just for fun

"He's wild! He's wild! God is wild about us!" In early July, I was singing this song at the top of my lungs, with over 100 kids during Vacation Bible School at Woods. Oh, and we had dance moves to go with it, too! :) I was in charge of the assembly times for the week of "Pandamania" (the VBS theme). Appropriately, it oftentimes felt chaotic, but because of the same, it was great fun!

I invited the youth interns, Shelly and Stephanie, to participate in the program and song-leading with me. We decided that I would be a jungle safari girl and that they would be ninjas, jumping out of the brush to teach us ninja moves. (It made sense at the time we were coming up with all this. ;)

So I became "Snore-a the Explorer" and they were "Me-cu-tie" and "You-cu-tie". :) They taught us "invisibility" and "jump kick" and other such moves. It was cute (naturally :) and the kids seemed to enjoy it. I was trying to come up with some amazing, fun, surprise ending to wrap up the week when it occurred to me that perhaps the ninjas should let me "graduate" to becoming a ninja myself.

The problem was that the idea occurred to me at the last minute (as creative ideas often do), so I had to hustle and find a martial arts outfit and fast. I went online and found a tae kwon do studio in Park Plaza, right around the corner from Woods. On Friday, after the morning assembly and before the afternoon one, I zipped over there and asked the owner if I could borrow a martial arts costume. After some initial confusion about what I was asking, and with the help of an interpreter (no kidding), I was able to communicate what I needed.

Well, the Lord was with me (either that, or my fast talking did the trick ;) because the next thing I knew, the ownder was trying various sizes of uniforms on me! I asked for a black belt, but they said that they didn't have those just laying around. :} So I gratefully took the yellow belt and the entire martial arts uni, and headed back to Woods.

At the afternoon assembly, the kids were surprised and joyful when they saw me come out. And we told them not only I, Snore-a, but all of us had become ninjas because of God's great love for us! (Again, it made sense at the time! ;) But, honestly, they knew that we were really celebrating God, and his amazing love for us, and that the ninja thing was just for fun.

It really was an amazing, fun week---chock full of music, prayers, crafts, Bible verses, mission and more. Oh, and by the way, if you ever want to learn martial arts, drop by Kwon's Tae Kwon Do in Park Plaza. (I promised the owner I'd put in a good word for them! ;)