OH NO! It's almost over!! But we still had a fantastic Friday at Cosmic City to wrap up our week!
OH NO! It's almost over!! But we still had a fantastic Friday at Cosmic City to wrap up our week!
And what a full day we had... check out today's VBS photos, photos from the closing program and Friday's video highlights--today's news, Wonder U. experiment, and the music video from the closing program!
What an awesome week of learning about God and doing some really cool science experiments! Our experiments today helped us understand and remember today's lesson about why Jesus died on the cross. God wipes our sins away! We dissolved packing peanuts and made sin "disappear" in our experiments... just as Jesus removes our sins forever when we accept Him as our personal Lord and Savior. Things ended with a big BANG in an explosion of excitement for our day of learning and sharing God's unending love.
Today we learned the meaning of Jesus' resurrection from the dead, and the real reason it's SO spectacular. The miracle of a dead man coming back to life... it's worthy of a celebration! Today we met Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John in the excitement of that wonderful day. They ran to tell everyone the good news---Our Savior is Alive! What a reason for celebration, Jesus lives forever! Even our astronaut friend was excited and rushed off to outer space to tell the good news.
"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection." Philippians 3:10
Our eyes have been opened wide this week to the need for the ministry of IDES. Disaster Dan and Faith N. Miracles have told us about the provision of medicine, food, clothing, and the gospel around the world. By joining with missionaries in places like Haiti, Mexico and the Philippines, thousands of people are having daily needs met, with many more helped after disaster events.
Thank you God for giving us so many creative ideas for our crafters this week! 
Today the 2's through 3rd grade made "Celestial Sidewalk Chalk" with glitter! Very cool. The 4th, 5th and 6th grades made "Cosmic Containers" to hold their memory verses for the week.
The craft team was a wonderful fit and we thank Nancy VanKley and her family for all the work they did to prepare for this week of celebrating God's love for us.
Sad but true, it's our last day at VBS. We've had a great week learning and playing games. 
Today we learned an AWESOME lesson through recreation--God is awesome and we can tell others about Him. Everyone had to work as a class to rebuild a cross on the other side of the playing field in the exact color and shape it started out as.
The recreation team had so much fun and hope the kids did as well... and that they have truly learned that God is awesome! See ALL of you next year!!
Oh those crazy 2's and 3's! We had a very busy day--very few tears! We learned that Jesus is alive even though he died on the cross. Today we played with animals, fruit-scented bubbles, and a big parachute! Snacks were really good today. Now it's time to go home and have a good long nap--teachers included!
Mrs. Carter's Awesome Astros-the 3rd graders--began their day worshipping God in song and practicing for our closing program. Afterwards we went to recreation and snacks--everyone's favorite. We had some great soft pretzels and cheese. Next up was crafts where we made very blue sidewalk chalk with a really cool holder. In drama, we learned about the resurrection of Jesus and a great cheer: "Jesus is Alive! God is Awesome! What great news!" In homeroom we practiced our memory verse and talked about the great things Jesus did. Thanks everyone for making it such a great week of VBS!
Amanda and Michelle's 3rd graders started off in music--we're so pumped to be shining stars for Jesus! In recreation we played "Criss Cross" and worked together to recreate the cross of Jesus with colored blocks. Our class has really grown together into an awesome team! In the SuperNova Super Mart, who would have guessed that this gooey blue liquid would turn into Cosmic Chalk!? In the universe-renowned Theatre of the Galaxies, we learned that Jesus did the greatest thing for people ever...He laid down His life for us, to forgive our sins so that we can be with Him in heaven. We're all amazed by this kind of love, and we know we've GOT to share the news with all our friends!
Friday brought out best attendance of the week--229 kids, plus 104 workers!! And our 250-fish goal...we made it!! Our offering for the week was $2,816. Some fun statistics... this included 46,885 pennies and 320 silver/gold dollars. Our 4th grade classes won the Deeper Space award from the most activities, and the 5th grade with the most creativity! Special congratulations to Aubrey Hunt, Kyra Hunt, Lindsey Isenhour and Audry Battisti who completed almost ALL of their activities during the week!!
No better way to finish out the week than by singing the songs we learned for our friends and family. And they got to see all the cool experiments of the week from Wonder U.! An offering of $1,617 brought our week total for IDES to almost $4,500--and with the recent flooding in Southern Indiana, some of that money will likely go to work right here in our state. We also saw a music video featuring clips from our week of VBS. And what program is complete without cookies!
Whew! It's over.
You're Invited...If your family doesn't have a church home, we'd love to meet you this Sunday at New Hope! We have two services, 8:15am and 10:45am, with Sunday School for all ages beginning at 9:30. Click here to jump over to our church website for more information, or call (317) 769-3647.
Zach would like to thank Justin Langford, Andrew Stucky, Hannah Martz, Jennifer 
Cheeseborough and Summer Brandenstein--those who helped with media for Cosmic City...videotaping, photography, projection, sound, newscasts and anything else I told them to do. Your hard work and dedication make the week extra special, and the VBS kids and myself are extremely thankful. Special thanks to all the teachers and teen helpers who provided the content for this website each day, and thanks to Laura Hardin for coordinating the entire week!
Remember to check out today's VBS photos, photos from the closing program and Friday's videos. We'll see you next year!!
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