Snowball Mountain Cools Texas Heat

The Smith girls tradition of helping at Vacation Bible School just completed for our 8th and 4th year! The theme this summer was Snowball Mountain Challenge -- where we learned that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength (Philippians 4:13). You know...like staying cool while it is a billion degrees outside!

The three of us were assigned to wrangle the Pre-K group, ages 3-5 year old's. We originally thought we were going to have a group of 6 or 7 kids to shepherd each night during the week. To our surprise, we showed up on the first night and had 13 smiling faces crammed on our pink Penguin rug! (plus a 14th on the second night! 🙀) They were super sweet kids with lots of love and energy! (Who knew I could have 3 sit in my lap all at the same time...)

Our goal: keep them safe, let them have fun and ensure they know Jesus loves them!

Oh, and offer up bathroom breaks about every 20 minutes (this is not an exaggeration). 

The goal is to stick to the program plan with a story, craft, snack and activity that all supports the message of the night. But with this age, we've got about 2 minutes to get the message across! Then it is back to game time and giving them all a task to complete! 

How fast can we pick up 100 snowballs?

Naomi was amazing and knows how to keep the group occupied with impromptu Simon Says or "what color is this?" or "how many fingers am I holding up?" She also created an awesome obstacle course to let the kids show that they can be brave, just like Queen Esther. 

But gotta acknowledge that Danielle earned the hero of the week trophy by going with the flow and doing whatever was needed in the moment whenever a kid needed help...she is a rock star. [you can ask her in person for the details].

It took a village of many people before, during, and after to accomplish all the dozens of tasks to pull off this event! Ari lent a hand whenever he could around his work schedule.

It was a fun week and we are thankful to have the opportunity to pour a little love into the next generation, even if they do test our patience at times.