Tribal Challenge

This last week, Zach has been working so hard with the rest of the children's staff to prepare for this huge event that they're having right now at church. The kids and I got to come and have a picinic dinner and check it out. It was amazing- seriously Zach and the rest of the staff just put on the most amazing events. Sometimes his job description calls for him to be a major event planner, and he does great with it! This event was for 2nd-6th graders, and it is called Tribal Challenge. From 6:30-9:30 they got to play in bounce houses (like 10 of them), there was a fear factor type show with a huge snake (that Teda and Dane actually petted- see picture below), a gross tarantula, and scorpion too; a reptile exhibit; carnival style games; battle zone- including blow dart marshmallow gun fights; snacks; and here was my favorite part- a polynesian dancing show! It was incredible- I don't know how they can move their hips that way! Very cool. And there was I would guess maybe 1500 kids there, and there really wasn't chaos like you would imagine with that many kids running around. It was so very well organized and the kids were split up into tribes (and even got a buff like they do on Survivor) with a leader, and had a certain amount of time at each "station" or area. Now they had the help of TONS of volunteers as well. It was just really cool. I love to get to go and see something that Zach has worked so hard to help put together. They're so good at what they do- and the kids I'm sure had a blast!

Once 9:30 hit, the 2nd-5th graders go home, and that's when the real fun started for the 6th graders. They are having a lock in (where you stay at church all night). And from 12am-3am, they'll be bused to Castles N Coasters where they have the whole park to themselves. Crazy! Then they'll come back to the church for more fun. Probably not much sleeping will be happening tonight. Poor Zach is going to be exhausted! But it will be worth it- this is creating amazing memories for these kids, and in an environment where Jesus is the most important thing. Pretty cool! I can definitely say that our church sure isn't boring! :)