Every summer, ready or not, VBS time seems to show up around here, And so for this year, we decided to do something different (imagine that). After much deliberating over even having VBS because it basically throws a lot of money for a few days of fun for church kids, Chris and I came up with the idea to do it NOT at church but in the community instead. There is a specific park and community that our church has invested in since Christmas time of last year and we knew that that was the place to hold VBS.
So, we got our most creative people on it and came up with ideas to take VBS to a park. and ya know what? it was AWESOME!! We had such a great time and neighborhood kids came out. We don't do a week long VBS instead we do a weekend (Friday night, a long Saturday, and Sunday morning - at church). It was so awesome on Sunday morning because Sunday morning we had 15 kids come from the community on the bus to church. 15 may not seem like alot to you but to us it was huge! The most kids we've ever had on the bus since it started running - which was some time last year. and it's not just that it's 15 kids, it's that it's 15 kids that we had the opportunity to teach that with King Jesus and HIS armor, we can battle the things that come against us in our lives. 15 kids that we were able to share the HOPE of Jesus with. It was interesting to me because after Sunday's celebration I was talking to some of the girls that come on the bus and telling them that we really hope that they had a good time and that we'd love to see them again and one of the girls told me that they sometimes go to another church with their mom but that this week she didn't have the money for gas to drive to church or even to the grocery store so the only way they could go to church was on our bus. In that moment I was reminded that even in middle class suburban NC, there are real people with real needs and we have the opportunity to meet physical needs if we take the opportunity to stop and have a conversation.
So anyway, on to the pictures.... we (not me but creative people) made a castle that was set up on a basketball court. They did such a great job!
So, we got our most creative people on it and came up with ideas to take VBS to a park. and ya know what? it was AWESOME!! We had such a great time and neighborhood kids came out. We don't do a week long VBS instead we do a weekend (Friday night, a long Saturday, and Sunday morning - at church). It was so awesome on Sunday morning because Sunday morning we had 15 kids come from the community on the bus to church. 15 may not seem like alot to you but to us it was huge! The most kids we've ever had on the bus since it started running - which was some time last year. and it's not just that it's 15 kids, it's that it's 15 kids that we had the opportunity to teach that with King Jesus and HIS armor, we can battle the things that come against us in our lives. 15 kids that we were able to share the HOPE of Jesus with. It was interesting to me because after Sunday's celebration I was talking to some of the girls that come on the bus and telling them that we really hope that they had a good time and that we'd love to see them again and one of the girls told me that they sometimes go to another church with their mom but that this week she didn't have the money for gas to drive to church or even to the grocery store so the only way they could go to church was on our bus. In that moment I was reminded that even in middle class suburban NC, there are real people with real needs and we have the opportunity to meet physical needs if we take the opportunity to stop and have a conversation.
So anyway, on to the pictures.... we (not me but creative people) made a castle that was set up on a basketball court. They did such a great job!
The kids went into the castle for their story time each day
The cutest knight around :)
Sir James was our MC for the event
Worship Time
Snacks
Games
yet another pretty cute knight
Tug of War - I love seeing Cadence with other kids.
She had so much fun and was such a great leader in her age group.
kids against leaders tug of war :)
and our poor littles - VBS is exhausting!
even when you're not there....they stayed with babysitters at a house because the park really wasn't conducive to them. But this is still what the afternoon of Saturday looked like for them.
3 comments:
I love this idea so much!!!
So proud of you and Critterfer for thinking out of the box, taking the gospel into the world! Jesus smiled and so did I. Great Job!
I agree with Rachael.... this is such a great / better idea for VBS! And that castle is way cool.
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