Panda Mania!!

This week was Panda Mania VBS at church. It was so well organized and I loved the small group of kids assigned to each group each night. I originally signed up to help with registration, but with Tony acting shy, I ended up sitting with him and followed his group around the first night. When children entered the sanctuary, they found their large group (states, colors, Disney themes, countries) and then found their small group within that larger group. Tony was in the large group of states but was with the small group Pennsylvania. We didn't have our sign the first night and our leader got a call from work that he would be needed at work each evening until 6:30 so helping out with Tony's group ended up working out for everyone - they needed a new leader. I loved spending the time each evening with just Tony and the other 4 kids. Seeing him excited about praise and worship and knowing the Bible stories does a momma's heart good. The second night we stop at McD's, Tony retold the entire Bible story (Jonah and the Whale) to me 2 or 3 times. And when Tony gets excited he gets loud, so everyone at McD's also heard the story of Jonah and the whale. The 4th night our group of 5 had dwindled down to just 2 kids, in fact 2 of my favorite kids of all time - Tony and Dacoda! Our sign had a beating after 3 nights, but the kids still loved holding it for all to see. That night was one of the most memorable, because during the video session of the night, Tony said the sinner's prayer and accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. With the hustle and bustle of the evening, it was difficult to talk to Tony right at that moment about the prayer he had just said, but once we were home, I realized that Tony truly knew the meaning of the prayer. As told by Tony, "Yes Mom I know what it means. I am going to go to Heaven when I die because Jesus loves me, forgave me of what I do wrong and lives in my heart!" He also likes to joke that he did this when he was seven because God likes the number 7 and it rhymes with heaven. HAHA!

6/8/2011 - Tony's Jesus Birthday!