Some Evidence

One last VBS post, and then I’ll quit. Maybe

How do you know when God’s hands have been involved in a project? Sometimes you just go on faith, knowing that God is involved. Other times, He gives you the gift of moments of evidence – coincidences that aren’t coincidences at all.

I know that God has been involved in VBS this week. I can take it on faith, but I’ve also seen evidence:

• How often are you involved with a group of people whose job it is to take a craft to about 80 children and whose members never complain about what is happening around them? The craft volunteer group has been wonderful. Every one of them has an attitude of involvement and seeming pleasure in what they are doing. They may come back from the kids’ activities with problems or challenges that we need to fix, but they always also come back with a willingness to tackle whatever the problem is. They put in extra time, they speak of the children with pleasure, and they laugh. All of them. That has to be God-touched.
• There is one pair of older women who have accepted the challenge of working with the 1st and 2nd graders. This age group has been one of the two largest all week. Twenty three 1st and 2nd graders in one group on one day. Opal and Jean Anne speak of these children glowingly. These two women are having a ball with these kids. They never mention the class that they don’t compliment the children and demonstrate how much they have loved them this week.
• On Tuesday, Opal asked me if their large class could have more bottles of glue for the project of the day. The day’s project, which was assembling a lion puppet, was “glue-intensive.” I had already added extra glue to their craft box, but we still didn’t have enough for each child to have his own bottle. Sharing, while necessary, was going to slow down assembly. At that moment, Jeff walked into the room with a grocery bag. He handed it to me, and I immediately knew what it is. Mary had told me that Jim had given her bottles of glue for VBS. I had forgotten about it. Now, at the very moment we needed it, it was there. I pivoted 90 degrees, sat the bag in front of Opal, and said, “Look, Opal – glue.” God provides, just when it is needed. Later that day, after the craft, Opal told me, “That glue made ALL the difference.” (I think Jim is where the glue came from; I was so excited I forgot to ask.)
• Prior to the week starting, when we were still in “pre-game,” but I knew what my role would be for the week, I was thinking about ways that I could "nurture our volunteers." I was debating the idea of a daily newsletter with information about the upcoming day, links to the craft instructions and some thoughts about each day’s theme. I send out a LOT of emails, and I have a feeling that they get annoying, so I was hesitant to add ANOTHER email from Kim to everybody’s email account. While thinking about it, I opened a new CD by Steven Curtis Chapman – Speechless – and read the list of songs. One of them was “Fingerprints of God.” I listened to it first, and decided to go ahead with the emails. “Fingerprints of God” became part of the message I sent out to support Wednesday’s transformation theme. When I came into the craft room last night, Linda handed me a red bag. “This is a present for you.” It was the book Fingerprints of God: Recognizing God’s Touch on your Life by Jennifer Rothschild. Linda’s note said that when she bought the book, she wasn’t sure why God wanted her to buy two copies, but now she knew. One of them was for me. Wow. Thank you, Linda.
• My son keeps going around saying a-gap-e. There has to be some sign of something good in that.

VBS has certainly been a wonderful and wonder-filled experience. I hope my small part in it has been helpful. I KNOW that I have been hugely blessed, and I am grateful that God has placed me where He did in this project.

Images: The sun through the trees at work yesterday morning. I can never capture that "star" quality of the sun through the trees that I want. Also, sunflowers at Cross Roads UMC yesterday morning. These are the "hot" images I mentioned yesterday. I guess there's no reason to pretend it's not hot, so here they are. By the way, Marvin is still flirting with me.