See this .pdf file of the Express Journal Newspaper July 25, 2018 for details concerning the Strive With Pride Tennis Shoe Drive.

Each evening, Pastor Sam Abee lead us all in prayer and we sang a couple songs that followed the theme of the Vacation Bible School.

Jo Anne Abee, Pastor Abee's wife spear headed the event with the help of our Youth Ministry and other local Wadesboro Church of God members including the entire Abee family.

Team captains were appointed by Mrs. Abee and below a pix of Linda and Wayne Kelley:

The theme of this years Vacation Bible School, ONLY BELIEVE was taken from the 13th chapter of NUMBERS.

I will post the pictures that I took on day two and day three of the event and add a few narrative notes along the way.  I left the ole Cannon camera at home the first day (my bad) and hopefully, I will get copies of the pixs that Natalie Williams took with her digital 35mm camera.

There was a competition between the boys and the girls as to who could raise the most money and for the record, the girls won the past two years leaving the boys in the dust trail.......grin if you must!

LAND OF CANAAN STAGE PROP

Below is the stage setting representing the land of Canaan that a ruler or head from each of the 12 tribes were sent out by Moses to search out the land:

The background encompasses the mountains, Jordan River and the grapes that were carried out of the promised land by two of the men; also milk and honey.  Underneath the light blue tarp is stones representing the stones used in an attempt to stone Joshua and Caleb and stones removed from the Jordon River as an everlasting monument.  NOTE:  Read Joshua Chapter 4.  In the foreground left, is the balance scales for the money given by the boys and the girls, of which was tallied up each evening.

DAY ONE VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL

Mrs. Abee gave the narrative of the instructions given to the twelve spies taken from the book of NUMBERS Chapter 13.  The 12 spied (searched) out the land of Canaan for forty (40) days and 40 nights and returned to give their report to Moses.

To reiterate, I left the ole Cannon camera at home the first day (my bad) and hopefully, I will get copies of the pixs that Natalie Williams took with her digital 35mm camera.

CRAFTS

At the conclusion of each Vacation Bible School Class, the young folks headed out to the former parsonage carport where a table was set-up and the first evening, Debora and Brianna were folding Tee Shirts and rubber banding them in place in preparation for the various dye colors that were applied to them.  I saw the young folks wearing the finish product the next night and they looked great.  In the pixs below, you can see several of them being worn.

Refreshments were served in the fellowship hall.

DAY TWO VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL

Mrs. Abee had great participation from the youth and used them as live training aids to manifest various subject matter to all of us who were watching and listening intently.  Mrs. Abee's facial expressions and mannerisms were fantastic communicating numerous emotions to us.  Below is an example where she was emulating crying out loud:

Click on the below thumbnail pixs taken for a larger screen view:

MRS. ABEE IN ACTION

Check out Mrs. Abee's facial expressions....she could have a second career in the making for sure!

CRAFTS

At the conclusion of each Vacation Bible School Class, the young folks headed out to the former parsonage carport where a table was set-up and the first evening, Debora and Brianna were folding Tee Shirts and rubber banding them in place in preparation for the various dye colors that were applied to them.  I saw the young folks wearing the finish product the next night and they looked great.  In the pixs above, you can see several of them being worn.

Below are pixs taken on the 9th (day two) of the Vacation Bible School where they were painting rocks:

Click on the thumbnail pixs below for a larger screen view:

REFRESHMENTS

At the end of each class and crafts finished, it was time to head to the fellowship hall to enjoy some refreshments.

I put the ole Canon 35mm DSLR camera down and enjoyed the refreshments.  I did manage to get a pix of Brother and Sister Abee before doing so.

DAY THREE VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL

Day three of our Vacation Bible School commenced with a prayer given by Brother Sam Abee.  After a couple of the theme songs were sang by those attending, it was time to put folding money and change into the buckets which would be tallied up later.  So far, the boys were leading the girls, but this evening will tell the tale so to speak. 

Looks like the girls bucket is much heavier by the balance beam, but folding money with those dead Presidents on them don't weigh that much and do add up!

Mrs. Abee brought out some excellent spiritual analogies from the book of Numbers as it relates to our youth which are our adults of tomorrow and God's Holy Word was certainly presented to us all. 

Click on this link for an audio file of the entire last evening.  The file is around 50 megabytes, therefore download the file and save as to your hard drive instead of attempting to stream the audio file.

In conclusion, ten of the twelve that spied out the land, paid the price with their lives by a plague for giving an evil report of the land of Canaan, whereas Joshua and Caleb had faith in God as evidenced by Numbers 13:30.  This was considered a grave sin by God.  Corresponding to the 40 days that the spies toured the land, God decreed that the Israelites would wander in the wilderness for 40 years as a result of their unwillingness to take the land.  For 40 years, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, eating quail and manna.  The entire generation from 20 years old and upward, except Moses, Joshua and Caleb died in the wilderness as a result of their sin. 

NOTE:  According to the final chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses ascended Mount Nebo to view the Land of Canaan, which God had said he would not enter, and to die there; he was buried in an unknown valley location in Moab by God.

Read the Book of Joshua which details the Israelites entry into the promised land and the deliverance of Rahab and her family from the city of Jericho.

HEBREWS 11:6  “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

REFRESHMENT TIME AGAIN

We all headed to the fellowship hall to enjoy some hotdogs, chips, cakes, cup cakes, etc.

Some non-verbal communications going on here!

GETTING READY TO ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS

After the refreshments, team leaders for the boys and girls, Wayne and Linda Kelley waited anxiously along with the rest of us to see who won; boys or girls. 

Brother Joe High had the total amount of money raised for the three evenings and there was a special plate of something for the winner/looser of the money raising event, of which Wayne or Linda did not know about. 

Brother Joe High made the announcement, whereas the total for the three days was $ 514 dollars and some change with the goal being met.

Joe High announcing that the boys had won the event!

Wayne Kelley had a container that had mushrooms in it and Linda representing the girls was supposed to eat them and she wasn't going for that at all.  Linda had some type of pie filling and if the girls had won, guess what was to happen? 

Crystal High threw some of the pie filling on Linda Kelly and all of us got a big laugh out of that.

They tried to get Wayne Kelly to participate, but he said, "I have to live with that woman" and Wayne is a very smart man indeed!

The Vacation Bible School was definitely a success with the goal being met and the funds raised will definitely help boys and girls in our county that are in need of tennis shoes and socks.

Most importantly, we were taught and learned from God's Holy Word and hopefully, spiritual seeds were planted within our young folks to become productive God fearing Christians, spreading the Gospel to others and being an asset to our local Church, Schools and Community.

Speaking for myself; I had a wonderful time.  "Two of the Greatest Ships that ever Sailed; Friendship and Fellowship."  I give God the praise, glory and honor in all things through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 08-11-18.