July 11: Pure Joy

Today, we first met at St. Bart’s to do morning devotion and some prep work for next week’s VBS. We made decorations and did a lot of painting. We then headed over to Elect Saints to do "park day" at their VBS. Today’s was held at the old building, because the congregational meeting for the other church in their new building was tonight.

While we were waiting for the kids to arrive, a game of shuffleboard started up. Pastor Aaron and Kevin played against Lauren and Matt. After some of the kids got there, Lauren and I played a round of Cups with one of the young kids. We were all impressed with how fast he could go. (For those who don’t know what Cups is, you can find a large number of videos on YouTube).

Once most of the kids were there, we took them to the nearby park. We had basketball and a kickball game going, while most of the younger kids played around on the playground. There were a few minor injuries, but the weather cooperated and the kids had a lot of fun. For dinner, they had hot dogs with chips and lemonade. The lemonade was very refreshing after spending the evening outside trying to keep up with a bunch of kids.

There was one thing that really stuck out to me today. There was a seesaw on the playground, and the kids all wanted a turn. Most of them didn’t have legs long enough to reach the ground, so we had to manually rock it back and forth from the middle. The squeals of pure joy that came out of some of those kids reminded me of my own childhood, and how I used to find joy in simple things like that. It made me think about how we lose that as we grow older, and has made me resolved to let my inner child breathe a bit more.

- Rachel