Author Archive

Thanksgiving Traditions

Posted on: by

 

Green bean casserole or green beans? Mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes? On this day before Thanksgiving, some members of the VBS Team are sharing their family traditions.

This will be the first Thanksgiving that my older nephew, Josh, who is a member of the U.S. Navy, will not be with us. He’ll be at his home port at Pearl Harbor. (Lucky fella.) But, I am so looking forward to spending the day with the rest of my family. We go around the table and share the things we are most thankful for. Then, we enjoy a fabulous meal prepared by a family of great cooks! By the way, it’s green beans and sweet potatoes for us!

RHONDA VANCLEAVE

Our church has a community-wide Thanksgiving meal on the Friday before Thanksgiving. It’s a great time of good food and time to get to know folks who may not regularly attend church.

 

 

MARY CARLISLE

My cousins and I always play basketball after Thanksgiving lunch…ironically, a game called PIG.

We also love to share what we are thankful that the Lord has done over the last year and spend some time affirming what we see the Lord has done in each other over the last year.

 

BETHANY BROWN

(We don’t have a picture of Bethany yet. She’s new to our team. You’ll be introduced to her later this month!) We always eat recipes that my grandmother, my mom’s mom, collected over the years of being a pastor’s wife and traveling a lot. Most are pretty traditional with the unique exception of cushaw pie, which is way better than pumpkin. What makes cooking these recipes special, though, is the fact that we still have the handwritten copies my grandmother made, editing them to how she liked them as she went. Even though she passed away several years ago, it makes it feel like she’s still there as we read them and repeat the things she told my mom and aunt over and over again about making the recipes come out right.

KEITH TYRRELL

I don’t really have any traditions. Other than eat/watch football. We are starting a tradition where we go to Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas lights.

 

 

JOYCE FRAZIER

When my parents were alive, my four siblings and I would gather at my mom and dad’s house for lunch and then games afterward. But since we lost both parents in 2006, now each family does its own thing. I have tried to follow through with some of the traditions from my parents. My kids gather at my house for turkey and dressing, and I allow each of them to “pre-order” a favorite dish/dessert for me to prepare for our lunch.

One tradition that I have started is to pick up some restaurant carry-out boxes beforehand. Then when we have finished lunch, and before everything is put away, everyone makes a plate to take home for a follow-up meal. If we know of sick family members or friends, we fix them a plate as well.

We all have so much to be thankful for, so why not share from our abundance?

DARLENE PARRISH

We really don’t have any special traditions except that we always travel to my husband’s family in Mississippi. There is always turkey and ham and all the “fixin’s.” Most years several of us ladies get up really early on Black Friday to take advantage of the bargains!

Bears! Oh, my!

Posted on: by

I love holidays, don’t you? Did you know that today, November 16, is “HAVE A PARTY WITH YOUR BEAR” day? Me neither. I am passionate (like, really crazy) about black bears. Maybe it’s because they are the iconic symbol of my favorite place on the planet—the Great Smoky Mountains. So, I had to claim today’s blog post.

You can encounter black bears in various places (and in various forms) around my home.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, I had a very special black bear encounter recently. My family made our annual trip to the Smokies just a few weeks ago. What a treat to see TWELVE bears over our four days there!

As we were packing our cars for our return trip home, we had the sweetest fella stop by to offer help. Check out these photos.

 

Stopping by to see if he could help

 

Making sure everything is packed securely

 

“Let me be sure they packed my jar of honey in here.”

 

He tried to fit inside the trunk to see if he could go home with us. Unfortuntely, we had to tell him no.

 

Isn’t he cute?! Yes, I do recognize that he could rip my arm off . . . but I feel sure he wouldn’t do that. Sweet thing!

 

2014, Here We Come!

Posted on: by

Discovering what our next VBS is going to be is one of my favorite activities as a member of the VBS Team. I have no doubt that God directs our path as this decision is made each year. I send a big shout-out to our terrific VBS 2014 Think Tank participants! After a lot of dreaming, discussing, and praying, we have our general idea (and I love it!). Now, we are working on what the exact title should be and looking at Bible content possibilities. I’m very excited about the theme! I think you’ll love it!

Please pray for our LifeWay VBS Team as we begin to dream what this should look like and what God would have us bring to children, youth, and adults in 2014.

We are enjoying a holiday, and hope that you are as well. (At least I hope all my team members are able to be off today, enjoying time with family and friends or perhaps a little downtime for themselves!) We look forward to seeing many of you in January and February!

