It's the time of year again.
For the past three years, I've volunteered to help with vacation bible school.
It's kind of funny when I think back to my first year. I had just started attending our church, was pretty pregnant (7 months) and I knew very few people. I just jumped in awkwardly - like I do with everything. I didn't make it the whole week due to my pregnancy. VBS didn't end until 8:00 p.m. that year and working a full day along with that was just too much for me. A new friend, Allyson, who would become a good friend of mine, told me that week that she had also just found out she was pregnant and ten weeks along. She now has the most beautiful little boy, Noah and we're working together again.
Three years has flown by. This is one of the few mile-markers of my life that's an annual event not related to some kind of holiday, so it exposes me to that evolution of time without other sentiments. I look around and the faces all look the same to me, except the kids are a little bit older now. Instead of working with the babies, I've chosen to volunteer with the Rising Stars, who are 4 - 6th graders. I'm meeting other mothers than the ones I usually hang out with, which was kind of my point. After all of this time, there are still so many people I see at church, but don't know them by name. I want to change this without running through the sanctuary on Sunday morning with my hand extended like some kind of campaigning politician introducing myself. So, this seemed like a great way to meet new people and do something that I love. I was right!
Man, what a ball. This is a fun age. They're all still "kids", but you can see the inkling of adult in their eyes and behavior. I'm completely fascinated and man are they funny and fun to watch. It's also much more energy driven. I think because I have a little one, I wanted to branch out a little bit. I have so many ideas for the younger children that I feel like instead of enjoying myself, I'm thinking about what could be done differently to facilitate this or that when I see the kids with a glazed look. It's the result of being a mother and doing this all of the time. With the rising stars, those mothers know how to work those kids best, so I get to go along and not worry about it other than holding cards and providing a second or third set of hands or eyes. Also, they're super interactive and exciting about memorization (for tickets to be traded at Friday's Laser Tag event post VBS)...so bribery works and works well.
Anyway, it's been a ball so far with three more nights to go. I'm sure it will only get better.