Did this week not just begin? How can it be over already? I’m like those kids screaming ‘NO!!” I want to play more and sing and dance and help make things. I want to listen to these kids as they talk and tell these wild stories. That to them, are very true.
One boy in talking about family who said that he had one hundred and eighty or maybe just eighteen (I honestly couldn’t hear him well)thousand cousins. This boy’s family are their own small country.
But sadly, it is true. Vacation Bible School at our church is done and over for the year.
Yesterday the teacher and I discussed that while the kids were in music and crafts, me and the other helpers would take down all of the decorations. Then of course I goofed and jumped ahead of schedule. When the kids went to the Missions class I got one of the other helpers and we went to the class. As we started taking things down it dawned on me that I was doing it too soon. I told the girl who was up there with me that we would only do so much while we were there, and then finish when they went to music class. Going back down to Missions we caught the last of what they were being told today. After that class ended we went back up to the regular class for the kids to hear today’s story and do the activities before them moved on.
I was very glad that we stopped taking things down when we did as she needed the things that were on the board. When class ended and the kids headed for music, I and my helper started once again to clear the room so that it would be ready for the Sunday School class who used it.
I didn’t realize how much was up, until we started taking it down. Signs, posters, pictures, replicas of shovels. Some was taped, some was stapled, some was hanging with clothes pins. But we got it all taken down and bagged up, ready to be moved out.
We finished in time to go down and help the kids finish up with the craft they were making. When they finished we had time to take the kids and walk around the church while waiting for time to go back into the sanctuary for the final gathering. The kids showed their families what they had learned and a different age group was chosen to go up for each different dance and show what they had learned.
After wards they were going out back for hotdogs and a huge slide and a water game of some sort. I didn’t stay. I needed to get home to let the dogs out of the house. I did however help the teacher carry all of those decorations out to her car.
I can’t be too disappointed though. The lady who was teaching this Vacation Bible School class, also teaches a Sunday School class. The lady who usually helps her can’t for the next two Sundays. She ask me if I would consider helping her and I said yes. So this Sunday I will help her yet again, and then move a couple doors down to help with the nursery as I was already scheduled to do. Something about spending time with those kids and the innocent joy they have.
Its been a very different week for me. Having to actually be mobile and dressed early. Leaving the house for a few hours to enjoy the company of so many kids. Having as much fun as they were. I was active, I was laughing, I was having those moments of , did they really just say that? Now, its time to readjust back to a semblance of before, but maybe not completely. The big kid in me has been activated, its going to be a while before I can get her calmed down again. Especially with those songs running around in my head constantly. But that’s okay, as long as I’m singing those on repeat, it really isn’t fully over.
Words from The Dirt Road 