It's been a Weird Animals kind of week around here!  There are 100 kiddos at VBS, and 75 volunteers (seventh-grade through adult) learning about Jesus every morning this week.  That's quite a ratio of adults to kids!  As Melissa Murray, our VBS coordinator says, "We don't want to just manage kids, we want to connect with them."  What fun it was on Tuesday to be in staff meeting and hear children downstairs laughing and shouting, "Jesus Loves You!"  This morning I stopped to watch a wild waterfight on the patio.  One of our volunteers took aim at me with her super-soaker, but she was foiled by the glass door between us.  Sorry, Kaylene Norvell, for outwitting you...this time!  VBS comes but once a year - but, oh, what a week!  If you're sorry you missed it, contact Esther Delahay to help with City Bible Camp in a couple of weeks.  We're in for more fun...and more kids, learning about Jesus!

     As we prepare to host CBC, we're practicing by hosting one of our returning members, Micah Young, and a group of 18 fellow-believers from the church where she pastors in Berlin, Germany.  Thank you to the families who are opening their homes to these folks this weekend.  We will get to welcome them in the Worship service and in our Community Groups.  Be sure to greet them warmly and include them in conversation and activities.  You might even want to congratulate them on Germany's winning the World Cup last weekend.  I'm going to.  It's the first World Cup I've really paid attention to, so this is my big chance!  

     I can hardly believe that this week marks the exact middle of our summer initiative with Community Groups.  We're half way through the summer, but even if you haven't been to your group yet, just come on down (or over, or up) and join in. Part of the plan has been to have group activities accessible week by week, so our households can come and go throughout the summer.  We know it's vacation time, so when you come back, come on back.  As always, you will be welcomed with lots of smiles.  I've asked around this week to see what God is doing in our CG's.  Here are a few of the responses: "It's encouraging that so many people are coming each week." "I did the drawing activity with two people I've never met before; I really enjoyed that." "Someone in our group offered their home for a weekly Bible study."  "On the second week, I looked around and thought...these are my people!"  It seems the mustard seeds we've been planting are beginning to sprout.  I've also heard people asking, "What's next?"  That's a really great question, one that we'll be working through together for the next few weeks and on into the fall.  I believe that God has plans for us, "not to harm us, but to give us a hope and a future," to use us for His glory.  As Jeremy so often says, "For His kingdom to come, and His will to be done."  From VBS to Community Groups, and everything in between, may it be so.     

  
Blessings,
Lana Roberts
 
P.S. I can't wait to see (and hear) the VBS kids sharing in worship serviceon Sunday!