Life may not be the proverbial bowl of cherries, but June does bring the opportunity to enjoy a bowl of them. Savor the fruit, spit out the pits. Kind of sums up a lot of things in life, doesn't it?
Today was the second hurdle for our new Summer Bible Vacation program - a "sneak preview" day, where we invited friends and neighbors from the community to join us and see what we're up to this summer. A guarded success: we had just over 100 in attendance, we stayed pretty close to the set schedule, and the "Harvest Hut" had a big crowd for its grand-opening. Lots of wide-eyed children, clutching their first few blue Bible Bucks in their hands, eager to buy something. Anything. When the last child finally scampered out, proudly holding a handful of cherry Twizzlers, the remaining crowd quickly dwindled down until it was just a few of us finishing up and comparing notes on how things went. All in all, the day was very smooth, thanks in large part to the number of adults in attendance.
As pleased as I am about how well today went, it confirmed why I'm not a big fan of one-day VBS. For starters, it's totally hit-or-miss on everyone's schedules. Today there were many rain-out ballgames competing for space on everyone's refrigerator calendar. As it is nearing the end of the season for most youth teams, games won out for many families and I hope they all did great! But had this been our only opportunity to reach out to the children of our community this year, our efforts would not yield much fruit, mainly due to simple mathematics: it amounts to only a tiny fraction (1/365ths, to be precise) of the year. I don't know if we'll reach more families as the summer progresses, but I pray we do. At least we stand a better chance of reaching them if we offer them 25 more opportunities to see our sign out front or spot our listing in the Rutherford Parents magazine, or get a postcard from a friend or neighbor and decide to come check us out.
After I left the building mid-afternoon, I hit Sonic for a celebratory diet cherry coke, and ducked into my favorite little place for a quick cure (a pedicure, that is), then came home and cleaned off my desk. (Hey, there's my desk calendar again..guess I should change it to June, huh?) and snacked on that bowl of cherries as I cleaned and tidied all the way down to the desk's surface.
Before dark, I grabbed the leash and took the pooch for a walk, which she loved. On our way back, we stopped and chatted with the neighbors sitting on their front porch, then ambled home and snacked on some pizza for dinner. Bedtime will come early tonight, I predict.
Tomorrow is the third hurdle - the first actual class for the SBV program. After Wednesday night, we'll know if everything is indeed working as planned. If so, then we can shift into maintenance mode: making sure vacationing teachers and guides have a substitute, getting attendance and visitor information to send out postcards every few weeks, and making sure the classrooms are stocked up on everything they need for all four lessons. That also means it's time to gear up for our 2nd annual school supply drive. And get a jumpstart on some curriculum design work, so our fall-spring classes are every bit as up-to-date and cohesive as the summer "vacation" classes.
Now that the biggest push is over, it's back to other domestic dalliances...I might even try my hand at making a cherry pie, or at least a cheesecake with a fresh cherry glaze. Might as well enjoy them while they last!
