Posts Tagged ‘Saddle Ridge Ranch’

VBS Geek of the Week

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I am so excited to tell you about the VBS Geek of the Week! Our team first met Hye-Jung Yun (PJ) last year at the Nashville VBS Preview. PJ flew all the way from South Korea to get a sneak peek at the Big Apple! The team has kept in contact with PJ over the last several months and have grown to love her as one of our own, so naturally we knew she had to get the prestigious VBS Geek of the Week title. I hope you are as inspired by her love for VBS as we have been.

How did you get involved in VBS?

I got involved in VBS 2010 which was our first VBS. It was planed by my senior pastor (Dr. Young Min Pee) who is a friend of Dr. Charles Lowry the Reach Missions Director. I served in an English Sunday School so I learned about the camp & the minister whom I worked with wanted me to be a part of it. And I was more than glad. When we first started, I served as  full time staff and I became a HUGE fan of VBS!!  Your methods, approaches, all the crafts & decoration ideas. As a language teacher (I’m teaching Korean to the speakers of other languages.), I just couldn’t help myself to become a fan.   And I really wanted to learn from you how to have  better VBS. Then Debbie Heck, who is a Camp Reach teacher & a kinder & decorations expert of VBS, told me that you have  preview events and she invited me over. 

How do you use VBS to teach kids in Korea about Jesus?

In Korea, English eduction is a great tool to approach the non Christian parents to send their kids to church. So with VBS, we designed an English camp called Camp Reach. It’s a 2 week camp, Monday-Friday, 7-8 hours a day. We teach VBS in the  morning & ESL in the afternoon. One teacher from the states, such as Debbie Heck, works with one Teaching Assistant, who is our church member and a university student. They work together so that the kids can have full understanding of the message. On the last night, we have commencement and presentation and the parents are invited to see what the kids have been learning.

PJ shared this sweet testimony about a great Saddle Ridge Ranch memory:

When we had Saddle Ridge last year there was a students whose parents were buddhist. When he got home he was singing the VBS song all day long. And the mother told the person who introduced him to the camp,  ”My son is strange. He sings, God, God, God…” The boy was singing God cares.

What is your “geekiest” VBS moment?

I was asking the TAs about this, and they told me that Geeks don’t know that they are geeky. So every moment of the camp was geeky to us–staying late or sometimes sleeping at the church, etc. But the real geeky thing comes right after the camp finishes. We have what we call Post Reach (VBS) Syndrome. The two main symptoms are:

1. Thinking, “Which VBS T-shirts should I wear in the morning?” (We have a dress code for the teachers and staff during the camp and they were informed when the camp is over.) We still think about it and grin about it.

2. Sometimes it feels like I hear the VBS song while walking down the streets. last year, it was “Tumbleweed” and this year was “Why Don’t You?.”

What makes you continue to do VBS?

The messages, the methods, and all the materials and plus the feedback from the parents is amazing. Who wouldn’t want to continue?? I surrendered my life to our Lord as a missionary who educates people all over the world. So when it comes to the education, I want to learn more and more. VBS gave me another perspective on Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. It’s not only for the kids but also for youth & adults. Last summer me & some of the Camp Reach staff went a province in South Korea and they loved the Big Apple Adventure a lot! I think it’s a great tool and methods to bring kids to church. I’ll continue the VBS till God sends me to the mission fields.

Will we see you at a Preview this year? And if so, which one?

Debbie Heck invited me over again (Thank you Debbie) to the TX preview and I really hope & pray to go there. I’m so excited to be a member of the AWA Club! I need all of your prayers for my scheduling. It’s not my vacation time at school, so I need to be excused which seems a little bit hard at the moment.

Camp Reach is prepared by Team Reach & KJBC (Kangnam Joongang Baptist Church in Seoul, Korea) as early as December. Program designing starts in February and the trainings for the TAs who co-work with homeroom teachers in each classrooms starts around April.

I am sure PJ and her team would appreciate your prayers as they continue to use VBS to spread God’s message in Korea.

Foto Friday. . .VBS Logos! ! !

Hi everyone! It’s your fun-loving VBS graphic designer (who happens to love numbers as well. . .I know, I’m weird) and it’s that time of the week. . .Foto Friday!!! Why do I bring up the, “I love numbers” thing? I’m glad you asked! As Carol has stated in her “VBS By the Numbers” post, I like to check the number of views my blog posts receive and I’ve realized that my “Clip Art” post has had a lot of views! I also field a lot of calls, emails, etc about people wanting the past VBS logos.

So, I decided this week will be the VBS logos from 1997 (Good New Stampede) to 2012 (Amazing Wonders Aviation)! By the way, I have worked on every single one except Good News Stampede! My first day at LifeWay was the very first day of writer’s conference for StarQuest.

 

1997's Good News Stampede

1998's StarQuest

1999 Mt. Extreme

 

2000's Ocean Odyssey

 

2001's Truth Trackers

 

2002's Amazon Outfitters

 

2003's Kingdom Capers

 

2004's Rickshaw Rally

 

2005' Ramblin' Road Trip

 

2006's Arctic Edge

 

2007's Game Day Central

 

2008's Outrigger Island

 

2009's Boomerang Express

 

2010's Saddle Ridge Ranch

 

2011's Big Apple Adventure

 

2012's Amazing Wonders Aviation

First Official Geek of the Week – Debbie Muller

I am so excited that I get to introduce one of my Illinois friends as the First Official VBS Geek of the Week. Debbie Muller works for the Illinois Baptist State Association in Springfield, Illinois and is a MEGA VBS FAN. She got our team’s attention at previews with her custom designed VBS jewelry. (Check out that subway token bling on her ears! Debbie is the one on the right.)

Debbie's VBS Bling!

