The Real VBS Recap

I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you here. VBS was hard. The hardest one I've ever had. This was not my first rodeo. For my own sake, here are all my previous rodeos:

• 2017 Maker Fun Factory: Crew Leader
• 2018 Shipwrecked: Sing and Play
• 2019 Roar: Sing and Play
• 2021 Rocky Railway: Sing and Play
• 2022 Monumental: Director
• 2023 Stellar: Director
• 2024 Scuba: Director

Bringing me to 2025 True North: Director. 

So it could have been a "been there, done that" sort of thing. And it was not. 

I have never struggled so hard to get volunteers. And then once I got volunteers, it was a problem to get them there every day. There was a huge volunteer puzzle to solve. For example: Susan can be there M, T, and F, and Erica can be there T, W, Th. So together they were one person doing one job. 

But not isolated. There was so so much of it. 

To top that, we were at full capacity of 150 kids. 100 elementary students going into 1st- 5th grades and 50 preschool participants going into 4-year-old PK to Kindergarten. And I had a massive waitlist of over 40 kids. 

But we persevered. And the theme of True North is Trust Jesus, so I did, and it all worked out. Did it work out as I planned? (No. Though I gotta tell you my plan was pretty good and involved volunteers who showed up on time and every day so while that makes God laugh, I still think it might've been nice.) 

The week felt long. With Husband gone and unable to talk it was very much like being on my own VBS island. It was weird. I was surrounded by people. Nice people, some of them I even love, and I felt very alone. 

Here's what I can say: I have for sure perfected the car line drop-off and pick-up. The week truly, overall went well. Trusting in Jesus really worked out. It always does. But it doesn't change the fact that this was a really stressful year.