autographs, anyone??

(bertha & thelma autographing their pictures on the final night :)) yes, it's thelma and bertha at their finest once again! haha! this summer has been sooo much fun because i got to help out with the summer children's program at church, "out of this world." there have been tons of kids coming every night and now that it's all over i'm so sad!!! due to the sewer backup in our church's basement back in may (i think...maybe it was april?), we have not been able to use the classrooms or rest of the entire basement ever since. so! the upstairs auditorium has been converted to a super cool spaceship for the summer! needless to say, our services have looked a little different on sundays :), but on wednesdays, the adults just met at the rabe's house. the set is soooo much fun, thanks to jes & jules, and the whole idea was to be on a 5-week journey into space with all the kids as visitors on the space ship!! we'd start off the night with songs, then a skit done by a young couple in our church. that included the talking computer "fax" who relayed facts about space to us and how God is the creator of all of the amazing wonders. then we'd get a special message from our space specialist, "spacey cadet" (julie rabe ;)). unfortunately, she would always get interrupted by two very unruly old ladies that happened to be aboard the space ship along with all the kids. :) thelma and bertha got into trouble every week, and even one week thelma touched a button on the control panel that opened a hatch and sucked bertha OUT INTO SPACE!! (gasp) poor bertha was even missing the next week!!! (although some sightings WERE reported around the mayville, michigan area...specifically the uhl farm....hmmmm) :) anyway, after that, we'd hear a bible lesson from a different teacher each week, and finish with some bible memorization. but! the fun wasn't over after that!! cookies and lemonade were in the garage, and then after that we had rocket time!!! each night we had 10 leaders help their individual groups work on the assembly of a REAL rocket!! it was pretty cool if you ask me. :) the final night (just last wedneday) was a real answer to prayer because many bus-kid-parents came and the weather was perfect. the highlight of the night was when everyone drove to the football field in granada, and the finished rockets were set off!!! they went so high you could barely see them in the sky!! thankfully, the rain stopped just enough for the couple hours everyone was on the field eating ice cream (thanks culvers :)) and bars, and watching the rockets. it's been so much fun every wednesday night and i can't believe it's already over! each night those kids were explained a valuable lesson from the bible, as well as the gospel, so even though the summer program is now over, i can be assured God's work isn't :)