Sermon

"Discovering 

Our Strength in God "

Scripture Lesson

Psalm 24:14b

This Sunday we   will review and embrace the lessons and songs learned at Vacation Bible School last week.  We will talk about how, when we get our strength from God, we too can be super heroes. We will discover that God's heroes have heart, courage, wisdom, hope and power.  We will worship God with our songs and prayers. We will rejoice in the blessing and  privilege  of sharing God's love with the children in our community.

The sanctuary was filled with a lot of excitement with over 120 children and 70+ volunteers throughout the week at this year's Vacation Bible School.  We discovered that when we get our strength from God, we too can be super heroes.  We started the day in Opening Assembly singing songs and learning our hero codes for the day from Flame and Captain Sheep.  The groups then rotated through recreation, snack/mission, crafts, science and story where they explored the hero code of the day and learned more about our Bible Story.  Our hero codes stated that God's heroes have heart, courage, wisdom, hope and power.  We closed the day out with another rally where we checked in on what we learned and sang a few more songs.  The children have been engaged, having fun and getting excited for Jesus! 

A huge thank you to all who helped with Vacation Bible School this year.  What an incredible week it has been and without the hard work of so many people, we couldn't have pulled it off.  A few of the special moments that VBS has created include 

• Bellevue First joining forces with us and the relationships and connections that have grown from it.  

• Children came from our church, preschool and the community to Aldersgate and spent time with friends and made need ones too. 

•  Are youth were present and were able to get to know the kids, adult volunteers and each other better.

• God was with us and his presence was felt with each smile, dance move, hug, question and hero code shared.

• One of our VBS heroes came up to me today and said, "thank you for making this week so much fun. I really like your church. It just makes me feel good. "

Thank you Aldersgate  VBS for being an environment where all of us grow in faith and discover (or rediscover) God's amazing love with a very special community.

We look ahead to another opportunity to serve our local community.  The 13th annual Jubilee Reach Service Day is coming up on August 26th.  It is an opportunity for those of us in a church to assist a school and its teachers in preparing their classrooms for the upcoming year.  We have partnered with Puesta del Sol, the Spanish language school that sits just behind Tyee Middle School.  In other words, it's our neighbor just down the street.  We can choose whether we work in the morning (8:00am-12:00pm) or afternoon (1:00-5:00pm) or both.  Our tasks will be to assist teachers in their classrooms.  Volunteers will be asked to decorate classrooms, organize supplies, create bulletin boards, get desks ready, sort curriculum sheets, and anything else needed by the teacher.  There are no age restrictions, easy access for everyone, and it will be fun and fulfilling.  It's a great opportunity to be in service with a neighbor.  And just a reminder, we've had multiple Aldersgate children attend there, and a number of our preschool families are hoping to send their children there.  So let's step up one more time, knowing that service is a part of our mission. 

            I'll be putting up more information on a couple of bulletin boards, and begin to promote Jubilee Reach Service Day more fully.  So, mark your calendars for August 26th, and let's help out our local schools, and particularly our neighbor, Puesta del Sol.  Look for the sign-up sheets in the very near future.   Thanks, Aldersgate!!!