I would like for you to sit back and imagine a summer vacation in a new and exciting place. Do you have this place in mind? Okay, now think of the feeling you get in your stomach when you are seeing or doing something new and exciting. It’s a ‘fuzzy wow’, or a butterfly dive bomb of ‘did I really do that?’. I experienced those feelings on my vacations this summer. I had two different vacation sites. The first was in Jerusalem at the Market Place (actually in Lone Wolf) and the second was in Canon City, Colorado. I want to tell you about the special moments and the fuzzy feelings that I experienced during my vacations.

During closing of one night of our Jerusalem Marketplace VBS, we talked about caring for our neighbor and that I was a neighbor even though I live in Nebraska. One little boy turned to Ronald and asked why I was here if I lived in Nebraska. Ronald replied that I was home for summer vacation. The little boy looked at him and asked, "Then why is she doing Bible school for her vacation?" After Ronald told me this, I sat down and started thinking about how that got the little boy’s attention; it must have meant something to that little kid to get his attention. The next night I got my answer. Through the week, I had been able to talk to each group as they came through for snacks. Every group was excited to see what was going to happen next. When the groups passed each other in the hall as they changed locations, I heard them ask the other groups, "What are we doing in story time?", "What are we making in crafts? That little boy’s question about my vacation was answered. The kids knew that we cared for them and enjoyed doing it .The kids didn’t care if Bible school was perfect or fancy. What they cared about was someone actually taking time to prepare something just for them–people taking time to talk to them and let them talk. Even if they couldn’t name it, and maybe the VBS helpers couldn’t identify it by name, the kids experienced Jesus’ love from our church. The excitement and involvement of the kids during VBS week is just another example of why it is important for our church to be active with the kids. We need to take time to let them know that they are special. They are special to God and they are special to us and we love them because God loves us all. Yes! It does matter to the kids–and I knew why I came to do Bible school for my vacation.

That brings me to my Colorado vacation. I went with the youth group for a rafting trip down the Arkansas River. As we drove through New Mexico, we stopped at Capulin to see a volcano. As I stood at the top and looked out at the mountains I was amazed at the beauty. There were green trees and mountains and if you looked hard enough you could see snow on the tips of the mountains way off in the distance. ‘Wow’ was the first thing that came to my mind. The next day we set out to go rafting. The view from the boat was just as breath taking. It is really awesome to sit in a little raft and look up and see huge mountains on either side of you. The next day we went to the Royal Gorge Bridge–the highest suspension bridge in the world. I stood right in the middle and looked out. I could see for miles. That was a fuzzy wow feeling for sure. It was amazing to me to think that God created all of this beautiful world for us. Each night, our group would go back to the Abbey (where we stayed) and talk about what was the day’s best thing. Every night it came back to the beauty that God made for us.

For me, it made me think back to VBS. I took a week to do something for kids, but in the grand scheme of all that God has done for us, I see that a week wasn’t enough. Through His creation and salvation, God is always here for us and He makes us a new creation through what Jesus has done for us. I hope and pray that everyone of you gets to experience a vacation like mine this summer. I’m not talking about special places or adventurous trips. I am talking about making someone else feel God’s special love. I feel that I made a small difference in the lives of our young people this summer kind of like God has people make a difference in my life everyday.

The neat thing about this vacation is that you can take more than one and you can take them whenever you want. I will pray for each one of you on your upcoming vacations. I would like to hear about your experiences, so please keep in contact with me as I return to school. God’s Blessings.

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