Dots and Dashes Ministry

This…

Last night of our VBS. Somebody's getting saved tonight. Somebody's going home different. That's why we do this. 🕯️

Ain’t no tired like VBS tired. And if you’ve ever led a VBS week you already know exactly what I mean. 😴

But here’s what I also know - you know who shows up when you’re out there teaching the gospel to children? The enemy does. And this week we reminded him: Not this week. Not today. Not ever. 😤

Tonight is our Family Night Finale for Illumination Station VBS and I have been looking forward to this night for over a month. Not just because it means the finish line is close - honestly I’m going to miss these kids terribly when it’s over. When the decorations come down and the church goes back to quiet I will feel every bit of it.

But that’s the thing about VBS. You pour everything you have into a week and then you trust God with what happens next. In the hearts of those kids. In the families who walked through the doors. In the seeds that were planted.

I can’t wait to see what He does with tonight. And with all of it after tonight. That part is just getting started. 🌟

If you’re a children’s ministry leader in the middle of your own VBS season right now - you’ve got this. Keep going. It is worth every single tired. 💡

Pray for the child who almost didn't come back today. But did. 🌷

It's VBS Sunday for us! Somewhere a child is picking out their outfit. Somewhere a volunteer is triple-checking their room. And somewhere God is already at work. Let's GO. 🔦 "

🌟 Decoration day is DONE and VBS starts TOMORROW.

Let’s be honest. Nobody warned you that children’s ministry would turn you into part interior designer, part electrician, part craft supply hoarder, and part person who genuinely gets emotional over foil curtains.

And yet. Here we are.

This is what showing up looks like. It’s late nights and hot glue burns. It’s “I found these at the salvage store for a dollar” becoming a centerpiece. It’s your husband still tweaking the light brite cross while you’re arranging star-shaped beverage dispensers and wondering how your life got this beautiful.

When everyone had left and everything was cleaned up, I just sat in the glow for a few minutes.

And I cried a little. Because this is it. This is the thing. The foil and the glitter and the dollar store finds and the volunteers who showed up - it all points to one thing.

He is the light of the world. And tomorrow we get to tell kids that.

If you’re in the thick of your own VBS prep right now - keep going. It is so worth it.

John 8:12 - I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

✨ Illumination Station starts TOMORROW. Let’s go.

Y’all. Software issues. Two Walmart trips. A delivery order for the thing I forgot. A decoration project. A peaceful moment on the porch waiting for that delivery where I just stood there and felt the breeze and honestly - felt God.

And then while I was working on that decoration project, Forrest Frank’s “Okay” came on and y’all - I needed that song in that moment. Like it was put there on purpose.

And then right before bed when I thought I’d knock out one quick thing before I called it a night?

The printer threw an error. 😂

And here’s what I noticed. I wasn’t stressed. I was just… OKAY. Already thinking about the workaround. Already telling myself tomorrow is another day.

That’s not me. That’s what peace that passes understanding actually feels like when it shows up in real life. Not in the big dramatic moments. In the Friday night printer error moments.

VBS prep is rarely glamorous. It’s Walmart runs and software glitches and pivoting and piddling and figuring it out as you go.

But God’s peace doesn’t wait for everything to go right before it shows up.

It meets you on the porch in a June breeze. And in a song that hits at exactly the right moment.

And somehow that’s enough to face whatever the printer has going on in the morning. 💜

OKAY! - Forrest Frank || AMV || Sonic The Hedgehog 🎬 Sonic Fan Music Video.This fan-made music video features clips from the Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), KNUCKLES (2024), and the S...

She thinks she’s just helping mama hang streamers. 😄

But what’s actually happening is so much bigger than that. Every time we let our kids work beside us in ministry - even in the small things - we are planting something in them that goes way deeper than streamers and silver walls.

They’re learning that the church is worth showing up for. That serving is just what our family does. That their hands matter in God’s work too.

My daughter didn’t ask for a theology lesson today. She just came to help her mama. But I have a feeling God was teaching her something anyway.

That’s how it works sometimes. 💜

Are you even a VBS volunteer if you haven’t had paste under your fingernails by Tuesday? 😂

This right here is the glamorous side of children’s ministry that nobody talks about. Newspaper. Flour paste. A balloon. And a vision.

Because in a few days this soggy ball of Carroll County news is going to be a disco ball hanging in a fellowship hall full of kids hearing about Jesus.

That’s the thing about serving in ministry - it rarely looks pretty in the middle. The prep work is messy. The hours are long. Nobody sees most of it.

But God does. And the kids will.

And that’s enough. 🌟

Y’all. NEXT year’s VBS theme just dropped.

And I found out about it standing in the Walmart aisle, picking up more stuff for THIS year’s VBS to-do list. 😂

Lifeway just announced their 2027 theme - Take Flight - and the second I saw it, my brain did that thing where it just… took off. Hot air balloon. Biplane. Parachute. Station names. Volunteer titles. Centerpiece ideas.

And then I had to laugh at myself. Because honey, I haven’t even gotten through Sunday yet. The cart wasn’t even unloaded.

But here’s what I couldn’t shake after I put my phone down and kept shopping:

That theme. Trusting God’s Faithfulness Above All. Psalm 100:5.

It wasn’t just a cute VBS tagline on my screen. It felt like a word for RIGHT NOW. For every children’s minister, every VBS director, every volunteer who is tired and excited and overwhelmed and grateful all at the same time this week.

His faithfulness isn’t just for the big moments. It’s for the Tuesday night when the craft supply order is wrong. It’s for the Sunday morning when half your volunteers text in sick. It’s for the in-between, the behind-the-scenes, the nobody-saw-that moments that make up most of this work.

You don’t have to have it all figured out. You just have to trust the One who does.

So yeah - I’ll be dreaming about 2027 eventually. But right now? I’m showing up for 2026. And I’m trusting that the same God who is faithful through ALL generations is faithful through this one crazy, beautiful, exhausting, holy week too.

See you on the other side of Illumination Station. 🌟