Gotta Love Technology

The rest of this week has been dedicated to more office work than time spent with kids. But that's important too. Otherwise, how are you going to come up with the material to do fun activities with them? It goes with the job.

On Thursday, I was introduced to a nifty machine called the Rumage 2000i. It's designed to copy CDs & DVDs at a rapid rate. It's a marvel to watch it go to work. By punching in a few keystrokes (which took some work to get the thing to line up exactly right; otherwise nothing happens), a little magnetic clamp spirals down, picks up a CD and drops it into your input device, where information on your 'dummy' CD is loaded onto it (its designed to do two CDs or DVDs at once). When one finishes, it ejects itself, and the clamp picks it up and loads it into the labeler, which puts a digital coating on the front (or back) of the CD. While it's doing that, the clamp goes back down to pick up another CD and load it, so it's pretty much doing multiple jobs at once.

Needless to say, the Rumage 2000i made copying Vacation Bible School music CDs and training DVDs a snap. I'm very happy to have this, my new best friend (just kidding) in my office space now. Certain to come in handy.

Speaking of VBS CDs, the folks at LifeWay played the efficient card this year. They packed all kinds of goodies such as PowerPoint slides, overhead cels, set-building ideas, clip art and mission videos onto it, in addition to the normal assortment of VBS music. I love it! Makes my job SO much easier. Now if only my laptop could travel...

So anyway I've been in music training mode the past few days. But never fear; VBS songwriter and motions guru Jeff Slaughter is back, and once again, he's done an exceptional job. One thing I've always appreciated about his coaching is that he goes the extra mile and does the moves backwards. Say what, you ask? Well, when you are picking up the motions for a song, there's the whole ordeal about matching your right hand with his right hand and your left foot with his, and so on. It's really hard and feels awkward always checking your alignments with every song. But what Jeff does is he learns the moves and performs them like the children are supposed to do them. It makes the trainee's work simpler because you can move your right hand with his left hand, and vice versa, which just feels more natural to do. So what happens is, you learn the moves backwards, and when you show them to the kids, they will get them the correct way. Hope that makes sense!

You can walk on ice, or take a little hike
Through the land of the midnight sun.
You can travel to the edge of the wilderness
And maybe see a caribou staring back at you.

You can ride a raging river in a tiny canoe
Or chill with your friends in an igloo.
But the coolest attraction in the frozen frontier
Is to learn to follow Jesus without fear.

We're headed to the Arctic Edge
Where adventure meets courage
Arctic Edge
Where adventure meets courage

The Lord commands us to be courageous
Whatever adventure we face, He will be with us
Arctic Edge
Where adventure meets courage
Where adventure meets courage!

More VBS news to come!! Oh Anna, I wish you'd be here. You have no idea what you're going to miss :)