Balloons: A tale of Morals and Passion

A couple years ago, I was volunteering at Vacation Bible School. I was scanning through journals recently, and came across this entertaining story that occurred during that time.

During this particular summer, for VBS, I ran the 1st-3rd learning station, which is where emphasis on learning the verse and how the verse applies in life.  

Every day, we unscrambled the words verse (I had two sets of the verse in different colors that I scattered-every word in the verse on individual flash cards-all over the floor. The two teams would have to try to find the correct colored cards and put it completely together before the other team). After both teams had assembled their verses, we would discuss the hard words in the verse(1st-3rd graders do not know what the word "among" means), why some words are there, and overall, make sure everybody understands the meaning of the verse. 
 

Courtesy of Google's free to use images.

After this, I also tried to incorporate an extra game that reinforced some key idea from the verse in it, in hopes that it will help the meaning of the verse to stick in mind.  On Tuesday, the verse was Psalm 56:3, "When I am afraid, I will trust in you."  The emphasis was on trusting God. It is a very simple concept, but sometimes, children-who tend to trust everyone-have a difficult time understanding the real meaning of trust.

So, I did an awful thing to them. I broke their trust a little. I told the kids that the team that got the most whole balloons in their bags by relaying the balloons to the 2 leaders per team that held the bag would win. Every unpopped balloon counted as a point. The thing I did not tell the kids was that back when the group entered the room, I pulled one leader aside, handed that leader a thumb tack, and told her it was her job to pop any balloon that came to her.

And with great excitement, the game began. The children raced fervently, performing their tasks as they toted a balloon to their team's bag, and as each game progressed, the kids slowly caught on that the popping was not accidental. 

Courtesy of Google's free to use images

There was anguish, shock and betrayal in their eyes before they gathered their wits about themselves and began shouting to each other, "Don't take the balloon to him! Not to him! He'll pop it!" At the end of the game, we went into the classroom and counted the balloons and had a discussion that often had to include forgiveness of the poor "bad guy" leader. Most of the discussions went a lot like this one, but only one kid finished the discussion the way this one finished:

"So... one of the leaders kept popping your balloons, and one of the leaders did not pop any.  Which leader are you more likely to give balloons to?" 

THAT ONE! 

"Why?" 

Cuz she didn't pop the balloons! 

"So she proved herself trustworthy?" 

Yes! 

"Because his popping of the balloons wasn't good for you, was it? People earn our trust by doing things that are good for us. What are some things that God has done for us that lets us know we can trust him?" 

And one boy piped up adamantly, casting a glare to the supposedly forgiven leader,

"God didn't pop my balloons, either!"

 And so ended the moral of the day, 

Courtesy of Google's free to use images

Cast all your cares upon God, for he is not a balloon popper... 

 

Whatever you do...

If you go to O'ahu, Hawaii, and you get a chance, go to the botanical forest.  Do it, it's beautiful.

If you go to the rainforest, by all means, stop and read the signs.

If you stop and read all the signs, make sure you follow the ones pointing you to the waterfall.

If you head towards the waterfall, make sure you stop and appreciate the plants

This is not the waterfall, it's just on the way

But you'll get to the waterfall shortly after the paradise lua, and they are in no way linked...

 

And if you have decided to walk out to the waterfall, definitely swim out to the base of it

The water is a bit chilly at first, but by the time you get to the base, it is really nice.

If you decide to go to O'ahu and visit the botanical forest, and walk the paths, and read the signs, and admire the plants, and bypass the Paradise lua and find the waterfall, and swim to the base of the waterfall and walk back, by all means, do it, it will be great!

Whatever you do, though-and this is very important!- WHATEVER you do, DON'T forget the BUG REPELLANT!

 

This photo was taken a few days after the bites were bit, and they were less angry that day.  I was bit 21 times!  Laura... well, she stopped counting after she reached 25.  They itched horribly. I had flashback memories of what the height of my chickenpox felt like.  We used a CVS anti-itch spray(active ingredient: benadryl, I think), benadryl name brand ointment, ice, AfterBite ointment, and finally-in an act of total desperation- Biofreeze(that would be the stronger, icier, and hotter cousin of IcyHot intended for muscle pain).  As my cousin-in-law, Patrick, put it after using Biofreeze on his bug bite, "That feels...better...  well, not so much better...but different.  It burns."  At that point, for Laura and I, the burning was more tolerable, and the temporary numbness was well worth the burning consequences.

Hawaii was fun. I really enjoyed the botanical forest and the waterfall.  The moral of this story? Well, there are actually two.  1) Whatever you do, don't forget the bug spray.  And 2) If you do, well... Biofreeze burns, and sometimes burning is preferable to itching.

Thanks for reading.