Illinois hosts one of our earliest early bird conferences and Debbie volunteers every year to get things ready… in a BIG WAY!! Jerry Wooley often comes “back to the ranch” with tales about how they outdid themselves again this year. Here’s evidence of one of his IL trips! According to Debbie, this fully operational bull ride was given to one of the IL cowboy churches after Saddle Ridge Ranch was over. I guess VBS rides again!

Ride 'em, Jerry!

I asked Debbie some questions about her passion for VBS. Here’s part of our interview:

Me: What has been your “geekiest” VBS moment?

Debbie: For Arctic Edge we borrowed a moose head and hauled it all the way across town in the back of a pick-up truck. Oh, the looks we got!! We had to work to hang the thing with moving straps, then carefully suggest that folks might not want to stand under it… just in case!

(She also had great stories about big foam medical boxes she got for free, but covered up so much of the windshield, she could hardly see out. Or driving all over Illinois with a car filled with surfboards… think about that one for a minute and it’ll hit you! Or driving down the interstate with a Ramblin’ Road Trip travel trailer in the bed of her pickup truck! She had me laughing so hard I think I disturbed all my hallway office neighbors!)

Me: What is your favorite VBS theme to date?

Debbie: That’s hard because I like them all. But, I really like Ramblin’ Road Trip because I had actually been to all those places and had pictures and stories to share.

Me: What makes you continue to do VBS year after year?

Debbie: I just love it. It’s hard to explain – it’s like chocolate, you just gotta have it! I just have that much fun with it.

Me: How would you complete this sentence? You might be a VBS Geek if …

Debbie: You can sing ALL the VBS songs. My knees still hurt when I sing “Jehovah Jireh.” I don’t do rap, but I rapped John 3:16!

Love that VBS music!

Me: Will we see you at one of the VBS Previews?

Debbie: I’m bringing a van full to Nashville! I’m helping as a volunteer in Expo! Woo hoo!

Debbie (on the right) loves takin' it to the streets!!


Debbie’s enthusiasm was contagious as she talked about past VBS experiences and the “it’ll do everything but fly” airplane her husband is building for Amazing Wonders Aviation next year. But, what really impressed me the most was her true spirit of what VBS is all about – telling kids about Jesus. Debbie not only volunteers to help with state and local training of workers, but she works!! Debbie volunteers at 3 or 4 VBS’s every summer in addition to working in her own church’s VBS. Now THAT’S passion!

Thanks, Debbie, for all you do for the Kingdom! And for saying, “Yeh-yeh-yeh-yeh- yes! to Vuh-vuh-vuh-VBS!!”

Speaking of Missionaries

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Recently I introduced you to North American missionary Andrew Mann and Proof, featured missionaries in LifeWay’s VBS 2011 missions resources. Today I want to challenge you to look at VBS missions from a different perspective.

Instead of just learning about someone else God has called to be a missionary, take a moment to consider if just maybe you are the one being called.

In this video you will be introduced to young adults who accepted the call to serve as short-term summer VBS Missionaries to southern Florida. It is an amazing story of transformed lives, churches, and communities as these everyday missionaries use VBS as the vehicle to share the love of Jesus and the Gospel message. If VBS missionaries can make an impact in over 50,000 lives in Florida could they possible make an impact in your community as well? How about you? Is God calling you to be a VBS Missionary this summer to a church across town or to a neighborhood or segment of your community not typically reached by your church?

Thanks to David Moore and the Florida Baptist Convention for sharing this story and video. To learn more about ministries of the Florida Baptist Convention go to flbaptist.org

-the vbsguy

TESTIMONY TUESDAYS – a little child will lead them

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One of the most rewarding aspects of working on the LifeWay VBS Team is having the opportunity to hear the great stories of lives that have been impacted through the ministry of Vacation Bible School. I’m going to use Testimony Tuesdays to pass some of these stories on to you in the hopes that you too will feel inspired to identify and tell your VBS stories. The following story first appeared in the South Carolina Baptist Convention Childhood Ministry Newsletter (www.scbaptist.org/childhood) and is being reprinted with permission.
Our church hosted Saddle Ridge Ranch VBS in June of this year; but last night, it came to fruition.  A young couple visited our church service for the very first time.  Things in their lives seemed to be falling apart.  They had even gone to the extent of consulting with a psychic to gain some insight as to why things were failing so miserably.  Then their young son told them that he had learned about Jesus in Vacation Bible School and that’s what they needed.  Last night, the first time they attended a church service, this couple surrendered their hearts to the Lord.   In a counseling session after the service, it came to light that through the leading of their child, they sought after the Lord.  Isn’t that what scripture teaches?  “…a little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).  Vacation Bible School is worth the effort.   It’s been three months since the last night of VBS, and God is still doing His thing!!
North Greenville Association

(Church name withheld for privacy of persons involved)

Saddle Ridge Ranch – in MOLDOVA???

Every summer for the past four years, I have had the privilege of visiting some of my favorite people in the world, – the kids who live at the school for orphaned and abandoned children in Falesti, Moldova. My church has been doing camp in Falesti for the orphans who have no place to live for the summer for the last 6 or 7 years. This year, when we got to camp, imagine my surprise when I saw this:

I was sooooooooooooo excited to see that my friends had experienced Saddle Ridge Ranch VBS the week before we got there.  One of my favorite things was to hear sweet Catea (pictured below) yell “yeee-haw” in a southern accent. It was so cute!

I’m not 100% sure which church visited Falesti the week before our team did, but I think it was Shearer Hills Baptist Church from San Antonio, Texas. If any of you from Shearer Hills happen to read this blog, thank you for ministering to some of the most wonderful, beautiful kids I know.

Do you use your Vacation Bible School curriculum to minister to kids overseas? I would love for you to share your stories with us in the comments section.