Our first craft during the craft block was a throw back to my own childhood, we made tin can phones—you know the drill, two tin cans and a string. Listening for the “still small voice” (1 Kings 19.12) from God takes practice. Our tin can phone will help to remind us to listening to each other, because when we hear each other, we also hear the voice of God in the world, particularly when we listen to the people who have no voice!

Our second craft was a tinkling wind chimes with a butterfly theme. Can you guess why we chose a butterfly theme? I will fill you in on Friday’s take home! There are times in all of our lives that we need to slow down and listen. We can be so busy that we never have time to simply sit and talk with God—to pray. Jesus regularly went off to a quiet place to pray (MK 6.46, JN 6.15b, et. al.) our chimes help remind us to find some time and listen for the voice of God in our lives. Then go to Mom and dad and share with them what we heard God calling us to do.

Our final craft is a bag of a dozen magnetized parts to create mazes on our refrigerator, washer or dryer, or any other vertical steel surface. The maze is a wonderful Christian metaphor as it reminds us that we can get lost and take the wrong path—this is the meaning of the Greek word harmatia, or sin. “Missing the path” is very different from our usual reference to sin, which most people usually mean to suggest bad or awful. I think this is an insufficient theology—God does not make junk! God made us and sometimes we simply get lost. But when we keep our eyes on God and the way that Jesus points, we will find our way back. This is called repentance, which in biblical Greek, the word metanoia means, “to turn around.” We turn around and return back to the path we are on with God.

Our mazes help remind us that not only sometimes we sin or get lost, but also to persevere in finding our way back to God! Horton picked a LOT of clovers before he found the one that contained the dust speck! One of my favorite photographers who shoots for the National Geographic, DeWitt Jones, invites us to always be searching for the “next right answer.” Our mazes can be crated in an infinite way—many paths for our marbles to find. Sometimes they will work and sometimes not. There is always another right answer right around the bend!

The three crafts we created during craft time are all designed to remind us how precious we are in the eyes of God and how God wants us to treat the world.

Our first project we call the bughouse. I believe caring for a bug can help us learn how to treat each other with kindness and respect. The bugs under our feet need to be honored, and they need a home too! I suggested the kids look for a friendly ladybug and carefully place her in the bughouse for a little while. I suggested they go to the Internet and see how helpful these little critters actually are! After enjoying and learning about them for a bit, let the ladybugs go to continue their good work in the bug world.

Our second project was crafting shaving cream place mats that we used at the party on Friday. These are made of heavy paper, shaving cream covers the papers, and then drops of food coloring are places randomly on the saving cream. Take a popsicle stick, or finger and swirl the colored shaving cream around. Since of the saving cream and view the wonderful color creation you have created.

This reminds us that we a ll made of the same stuff, God's love, and yet all unique filled with love to share in diverse and beautiful ways!.

For our third craft we created “me dolls!” These representations of ourselves are a reminder of how special we are. After all, we are created in the image of God! When we work from a theology of love and abundance, we avoid the petty selfish trap the Sneeches of the beaches fell into!

During Tent Time this morning, our campers decorated their craft box. Counselors and staff will fill these boxes with each camper’s crafts daily so on Friday, each camper will take home a treasure box filled with their crafts. This is helpful in a couple ways: 1. It gives time for gloppy and paint filled crafts time to dry before they get loaded into our cars. 2. In the event that a camper misses a particular day at VBS, which is always a sad event, that camper’s craft materials for the day are placed in her/his box so they can be completed at home.

Our second project was more fanciful—we created our own stuffed critters and planted seeds in them to watch them bloom! Think Chia-pet
here! The craft reminds us that it is not what is on the outside that makes us beautiful in the eyes of God, but the goodness planted within us. When we welcome another with Christ’s hospitality, we love God in a real and profound way. Indeed, the author of the letter to the Hebrews reminds us that when we offer hospitality to a stranger, we may be entertaining angels! (Hew 13.2) (Of course, we caution our children to offer this kind of hospitality only when in the immediate care of a family member—we clearly want to avoid stranger danger.)

Our second craft was a terrarium in which we created an eco-system to keep plants alive, a microcosm of God's earth. It reminds us that we have been given a world of abundance, and also given responsibility to care for all that lives in God’s garden, the world.

Our final craft was a battery box, which reminds us that even though we use technology, we have the responsibility to recycle appropriately. This applies not only to the proper disposal of batteries, but to composting and recycling paper, cardboard and aluminum.

The Lorax reminds us of the importance of good stewardship in order to preserve the wonderful world we inhabit. God calls us to learn how to appreciate all the abundance on earth and to continually be responsible for its preservation.

Today in our tent time craft we created a pet rock to love and care for, and we decorated a house to shelter our new pet. We are reminded of God's abundance and of the importance of caring for and loving all of the creatures on this earth. You may remember in high school being asked to babysit an egg to practice how to care and protect the young and fragile. So too, we are learning to care for our pet rock as responsible stewards of God's abundance.

Our first craft was decorating two Christmas cookies and baker’s boxes. One cookie is for each camper to enjoy on Friday and the one is to share with someone else. It is a reminder that Christmas is about giving in response to the greatest gift we will ever know or receive—Jesus!

Our second craft was assembling a Dr. Seuss Whohoover. In today’s story the Who’s played their horns to celebrate that Christmas had come! Our horns remind us to celebrate everyday as if it were Christmas because God is with us at ALL times, especially those times when we do not feel like celebrating!

By the way, to the staff, these were nick-named the beer-bongs. :)

Our final craft today was a Christmas ornament to decorate the family tree. The evergreen tree has a long-standing place in history, representing life in the midst of winter. The design team thought our ornaments would be a great reminder each year of our VBS with Dr. Seuss! And a reminder to share the gifts of love and happiness we all received this week. The world can use all the Christmas gifts it can get!

For our tent time craft the kids created a simple wooden star magnet to place on the refrigerator as a constant reminder that we are ALL stars in God’s eyes!

Our first craft was a small fish bowls—our token nod to the Cat- in-the-hat! Although I suppose you could keep a fish in here, but since they are plastic, I doubt very much the fish would last long. We suggested parents could get a small tea light or ever better a little electric tea light and our campers can say their prayers by it. As the children in the Cat-in- the-Hat found a source of wisdom in the fish, we find our source of wisdom in God!

Our final craft today was a kite. They really fly well too—I test flew one! It is a reminder that we can literally go anywhere with God if we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and set us free.

I guess I should have used other than a white cloth to snap a picture of this craft! :)

Our tent time craft was a simple box for the pet rock we created on Wednesday. Everyone needs a home—an important lesson for us all!

Finally, the parting gift from the design team to our campers—a small stuffed butterfly. We chose the butterfly specifically for a couple important reasons: 1. Butterflies can take to the wing and go anywhere they want. We believe this is true for our campers too! 2. The butterfly is
an ancient Christian symbol, with dual meanings. First, it represents the Chirst event—Jesus sacrificed himself for the love of the world on the cross and three days later emerged from the tomb. The second meaning is our nature as humans. We struggles in the slow moving from of the caterpillar while we make our journey on earth, unable to reach any height without huge amounts of effort, and when we are transformed in death to our resurrected form, through the gift of Christ’s sacrifice; we may sore with God!

A butterfly is a great way to end VBS 2009—Dr Seuss on the Loose...God’s love is always a party! We will sore with the Holy Spirit doing the important work of reconciliation, peace and justice in the world because our VBS theme song points the way...