Outback Extra Stress

Yes, we're having VBS this week, something I used to look forward to, but not so much this year...come to think of it not so much last year, either. Chalk it up to a bad attitude or sheer laziness, but I just HATE adding something else to my life, even for a week. I'm on over-load without adding a 2-3 hour nightly event.
Evening VBS poses some interesting challenges for families. We arrive at the church at about 5:30, start at 6:00, and usually get home between 8:45 and 9:00. When is supper during that schedule? A frosting slathered graham cracker artfully decorated with chocolate chips is fun and yummy, but does not cut the mustard (so to speak) in the meal department. And the last thing I want to do at 9:00 at night after teaching a hundred or so kids is to prepare supper. So, the plan of the week is to have our big meal of the day at lunch time and to eat a small meal at ten til five or so before we head to the church. But, the kids still need some "unwind time" before hitting the sack when we get home, so even though bed time is officially 8:30 for Haven and 9:00 for Haddon and Avery, nobody is getting to bed before 9:30 at the earliest. By the end of the week everyone is exhausted (okay, I'm already exhausted and it's only Tuesday).
This year's theme is "Outback Express." We are focusing on Australia. I am in the missions room which is my favorite VBS post. Instead of being in charge of my own little group of kiddos, I get to teach the lot of them. I get to prep the kids for a little video, then explain to them what they just watched, ask questions, and pass out candy to the kids who knew the correct answers. For the most part it's really fun. The challenging thing about it is that by the end of each night I've repeated the same things five times, adjusting slightly for age differences. We experienced a first in VBS last night, though. Less than an hour into it, a transformer (or something like that) "blew" outside of the church and WE HAD NO POWER. Translation: no lights, no air-conditioning, no video. Yipes! Everyone had to do quite a bit of thinking on their feet as we made adjustments to accommodate our situation. I got to show my missions video only to my first group. After that I was on my own. The kids were surprisingly gracious and attentive as I tried to describe to group after group what they would have seen in the video had the power not been out. Whew! By the last bunch I was a dithering idiot, but all children had been successfully placated by candy and educated on Australia's need for missionaries. The kids saw our power outage as an adventure as opposed to a challenge, and may actually be disappointed that the electricity is now back on (Thank you, Jesus!). I, however, am seriously relieved...I love video!