Day #1: Preparation

Day one of BUMP Philadelphia is here! It's such an exciting start to what I hope will be a fantastic week!

We began with our day-long preparation of gearing up for the first day of VBS. After breakfast, the teams headed out to the neighborhood to pass out fliers. They got to see Feltonville firsthand, and all the stunning diversity within it. Feltonville has ethnic groups from West Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, and this can be seen in the wide variety of local restaurants offering a range of cuisines from around the world. Many of these ethnic groups are represented in the church, and most certainly would be represented at VBS. It was a good way to expose everyone to the neighborhood which they'd be serving. 

When the teams got back from canvassing the neighborhood, we met with Debbie and Becky, the VBS coordinators at Grace Church who have been leading the VBS every summer for over ten years. They spent some time with the team explaining that, for many of the kids in the neighborhood, the only time they come to church is this one week of the summer, and it’s one of the best opportunities for Grace Church to minister to the community kids and introduce them to Jesus.

Getting ready for VBS

After the meeting with Debbie and Becky, the team spent the rest of the day preparing for VBS for the rest of the week. It became apparent that God was going to stretch the teams because everyone was hesitant to learn the dance moves for the songs, which Debbie and Becky emphasized was one of the best ways to break the VBS kids out of their comfort zones, and assured them that the kids would see them as rock stars by the end of the week. The dance leaders were practicing during the preparation time, but no one was by any means comfortable.

After we’d spent some time preparing and had lunch, we had some teaching and worship time. The first speaker of the week, Josh (the BUMP intern...me!) spoke about spiritual and physical poverty, and three ways to categorize sources of poverty: sin, injustice, and circumstance. We walked through an online simulation that can be found at http://playspent.org/. Then we spent some time praying for different aspects of the upcoming VBS.

Dinner had barely finished when kids started showing up for VBS, and the team swung into action. It was a little hard, not because anything went exceedingly wrong, but because it seemed difficult for the teams to connect with the kids at first. I think it was a little difficult for them to step into their roles as leaders; but, it was only their first day of VBS ministry, for many of them. I think they did a great job, and I’m excited to see how they grow over the week. Considering all the usual kinks that need to get worked out at the beginning of the week, it went really well. The story of the day was Jesus' baptism, which was the "identity check" that kept in the theme of the VBS, a spy agency confirming the identity of Jesus and looking in the Bible for the evidence to who he is: the son of God! 

Bible Lesson

After VBS, we debriefed with Debbie and Becky, who offered their encouragement, advice, and suggestions for the next day. After that, we were free for the evening until bedtime, with a great start to a great week!

Secret agents at Craft Time