There’s nothing as much fun as 150 kids plus their leaders singing VBS songs at the top of their lungs, and doing the hand motions with every ounce of enthusiasm they can muster! Our church’s week of VBS is just behind us, and I can’t stop thinking about it.
First of all, we are so blessed to have a coordinator who has a love and passion for VBS. She loves kids, absolutely, but she loves Jesus even more. While running a ministry for moms, she started realizing how many of them first came to know Christ as children. When asked, so many of them said “VBS” when asked where they first heard the gospel. That created an absolute fire in her heart for our local children. She won’t turn anyone away – even if we seem full, she will find a way to include one more child, one more family, one more set of siblings. She knows how much it matters for eternity. I want to say thank you to her, for listening to the still small voice of the Lord in leading this ministry.
I had the absolute joy of getting to teach the Bible lesson again this year, and the spine-tingling, goosebump-producing honor of giving out God’s Word to those children that do not have a Bible of their very own. Every single day, we tell the kids where to find that day’s lesson in the Bible. Every single day we teach them it is important to look into God’s word and read the lesson for themselves. Every single day we try to help them understand the reality of Scripture by connecting the times and places they find in their Bibles with the history and geography they already know.
And you know what? They get it!
Last year, I told you we had a real, honest-to-goodness miracle when we went to hand out the Bibles. We just didn’t have enough. We raided the Sunday school shelves, and yet needed more. The precious and amazing fact was that like the oil & the flour of the Old Testament, we did not run out. Each child who needed one was able to take home their very own Bible.
So, this year we were ready! Our VBS coordinator ordered 60 Bibles – MORE than enough by half. We figured we may have ordered enough for two years, really. On Tuesday we asked the kids how many of them had their very own Bible. We noted who did not, and planned for that many Bibles. I thought we would be giving out about 26, and brought three dozen into the classroom just in case.
But, then the amazing thing happened. The kids SAW the Bibles, and started saying, “OH, these Bibles have all the WORDS in them!” Many of them had little preschool Bible storybooks, and just realized that the Children’s Bibles we were giving them had “all the verses.” These NIRV Bibles are set at about a 3rd or 4th grade reading level, so they are very accessible, but they really do have every single verse of Scripture (and some cool maps and pictures too!).
So how many children do YOU think did not have a Bible with “all the verses” in it? How many needed God’s word in their hands? Remember, we had sixty Bibles.
Yes, sixty children needed God’s Word that Thursday. Not one Bible was left. Not one child asked for a Bible that did not get one. God made sixty appointments happen that day.
I don’t know who was more excited! The adults handing out the Bibles, and helping the kids write their names in the front were thrilled. The kids receiving the Bibles were over-the-moon happy. And their friends who brought them, the children watching, they were jumping up and down excited too – so happy for their friends.
Isn’t God just good?
Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” – Luke 18:16
For the Sake of the Gospel!
Cara & Patti
Classic Christianity
First of all, we are so blessed to have a coordinator who has a love and passion for VBS. She loves kids, absolutely, but she loves Jesus even more. While running a ministry for moms, she started realizing how many of them first came to know Christ as children. When asked, so many of them said “VBS” when asked where they first heard the gospel. That created an absolute fire in her heart for our local children. She won’t turn anyone away – even if we seem full, she will find a way to include one more child, one more family, one more set of siblings. She knows how much it matters for eternity. I want to say thank you to her, for listening to the still small voice of the Lord in leading this ministry.
I had the absolute joy of getting to teach the Bible lesson again this year, and the spine-tingling, goosebump-producing honor of giving out God’s Word to those children that do not have a Bible of their very own. Every single day, we tell the kids where to find that day’s lesson in the Bible. Every single day we teach them it is important to look into God’s word and read the lesson for themselves. Every single day we try to help them understand the reality of Scripture by connecting the times and places they find in their Bibles with the history and geography they already know.
And you know what? They get it!
Last year, I told you we had a real, honest-to-goodness miracle when we went to hand out the Bibles. We just didn’t have enough. We raided the Sunday school shelves, and yet needed more. The precious and amazing fact was that like the oil & the flour of the Old Testament, we did not run out. Each child who needed one was able to take home their very own Bible.
So, this year we were ready! Our VBS coordinator ordered 60 Bibles – MORE than enough by half. We figured we may have ordered enough for two years, really. On Tuesday we asked the kids how many of them had their very own Bible. We noted who did not, and planned for that many Bibles. I thought we would be giving out about 26, and brought three dozen into the classroom just in case.
But, then the amazing thing happened. The kids SAW the Bibles, and started saying, “OH, these Bibles have all the WORDS in them!” Many of them had little preschool Bible storybooks, and just realized that the Children’s Bibles we were giving them had “all the verses.” These NIRV Bibles are set at about a 3rd or 4th grade reading level, so they are very accessible, but they really do have every single verse of Scripture (and some cool maps and pictures too!).
So how many children do YOU think did not have a Bible with “all the verses” in it? How many needed God’s word in their hands? Remember, we had sixty Bibles.
Yes, sixty children needed God’s Word that Thursday. Not one Bible was left. Not one child asked for a Bible that did not get one. God made sixty appointments happen that day.
I don’t know who was more excited! The adults handing out the Bibles, and helping the kids write their names in the front were thrilled. The kids receiving the Bibles were over-the-moon happy. And their friends who brought them, the children watching, they were jumping up and down excited too – so happy for their friends.
Isn’t God just good?
Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” – Luke 18:16
For the Sake of the Gospel!
Cara & Patti
Classic Christianity
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