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!!

Name our Characters

Our characters need a name!!

Please help us name them. You can do that right here online in the comment section. Just say blue character and then the name. Or red bird and then the name. Or purple character and then the name!! etc.

Or, if you're not technology savvy, just look for our bulletin board to go up soon! There we will have a place for you to take a slip of paper and name them!! If you have children, please help them get excited about helping us name our characters. If you're a youth worker, go ahead and get excited about naming our characters!! And adults, now's your time to unleash your youthfulness..go ahead and help us name our characters!! Who knows...there might even be a prize if we pick your name!!

We will take name nominations thru the end of the month! In April, our directors will select the VBS characters names from your submissions!! Don't forget to help our VBS characters out with a name!!

VBS Preparation Well Under Way

Decided to start a VBS Blog! I will try to post updates to this blog so that you all can follow us as we plan and prep for our first ever tailor made VBS! Hoping you will begin now to clear your calendars for June 4 thru 8 from 8:30 to noon! Hot Air Adventures will be Soaring to New Heights In God's Love that week. You will not want to miss it!

What's been happening already?

We have been writing our own VBS curriculum! I called this my VBS Venture team. These team included Lisa Lowell, Angie Roberts, Casey Sanders, Lesley Neely, and myself. This has been so much fun as we have worked together and used the gifts that God has given many in our church to come alongside us and use their gifts to bring glory to God through VBS! I'm so thankful for so many gifted people that God has placed at Southside!

If you want a sneak peek into our theme song...check out this link... it's not a professional recording but it communicates the heart of God using His people to come together to accomplish a greater task! And this year at VBS, everyone is going to have an opportunity to serve and use their gifts! I can't wait to see how God is going to lead and accomplish His plan!

Tonight...we officially kick off VBS with our first leadership meeting. So grateful that God has brought our entire leadership team back together for this year. Lydia Drennan will be our children's director, Jan Newsome will be our preschool director, and Kelly Givan will be decorating queen.

A new planning group this year is my outreach team. This team consists of Brandi Cantrell, Paige McClure, Londa Hladky and myself. They are tasked with the huge job of organizing a huge outreach event which we are calling Summer Fest 2012! And this will be the event of the year! It will be an all hands on deck event! So if you're a member of Southside, you will be needed June 2 from 11 until 2! If you can't attend this event, your help will still be needed. There's plenty of things for everyone to do!! Once again, a look at how God brings His people together and does great and mighty things!


It's going to be a very busy few months but it is all going to be worth it!! I can't wait to soar to new heights in God's love!!