It’s VBS week at EPUMC. This Sunday is our VBS Sunday when we have a great worship experiencing led by our VBS kids and crew.
This year Deb Soderholm, our Children’s Ministry Director, and her crew have transformed just about every inch of usable space at church into a first century Palestinian village. The village is of course Nazareth, and the theme has to do with the people who surrounded Jesus as a boy growing up. It’s worth coming in to see just for the sheer scale of some of the things around here this year. You can also check it out, if you can’t make it on Sunday, at a picnic we’ll have at noon on Friday.
My favorite part of the whole thing is the Nazareth play village that is set up as you walk in the door. The other day I was standing saying goodbye to Megan Soukup. One of her kids, Gage, was playing with the figures there as if it were a demolition site. I wondered out loud about this until mom showed me the sign that invites anyone to play around with Nazareth and its figures. That’s also where the kids drop off their offering each day, which is going to PROP. If you ask me, Gage was doing what Jesus probably would have been doing. Which reminds me why VBS is such a great week; you see, because of the hard work and effort of our Deb and her VBS crew, each summer our children get a great experience that is the beginning of a relationship with Jesus.
On Sunday we are also commissioning our Youth Mission Trip. They are going to St. Louis, Mo., and leave on July 3. It’s important that we give them a great send off. I think there is a connection with VBS here. Many of those who have chosen to be a part of this experience, which is much more than a week-long road trip, take this relationship with Jesus into their adolescence. My guess is that like VBS, it helps them to remember that they are still like Gage, doing what Jesus would have been doing in Nazareth.
It’s also the first week for our new Administrative Assistant/ Office Manager/ Phone Answerer, Greeter, and all around cover Pastor Dan backer…Becky Coleman. What a first week. She’s been doing a great job, and I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to come in and say a hello. Becky will be in the office: Mondays & Thursday’s 8:30-12:20 and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays 8:30-4:30. She is a member at Living Spirit UMC in South Minneapolis. She lives there with her husband Johnny Jones. They have adult two children.
Becky has told me that her first week as gone pretty well, which I’m glad to hear. To tell you the truth I hope she doesn’t think that things are always this energizing. Or you know, maybe they are, just that on most weeks it happens in different ways. I say this because if VBS week is anything, it is a week to experience how great it is when we are doing the mission God has called us to do.
Keep the Faith!
Pastor Dan
This year Deb Soderholm, our Children’s Ministry Director, and her crew have transformed just about every inch of usable space at church into a first century Palestinian village. The village is of course Nazareth, and the theme has to do with the people who surrounded Jesus as a boy growing up. It’s worth coming in to see just for the sheer scale of some of the things around here this year. You can also check it out, if you can’t make it on Sunday, at a picnic we’ll have at noon on Friday.
My favorite part of the whole thing is the Nazareth play village that is set up as you walk in the door. The other day I was standing saying goodbye to Megan Soukup. One of her kids, Gage, was playing with the figures there as if it were a demolition site. I wondered out loud about this until mom showed me the sign that invites anyone to play around with Nazareth and its figures. That’s also where the kids drop off their offering each day, which is going to PROP. If you ask me, Gage was doing what Jesus probably would have been doing. Which reminds me why VBS is such a great week; you see, because of the hard work and effort of our Deb and her VBS crew, each summer our children get a great experience that is the beginning of a relationship with Jesus.
On Sunday we are also commissioning our Youth Mission Trip. They are going to St. Louis, Mo., and leave on July 3. It’s important that we give them a great send off. I think there is a connection with VBS here. Many of those who have chosen to be a part of this experience, which is much more than a week-long road trip, take this relationship with Jesus into their adolescence. My guess is that like VBS, it helps them to remember that they are still like Gage, doing what Jesus would have been doing in Nazareth.
It’s also the first week for our new Administrative Assistant/ Office Manager/ Phone Answerer, Greeter, and all around cover Pastor Dan backer…Becky Coleman. What a first week. She’s been doing a great job, and I want to thank all of you who have taken the time to come in and say a hello. Becky will be in the office: Mondays & Thursday’s 8:30-12:20 and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays 8:30-4:30. She is a member at Living Spirit UMC in South Minneapolis. She lives there with her husband Johnny Jones. They have adult two children.
Becky has told me that her first week as gone pretty well, which I’m glad to hear. To tell you the truth I hope she doesn’t think that things are always this energizing. Or you know, maybe they are, just that on most weeks it happens in different ways. I say this because if VBS week is anything, it is a week to experience how great it is when we are doing the mission God has called us to do.
Keep the Faith!
Pastor Dan
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