don't forget, etc. that went around that evening!  But it was a lot of fun!  It was such a blessing for me to be able to participate in such an event and get excited even more about what God is doing.  Enjoy this very short clip!!  I couldn't give you the whole clip or else I'd give away all the surprises!!

And then I just thought for the rest of today's post about our time at the balloon flight, I'd let some of the pictures we took tell the story for us.  Enjoy my post thru pictures today.

Ups and Downs of Prep Work

VBS planning comes with plenty of ups and downs! The last few days have had both!

As you all know, we are writing our VBS curriculum. The children's area is done! It is being proofread right now. I had worked several hours on getting the preschool curriculum set up in a pretty format! I want the curriculum to at least look professional when you get it!! Thankfully, I printed it out one Wednesday night to take to church and to let some people look and see if they liked the set up! However, to my dismay, I managed to not save it on the computer. I have looked everywhere for that file and it is not here! Truly, I have been saving this VBS curriculum in three different places to avoid the possibility of losing something! So...several hours of work is gone. :o( But thankfully, I did print a sample out so it should be a bit easier to get the layout done again!! Guess I know what I will be doing this weekend...all weekend!! But you know what, maybe God has something in store and when I set out to reformat and retype He will add to, take away, or reorganize so that it is more perfect than I could imagine!! At least, I'm trying to look at it that way!!

I also met with our pastor today regarding VBS. We have some new things on the horizon that I'm really excited about. We are going to focus on VBS toward the end of April. We'll have a huge focus on VBS with times to sign up to volunteer, register your child, purchase Tshirts, etc. We are going to try to do it all at one time this year! And the more I've thought about it, the more I think that this idea might be a great idea! So it will be a bit different but I'm excited to try one more new thing!!

We also solidified some things that we are doing for outreach. We are going to host a "booth" in the mall one day!! We will be putting flyers out at ballfields! We will be sending notices home the last week of school to all grade school children in a few schools. If you'd like your school to be one of those, please let Karen or one of the directors know!! We'd love to add your school to the list. We're looking into possibility of having yard signs to display in your neighborhood. We will be lining our sidewalks occasionally with yard signs and balloons to draw attention to the information! Not to mention, that my petition to close down Marsheutz for our SummerFest 2012 Outreach Event has been approved!! That calls for a huge "Hip Hip Hooray" followed by an exuberant "Thank You Jesus"!!

Please continue to join me in praying for VBS. Pray that we would reach many people! Pray that children would learn more about Jesus and that Jesus would touch hearts and lives all week. Pray that VBS would change Southside forever!! (Change in a good way that is!!) This SummerFest 2012 has the potential to bring our church family together to accomplish a huge task! It's going to take an entire church pulling together to make this happen well!! It is time to get excited!! And excitement is contagious...so I pray that you all will gain the same excitement and influence those around you!!

Volunteers Already

I hope that many of you have a wonderful spring break week!! I have to share a smile with you from directors' perspective! Our directors received an email this week from someone who is already volunteering to serve the week of VBS. And not only that, she already has her helpers lined up! Wow!! Talk about making our job easy!!

We will being volunteer sign up next week. So we want to ask you all to go ahead and sign up early. The earlier you sign up the easier it is for those who are doing the planning! So go ahead and check your calendar for June 4 - 8! If you're available we need you!! So watch for the sign up sheet on the bulletin board next week and go ahead and sign up!

But even before then, we will let you sign up anytime. Just check in with Lydia Drennan for the children's area or Jan Newsome for preschool area! So go ahead and make these directors happy and sign up early!!

Volunteers are awesome!!

Outreach Ideas

This year we want to be looking for ways to reach out to our community. We are planning a huge kickoff event for Saturday, June 2 from 11 till 2! We need all hands on deck to accomplish this task. So please put this on your calendar and reserve this very important date!!

We have also discovered that a lot of public schools are having PTA meetings where we can include information regarding our VBS in their summer programs meeting. If you're child is in public school, would you please ask at your school if there will be a PTA meeting regarding summer events that we might could publicize at? We are willing to set up information table, set up a game booth at Spring Flings, produce brochures for distribution, etc. Please, help us touch your school this year!!

Also, we are looking at even more creative ideas for reaching out. We are considering getting waterbottles and wrapping them with a logo for our VBS and church and passing them out at different places. If you know a place that would be good to pass out water bottles, please let Karen know that as well.

We will be posting our TShirt Order the first of April so that we can have them back and be able to wear them the month of May as publicity. So please order a shirt and help us publicize that way.

We have 50 posters to hang up in different places. If you are willing to take a poster and hang in one of your frequent business stops, let one of our leaders know!

If you have any other creative outreach ideas, we want to hear your ideas!! Please share them as we desire to be purposeful about reaching outside the walls of our church and reaching into the community!!