Catch a Connecting Flight with Parents of VBS Kids

While your Amazing Wonders Aviation flight has probably landed, your bags are unpacked, and you are already dreaming about your VBS 2013 destination, some essential follow-up can still take off for 2012. Candace offered some great follow-up suggestions last Wednesday at 
http://lifewayvbs.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/vbs-follow-up/
.

Here’s another great way to consider connecting specifically with the parents of VBS kids. If your church did not purchase the VBS 2012 Family Flight Log Parent Guide: Logging Time Together to Discover God’s Amazing Power! (005404243), mailing a copy of this small “flight log” that reinforces the Amazing truths kids learned about God’s power can be a great way to connect with parents.

The guide contains five daily devotions for families, fun activities to do as a family, and the ABCs of Becoming a Christian. It’s a great way for parents to reinforce what kids learned during VBS, and it’s an excellent opportunity for churches to let parents know they care about their kids and them as a family. The guide is an inexpensive way, priced at $3.49 for a package of 10, to connect with parents as the summer comes to a close and families begin to get back in normal routines.

Visit your local LifeWay Christian Store soon while VBS supplies are still available and purchase enough packages to send to all your VBS kids. Don’t miss this opportunity to make another connecting flight on AWA airlines!

VBS + Missions = Winning Combination

Missions Under the Northern Lights for VBS 2012 features five missionaries and their stories on how God is working in their lives and their ministries. Three of the stories were provided by the International Mission Board (IMB) and two of the stories were provided by the North American Mission Board (NAMB). The VBS 2012 Missions Rotation Leader Guide features a DVD with five videos and some video extras to use as you teach the Missions rotation. To get up-to-date information and the latest prayer requests from each of the five missionaries, click here.

The Day 1 video “Sweet Flight to Amazon Jungle” features missionary pilot Andy Kennedy. You can find his update here!

On Day 2, the video titled “God’s Power Over the Arctic” featured John Forrester. Due to a NAMB personnel change since this video was produced, another missionary family serving in Kotzebue, Alaska is featured in the missionary update. You can find the story for Matt and Tammy Hoke here.

The latest update for Day 3′s “The Mahafaly of Madagascar” featuring IMB missionaries Grant and Jodie Waller is available here.

The Day 4 story of “Chaps and the Big E” highlights Navy Chaplain Fred Holcombe and his ministry on the USS Enterprise. Check out his update and prayer requests.

Day 5 featured a 12-year-old deaf girl who went on a mission trip with her dad when she was 10 years old to lead a VBS in El Pozon, Colombia. The missionaries who work with the Deaf in Colombia are Charles and Betty Thomas* (names changed). You can find information on their ministry here.

One last update is on the “Northern Necessities” mission project. The website listed in the Missions Rotation Leader guide and on the “Northern Necessities Poster” (Insert Item 4) is currently under construction. The tab “How You Can Help” is currently unavailable. You can see the information about ways to help by visiting this link. Please note that it will be helpful to First Baptist of Kotzebue if you will mail the items your church collects to the church’s post office box. The address is P.O. Box 26, Kotzebue, Alaska 99752.

Keep these missionaries and their ministries in your prayers. With kids and leaders in VBS praying for the specific prayer requests of these missionaries, big things will happen!

VBS Snack Queen Retires

In November, 2010, we posted a blog about Shirley Smith, our resident LifeWay VBS Snack Queen. You can read the blog at 
http://www2.lifeway.com/vbs2011/yourvbs/index.php/updates/article/1657
. Shirley was a member of the VBS team for many years. She has the gift of hospitality and loves sharing through the gift of food.

Shirley is the one on the far left in this VBS team Christmas get-together from a few years ago.

With Shirley’s talent and skills in baking, cooking, and making VBS snacks look wonderful, it’s not surprising that she would use her gifts to help with creating and testing VBS snacks since 1997. She began making themed snacks for our VBS writer’s conference and then moved on to helping with testing of the snacks in 2002. She has been very helpful in making snacks for photo shoots for the VBS Snack Rotation Cards and for the VBS catalog and Promo Video Shoots.

Sample of snacks made by Shirley for photo shoot

Even though some organizational restructuring moved Shirley off the VBS team a couple of years ago, she continued to be a vital part of getting VBS products to the printers on time and to help us when it was time to make VBS snacks. The VBS team is indebted to her for all the ways she has contributed to making VBS resources the best they can be to make a difference in the lives of boys and girls and their families.

Shirley with her family at her LifeWay retirement reception

Shirley will be retiring from LifeWay this Friday. The VBS team will miss her, but I am sure she will still be a vital part of making VBS snacks in the future! Thank you, Shirley, for all you have done and all you will continue to do for the kingdom! We love you!!

Claiming God’s Power Over Our Lives

His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3

I love this Bible verse, which is the Day 5 Bible verse in Amazing Wonders Aviation. As we start a new year full of questions, concerns, and possibly a few surprises, it is so encouraging to know that we have everything we need to be equipped for whatever the new year brings.

We can serve Him and worship Him in so many ways because He has given us the ability to do so. Whether this is your first time to teach VBS, your first time to participate in an overseas mission trip, or you have other ministry opportunities that you were not expecting in 2012, God has given you “everything required for life and godliness.”  We cannot do big things for God in our own power, but we can do impossible things for Him through His power.

Whatever God wants us to accomplish for Him in 2012 can be considered done! We’ll have everything we need to complete the task! What is God equipping you to do in 2012?

 

VBS Kits for Kids–Connecting Kids Who Care with Kids in Need

It’s mid-August and that means it’s been back-to-school time for many states. That also means many families have done some back-to-school shopping! Number 2 pencils, scissors, and rulers may have been on the list! These items were also on the list of needed supplies for the VBS Kits for Kids project that many churches participated in as part of the Missions Rotation of Big Apple Adventure. The kits for kids collected during VBS have been making their way to the warehouse in Richmond, Virginia. Over 5600 kits have been received as you can see from this Web site: www.vbskitsforkids.com. However, if your church has not mailed your kits to the warehouse, many more kits are still needed. The deadline for shipping the kits to the warehouse is October 31, 2011.

The address to mail the kits is: Baptist Global Response, c/o A&O Services, 2109 Loumour Avenue, Richmond, VA  23230-4109. From this warehouse, the kits will be mailed to children living outside the U.S. to children who need educational supplies in order to attend school. Many of these children may be living in poverty areas, where their families cannot afford to purchase these supplies or in areas of recent disasters, where the supplies are not available.

Also, if your church collected offerings to help with this project, you can mail a check to Baptist Global Response, 402 BNA Drive, Suite 411, Nashville, TN 37217 or make a donation online at www.gobgr.org. These offerings will help with shipping costs to get these supplies to children who really need them.

If you are looking for a mission project for your kids to be involved in, between now and the end of October, you can find the shopping list of school supplies for the kits for kids at: www.baptistglobalresponse.com/kitsforkids/pdf/shopping%20list.pdf. More kits are needed and it’s a great way to connect kids who care with kids in need!