I may have gotten myself in a pickle. About a month ago, I met with a great Church in my area because they wanted me to help with their Vacation Bible School (VBS). I live for this! And this is a Church I’ve never worked with before and I’d love to establish a relationship with them and the OAC NH Branch.

I attended the VBS meeting and learned that they wanted me to preach a paint-board message all 5 nights of their VBS, and their VBS started one week from the day that I found out.

Oh just wait, it gets worse! During the one week running up to the start of VBS, I was going to be the Youth Pastor at a Camp in Maine all week. I would get back on the upcoming Saturday night (really late) and the VBS would start the very next night.

Another small problem. I told them I couldn’t do VBS on the Wednesday night because it conflicted with Beach Evangelism, and they were fine with that.

But it gets even worse! You see, they wanted me to do paint-board messages on Bible passages that I’d never taught before. So I’d have one week to study the four passages, come up with an outline for each one, draw up a brand-new from-scratch painting for each one, and paint it up for each one. And I had to do it all during my free time while I was at Camp because they needed to be ready for the day after I got home.

All of that to say, I said “sure, I’ll do that.”

Did I take on more than I can handle? Maybe. Probably. It was NUTS!

A number of people prayed for my discipline, creativity, wisdom, understanding, and time-management as I developed 4 brand new paint messages in a week, without it distracting from my Pastoral work at Camp, and being available to my wife and kids. And God answered the prayers!

It was a SUPERB VBS, and I think they’re gonna invite me back next year. Let’s hope I get some more warning if I have to design new messages from scratch! 🙂

Here are some exciting photos, including the “before” and “after” pictures from the four new messages!

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