On Saturday, April 13th, after obtaining the blessing of my husband, I approached our priest about Catholic Vacation Bible School. You see, Catholic Vacation Bible School is a big deal at our house. My kids think it's cool to go to "school" at the Catholic school building for a week. And, what's not to love about our Catholic Vacation Bible School? Ours is so beautifully Catholic. For as long as we've been parishioners, CVBS was run by a truly beautiful woman. Jean became ill last year and went on permanent disability, much to everyone's sadness. She.was.AMAZING! A beautiful woman filled in for her managing the Religious Education program at church, but when I asked her, "What about CVBS?" She said they would need to find someone else. She wouldn't be able to do it...then she asked, "What about you?"
She said this within earshot of someone who knew I loved the program and she chimed in, "Yeah, Cathie, what about you?" I said my husband would never let me...So, I went home. I didn't ask. I simply said, "They have no one to run CVBS this year!" His reply, "Why don't you do it?"
I was floored. I did not expect him to authorize it, let alone suggest it! So, I asked Father if they had anyone to run it. He said they did not and asked me to call the parish office and let them know and someone would be getting back to me. Without Jean there was a big, big hole there, not just for CVBS, but for Religious Ed, Sacraments and Special Events.
So, I called. And I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, I got a call back on April 25th from the principal of the Catholic school. She had offered to manage the CVBS position, whomever filled it. I went in for an interview on May 1st and on May 8th, I became a temporary employee of the church.
That is when the ball got rolling. I had 6 1/2 weeks to put together a curriculum (using a curriculum that really didn't have a workbook or full teacher's manual), plan art, music, snacks, and well, the entire program based on the fact that Father had arranged for a traveling relics exposition to be shown to the children at 1pm on the last day of CVBS. Someone else had decorations, which was a blessing, considering I'm not a highly visual person. However, I had details Jean had never had to deal with before, like serving lunch and going past noon on Friday. So, I picked a curriculum that was based on the martyrs and persecution in the early Church (I had two from which to choose). It seemed fitting, considering what our country is doing right now and how our religious freedoms are being taken away left and right.
So, fast forward five weeks...the curriculum and workbook are done, the teacher's manual is done, all the supplies for art had arrived. However, my decorating person wasn't able to help, so I ended up taking that, too, but in the end it ended alright. We managed to make it look festive, but not too campy. I did teacher training, I had no less than 50 people help me set up classrooms, stuff confirmation letters, assemble manuals, put together art kits, assemble teacher's supplies and decorate. Did I mention I have the very best friends in the whole wide world???? One of them blogged about CVBS the week it happened because I was a little busy.
This is Margaret's beautiful bunch of kids in front of our "Communion of Saints." She ran my nursery, which meant she took care of my beloved 4 year old who wasn't quite ready for the 4 year old class. By the way, her eldest two took on the 4 year old class and lived to tell about it! See, they are even smiling? And this was toward the end!
I had the time of my life. It was truly a wonderful experience, filled with graces I never expected and some difficulties I never expected. But the blessings and graces outweighed the difficulties easily 2 to 1...
I may post more details as the week goes on, but I wanted to let you all know I survived and loved to tell about it!!! (Spelling error totally intended there...)
