FBC Winters LOVES VBS!

As I have told you before, one of the most rewarding aspects of my job is being privileged  to hear and read the great stories and reports of churches witnessing and experiencing transformation through the ministry of VBS. Here is one such story:

“I have a wonderful report for FBC Winters (California) Amazing Wonders Aviation VBS this year! We had a total of 69 children attend AWA VBS in June, which we conducted as a 5-day, 3-hour evening program. The kids had a ton of fun, of course, but the most exciting news is that 20 children were saved during VBS this year. Praise The Lord!

My volunteer staff of 55 workers and I really enjoyed the aviation theme this year. We’ve all been flying high for Jesus ever since, along with plenty of the VBS kids. With prayer and staff evaluations guiding me, I decided to extend 2012 VBS with a weekly summer VBS program, held on Wednesday nights for eight weeks. The attendance of this ‘pilot’ project was also a success, with an average of 15-20 children attending each week.

This has lead to a new ministry at FBCW for elementary age children – Wacky Wednesdays! There has been a ton of support from the FBCW congregation to get Wacky Wednesdays up and flying. A unanimous vote at our church business meeting to approve this new ministry, hundreds of dollars in designaed donations, snacks provided by our church food closet, and a talented volunteer teaching staff have Wacky Wednesdays taking off! Now, every Wednesday night from 6:30 – 7:30, the children of the Winters community have an opportunity to worship The Lord at an abbreviated VBS-style evening program. All because God’s good and faithful servants have once again come together to do His work.

FBC Winters LOVES VBS!

Sincerely,

Julie

VBS Director”

Julie, to you and the thousands of leaders (faithful servants) who make VBS possible – THANK YOU!

Foto Friday!

The summer is beginning to wind down, but that hasn’t slowed down the photo-sharing!  Many churches are still in the midst of VBS, so the pictures just keep coming!  Big church or little church, it’s really cool to see how God uses VBS in so many different ways to convey one simple message:  Jesus saves.  I’m so excited to share another round of VBS 2012 photos with you!

Fanny Grote shared these photos from East Shore Baptist Church, Harrisburg, PA. They used VBS materials while on their mission trip to Jamaica! They reported 6 decisions for Christ from their VBS.

Another great photo from East Shore Baptist Church, Harrisburg, PA who used VBS materials on their trip to Jamaica!

Sally Crank shared this photo from water day at Sparks Christian Fellowship in Sparks, NV. “Our Amazing Wonders week was July 9-12, 2012. We ended with 193 kids and 161 volunteers. It was an amazing week full of Gods awesome power!!! The kids had a ball, the volunteers went above and beyond. Cant wait until next year!! It is definitely my favorite week of the summer!!”

DezaRay shared this photo from New Pilgrim Baptist Church, Salt Lake City, Utah. I thought it was so creative of them to decorate outside for recreation! How creative! “We had an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G time decorating in and outside our church for VBS!”

Neal Cox shared this photo of an AWA plane at The Bible Temple in Coward SC. “The plane is made from insulation foam and covered with conact paper and is assembled like a giant balsa plane.”  Very cool!

Cathy Mattingly and Brenda Nelson, co-directors of VBS at West Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville, KY shared that they included radio-controlled airplane flight simulator training with their Amazing Wonders Aviation VBS. WOW! Cathy said the kids had an absolute blast!!

Here’s another fun photo from Cathy and Brenda at West Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville, KY.  Love that propellor! 

Marsha Henderson from Bear Creek Baptist Church in Houston, TX shared this photo with us. “Here is our version of the Great Barrier Reef. We had such a great week with over 1000 kids. 100 kids accepted Christ as their Savior!!!! Can’t wait till next year!!!!”

Here’s a teaser for next week. I can’t wait to share all the photos from Church on the Queensway in Toronto Ontario, Canada– a church that does VBS REALLY BIG!

 

If you’d like to share your VBS photos and stores, post them to our Facebook page, or send them to me in an email at katie.decillo@lifeway.com.  Make sure you include the name of your church and a description of the photo!  Image size must be a minimum of 1024×678 in order to be shared on the blog.  Happy weekend!

VBS at Parkway Baptist Church

VBS is always fun at our small church and somewhat a bit challenging. For the last 9 years our church has been meeting in a local middle school. We usually run anywhere from 150-250  in Sunday worship. So that means space and volunteers can be somewhat limiting. But God is faithful and each year we have exactly what we need to host an amazing VBS experience for our community (we have babies through adult classes).

This year I led the fourth grade class using the AWA curriculum. It was amazing (no pun intended, just the best word to describe VBS). Each night attendance went up and more children were exposed to the gospel. Relationships where built and visitors attended worship the following Sunday.

One of the biggest blessing was seeing one of our youth who made a profession of faith during VBS be baptized in a nearby lake two weeks after VBS. We are looking forward to seeing the seeds that were planted come to fruition through God’s amazing power.

Say Y-E-S to Preschool V-B-S!

VBS season is in full swing & while all of you have been gearing up for VBS in your churches, all of us on the VBS team have been doing the same thing! It is so wonderful to get to experience VBS “from the trenches”… not as a job but as Kingdom work! I taught kindergartners this year… 31 of them, in fact! Out of those 31, only 7 were from my church. VBS really is an incredible outreach tool!

This year, my church tried something a little bit different. We added a second worship rally to our schedule that was specifically for preschoolers & kindergartners. The morning kicked off for 1^st-6^th graders with the traditional Worship Rally, but preschoolers started the morning in their respective rooms. Then at 9:40 (when all of the big kids had cleared out), we got to fly in for a worship rally designed just for us! We had a fabulous leader who basically modified the preschool music rotation teaching plans so that we could sing songs, play instruments, move around, and talk about the daily Bible stories in ways that just wouldn’t fly if preteens were in the room. But it was perfect for preschoolers! We even had time for offerings and practicing the theme song each day.

The kids’ favorite song from the week had to be one called “Always”… and it played a significant part in one of my all-time favorite VBS memories. The song lyrics are almost identical to preschool’s Day 2 verse: “Be strong. Do not be afraid. God is with you” (Joshua 1:9). On Wednesday morning one of my kindergartners came in the door and walked straight to me. “Miss Melita,” she said, “last night at bedtime I got kind of scared. But then I remembered that song. I sang it to myself probably 4-20 times. And you know what? It worked! God was with me, and I wasn’t afraid anymore.”

WOW! A 6-year-old child connected the truth of the Bible to a real life situation because she had “hidden it in her heart” through song. Wow! That’s what it’s all about!

Here’s a little video of “Always” from our preschool worship rally. And if you’re really good, you might be able to catch a glimpse of Gordon, too! Enjoy!

Always — preschool worship rally

Easy Peasy 2012 VBS Director’s Evaluations

I know you’ve just seen months of planning come to fruition and all you really want to to is sit back and relax. But if you could, do one more thing. Just one and I promise to make it as easy as possible.

We want to hear from you. Please fill out the VBS Director’s Evaluations online here or you can complete a paper copy from the 2012 Administrative Guide and mail it in to the address on the form. That’s it! Easy peasy, right? And I promise I will read every one and pass along all your comments, thoughts, and suggestions to the VBS team to help us evaluate what you need for VBS to be easy for you.