Here we go...

After a long day of travels, Thursday morning we got into 2 SUV's in Denver and headed for Rapid City.  The drive took a little over 6 hours, and was a great time to talk and enjoy music together.  I truly believe that God was using that time in the cars to grow the relationships of the students on our team. 

Upon arriving in Rapid City, we jumped right in and started to connect and work with our teammates here in South Dakota.  We dropped our stuff off in the rooms we were living in for the week and got to work!  The VBS theme for the week is Hometown Nazareth, so families will walk through a makeshift marketplace exploring what life was like when Jesus grew up.  We helped put the finishing touches on the set-up and then broke into groups to begin operation invite!  Two groups of students went with me to the "Thursday nights" event (similar to Taste of Glen Ellyn, but it happens every Thursday night in the Summer) and we passed out fliers inviting people to join us for the VBS program.  It was encouraging to see students out of their comfort zone going up and inviting people and their families to come!

Friday afternoon we began our teaching on our "Make A Difference" theme.  We talked about how God can use our gifts, abilities, passions, and talents to change the world!  He wants to use us to serve those in need and ultimately to share the truth of Jesus.  We took some time and traveled to Mt. Rushmore and to a local tourist city called Keystone.  When we returned to the church in the late afternoon, we began to prepare for the VBS program.  Some students assisted in the marketplace shops, some were assistant tribe leaders, others helped Bill lead games. 

As VBS began it was great to see all the students engaging with other children, helping lead worship (full with motions) and assisting other adult leaders.  We had quite the storm roll through during VBS, and the lights flickered a bit- but the show went on and it didn't hurt the program at all.  We saw some significant hail that the students were amazed by.  Even though the trip started a little rough- it has been a great time and we look forward to see how God will continue to shape this group as the week goes on.  We felt it appropriate to take some time last night for a Dairy Queen run... The kids all enjoyed that!