Goldfish and Honey

Continuing on the Sons of Jacob theme...

My church just finished VBS this past week, so on Sunday the kids were a big part of the service. During the week, each group was named after one of the tribes of Israel, so we had Joseph, Levi, Judah, etc. This in itself was slightly odd, because as I walked in the balk of the sanctuary on Sunday, there were a bunch of signs across the back with a name of one of the tribes on each one. Since this was the morning after card day, my first thought when I saw the signs was, "Gee, Gad is a card in the Reclamation deck I was using last night. And Joseph too!" 

Side note: One of the things I'm looking forward to with the Reclamation game is its ability to help me remember some of the smaller characters and events in the Bible. If you doubt this ability, then you have not seen my friends and I rattling off the names of almost all of the aliens in the Cantina in Star Wars. Credit that to the Star Wars card game we play.

Anyway, back to the VBS service. During the week, the kids were trying to raise money to buy sandals for kids in Sudan, most of which do not own and shoes at all. Many of them develop permanent problems with their feet while walking to and from school, for instance, as they can easily cut their feet on glass, rocks, etc. The goal was to try to raise $300, which would be enough to buy around 120 pairs of sandals. After the first 2 days, they had only raised about $90, so the stakes were raised. If the kids could hit the $300 goal, the tribe that raised the most money would get to pour honey on the head of our children's paster (no idea where they came up with that idea). Well, suffice it to say, that goal was quickly reached.

The children's paster then had another great idea. if they could get to $500 by the end of the week, Pastor Nate would eat a goldfish. Final collection amount: $680. With the collection we took at the Sunday service, we ended up raising about $860 for the Sandals for Sudan project, which should be able to purchase about 350 pairs of sandals for kids. Praise God!

Pastor Nate said at the beginning of the service on Sunday that we would see a few things we'd never seen in a church service before. He was right! First, we saw him eat a goldfish (Silas during the first service, and Peter during the second service) in front of everyone. I was a little sad for the poor little goldfish, but it was for a good cause. Then they brought one o those kiddie pools up front and our children's paster sat in it. Each kid from the winning tribe of Joseph got their own bottle of honey (that's a lot of honey!) and poured it all over her head, shirt, face, etc. I can't wait to see the pictures!

DotD: Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2007 3-user pack - $0.00 - Continuing yesterday's streak of free stuff. I purchased this about 6 months ago for myself, and now it's on sale again. The rebates from Symantec are really quick (much better than the normal 6-8 weeks for other rebates), and arrive in the form of a Visa debit card that you can use pretty much anywhere. Plus, with this 3-user pack, you can use it on up to three computers. Even if you already have Norton AntiVirus but your subscription is expiring, this is a great free way to give yourself 1 more year, plus you get the new version at the same time.