And then it rained...

Brett creates an ark

The VBS theme this week has been Noah and the Ark. We started on Monday talking about God's good creation. Tuesday brought the bad news that the creation had been squandered and God wanted to have a do-over. Therefore, Noah was contacted to build an ark.

Kids' planks fill in the ark outline

Our ark was crafted by Brett Nelson with the able assistance of Art Light and Bob Van Hoecke. It's a masterpiece! The kids were given "planks" of paper and asked to include their names in a drawing of something God had made. We pasted the planks to the ark, symbolizing how we should listen to God when asked to do something others might think of as crazy.

Thanks for the lift!

Today, Wednesday, was a rainy day here in Santiago. Appropriate to the theme! As the children entered, they were given animal stickers and helped to put them up on the ark.

After we talked about all the things that were covered up by the water and all the work Noah's family must have done on the ark, the kids had some coloring pages to work on. There was the usual hunting for just the right color crayon, jockeying for a photo, questions about whether there were toys today, questions about where some of their favorite St. Anne's folks were.

Well, that was fun!

VBS at Cristo Salvador is an intense session of songs, story, crafts and behavior management. In fact, it can wear a person out in a very short time!

Tomorrow we'll talk about sending the dove out to look for evidence that the waters have receded. The craft requires some prep work, tracing a dove and cutting it out of a paper plate. While the guys hauled sand at the children's shelter work site, Eleanor and I started work on the craft. Before we knew it, we had lots of help. It was great fun having our Cristo Salvador friends take up scissors and gather around the table for a work session.

With any luck, there will be sun tomorrow!

Everyone helps prepare!

For more photos, click here!