On Today's Agenda . . .

Posted on: by

As a member of the VBS Team, I get this question a lot: “You mean you have stuff to do all year?” Yes, yes, and yes! I was at the dentist office recently and the receptionist said to me, “Now that VBS is over, I guess your work has slowed down.” Au contraire, mon ami! We are in the crunch of trying to get 2013 ready and to the printer, and beginning development of 2014, all while churches are wrapping up and evaluating VBS 2012!

I keep a set of index cards, one product per card, and I write on each card what steps have been completed so I can keep up! Here’s my current rundown. . . .

1) Worship Rally DVD

• THE DRAMA: Working with the video editor on a daily basis right now; got approval from my management team on the content and overall appearance just a couple of days ago. Waiting for the editor to make final tweaks and send me an approval copy.

• THE CHOREOGRAPHY: Performance segments have been approved. Viewed the instruction segments over the weekend, and three corrections need to be made. I’m waiting to see those ASAP.

• ABC segment: Video editor #2 is working on that now. It’s due to me any minute for my approval.

• Still waiting to see “Scenic Footage” segment and the “Video Trailer.”

• I’ve created the DVD menu and just sent it to the DVD author.

2) Music Rotation Leader Guide

• Received a final approval copy from the graphic designer. This is being routed through our production editor and editorial project leader first, then will come back to me with any needed corrections marked.

3) Club VBS: Jungle Jaunt DVD

• This is due to me from the DVD author today. If everything looks OK, it will go on to the duplicator.

4) Spanish VBS Choreography DVD

• Talent enlisted. Waiting to receive Spanish recording and typeset music to send to her so she can create the choreography. (It has to be different because many of the words differ from the English versions!)

There are more products on my list, but this is probably more info than you care to read already! I will say, though, that everyone on my team feels fortunate to be able to work on VBS products. So, next time you’re wondering—yes, we have enough to do all year (and we are thankful for that)!

VBS at My Church

Posted on: by

What an exciting week we had experiencing Amazing Wonders Aviation at my church— Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, TN! When we entered the sanctuary, it looked like an airplane had come straight through the ceiling and was just hanging there! Great way to kick off the aviation feel each day. Our average daily attendance was 1,846 (1,380 kids plus 466 volunteers)!

I taught in one of nine kindergarten classes. We usually had 22 kids and six workers in our “Kindergarten G” group! (“Go G-fliers!”) Three of our helpers were teenagers who did not take on leadership roles, but assisted the three adult teachers. That was a great help! For many of the senior high students this VBS is “training” for those who will travel to Chicago to conduct VBS there.

Our church provided a training event called “VBS University” where all volunteers had an opportunity to receive age-group or rotation group training prior to VBS. Our leadership also provided enrichment sessions such as “Leading a Child to Christ,” “Using Teens Effectively as Volunteers” or “Guiding Behavior.”  It was a great time to get folks excited and prepared for VBS.

This is not the only VBS that happens—it’s just the first. The materials are reused to conduct six other VBS events in downtown Nashville, Chicago, Georgia, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Israel.  The missions offering taken during VBS goes to help support the ministry of these other mission VBS events.

Most importantly, 52 children made professions of faith this week. We expect that many other lives were influenced and changed, and that we will continue to see children ADMIT, BELIEVE, and CONFESS.

Video Bloopers!

I love to watch bloopers and behind-the-scenes footage from movies and television shows. Did you know you can see this type of footage on the VBS 2012 Worship Rally DVD Set? Back in the day when we actually shot the video on tape, we would end up with lots of bad takes and extra footage we couldn’t use in the actual drama. Much of it would end up in our bloopers. In today’s digital age, most of those extras simply get wiped off the video card.

Tim Cox

So, coming up with bloopers has become more challenging for our video editor, Tim Cox.

The bloopers always show up in our “Credits” section of the DVD. Here are some fun things to know as you watch the bloopers for this year’s video:

• The guys had to spin that propeller probably 70 times or more before the plane started.

• Michael Kennedy who played the part of our “ground crew chief” is the owner of the fabulous plane we used.

• You’ll see Bill Cox, our video director, hiking up Waimea Canyon. That was a hard . . . let me emphasize . . . HARD hike! We had passed the “End of Trail” sign before we began that descent into the canyon! There’s always a moment every year when I ask myself, “What am I doing here?” Hiking up this canyon was that moment for me in this particular shoot.

Those are just some fun tidbits to know as you watch the credits this year. Enjoy!