Good Morning EC'ers!!!!
I hope this finds all of you having a great "grace" filled week in Him!! I wanted to share with you an update of VBX from Brooke Harrison our Executive Pastor of Journey Kids. Thanks to all of you for your help and those of you that were a part of having a BLAST with the kids this week!!! Our Journey Kids ministry is amazing and life changing for both kids and parents!! Read what Brooke has shared.......
Melanie & I cannot thank you all enough for your support of "Ridin' the Range" last week!! All of you contributed in a huge way and we are very grateful for all of your hard work. We know that we can improve from year to year, so please feel free to let us know what changes we can make next year to make the experience even better. We would love to hear from you!
Throughout the week we were able to minister to 650 kids along with close to 200 volunteers!!!! WOW! We were blown away by the kids response to the "bring a friend" contest throughout the week. However, we know the greatest encouragement to all of you are the stories & the wins that we are hearing from parents & volunteers - please take a moment to read a few of the following stories as I know they will touch your lives in a big way!
My name is Janie and my son, Jameson was a guest of Wade at Vacation Bible School last week at Journey Church. First of all, I want to say thank you so much for a wonderful week for Jameson - he had a blast - which brings me to the real reason that I am writing you.
I am glad that he had fun at VBX, but as a parent I was also hoping that he would get some real spiritual education from it as well. I feel that the following story will answer that question clearly.
My sister-in-law collapsed in her home one evening last week and was taken by ambulance to the hospital where the prognosis was very grim. A few days in the ICU and many tests later, it was determined that there was no brain activity and her systems were shutting down one by one. During one afternoon that I left the hospital and was running some errands with Jameson who is 7 and his sister who is 9, I was trying my best to explain to them what was happening to their aunt and prepare them for what was to come. My daughter and I both began crying and then I hear this little voice from behind me in the back passenger seat say "Mom, you know that God gives us the power to live forever." I said "Oh, honey, I do know that, I am just sad and worried about your uncle." To which my then replied, "You know God also gives us the power to be brave."
At this point, I was stunned at the insight and the wisdom coming from this seven year old! I couldn't have asked for anything more inspiring or comforting than his words at that moment.
So, I think that he did indeed gain a great deal of education about what God can and will do for each and every one of us just when we need it most!
Bless each and every one of you,
Janie
My kids had a wonderful time at VBX! Thank you and your staff so much for all of the hard work that you put into it. We attended last year and plan on it again for next! Thank you so very much.
Mindy
What a great experience to be a part of the VBX team. I'm glad that Megan, Kate and I were able to help as crew leaders. I enjoyed myself more and more each day. The first day I was just thinking, "HOW am I going to learn 19 girls' names in four quick, busy days?!" but I had their names down by Wednesday and enjoyed my time with them and felt myself choking back tears as I was telling them good bye today!
Thank you for asking me to be a part of such an amazing week!
Every year at one point in the week I cry (sometimes more than once) today was that day. I would have never imagined this was the situation that would touch me most, but as I was lecturing the kids on going under the first obstacle on the obstacle course because I would miss them on Friday if they were to break a neck, one little boy said "but I am ready." I said "oh, sweetie you are too young to go to heaven, you have so much to do!" He said, "but my Paw-Paw died in an accident and I miss him." We;;, as hard as it was to keep my eyes dry, we got to have a conversation about how "paw-Paw" would be watching him and want him to live long and bring a whole family to him someday and that I was sure that Paw Paw was watching and glad he was there learning about how Jesus gives us the power to live forever! The cutie just smiled and said "yah" and went because it was his turn. I didn't even get a chance to find out his name, but he has definitely been in my prayers today! I am so thankful that the Lord placed me there today. I hope I was a comfort to him and I definitely learned a lesson from him too!
Journey is such an amazing place, I am so blessed to do my part! Thanks again and see you tomorrow!
Thanks to all of you guys and your time and effort, my kids and their friends are having a wonderful time! God bless you all!
Sincerely,
Gina
I just wanted to let you know how thankful I am that you are letting me serve at VBX. I had a BLAST today! It is so awesome to see God's work in these kids.
Also, I want you to know that Ryan has invited 10 friends and so far at least 5 are coming.... I might ve getting pie on Friday.... Which would be awesome! I also invited our pastor's wife to come watch because she is doing our VBS at New Life. She is probably going to come and bring her two kids.
Thanks again for all you are doing in the kingdom.
I just wanted to share w/ you the following:
As we were leaving the church parking lot Chase and Caden were talking very animated and I asked them what about and Caden replied, "I can't wait until tomorrow!" Why? I asked. He stated (very, very excitedly) "because we get to come back and it was a great time today!"
They both loved it! They have been talking about tomorrow ALL afternoon. All that you do is working for these kids and, I for one, so appreciate everything you do! Keep up the good work.
Again, Melanie & I can't thank you all for spending the week with these kids! THANK YOU!!!
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