Back More than 1,200 kids saddled up for Vacation Bible School 2010
July 19th, 2010
Last week, more than 1,200 children and 500 volunteers saddled up their horses and rode out to Saddle Ridge Ranch at Brentwood Baptist for Vacation Bible School (VBS) 2010.
New to this year's line-up, the six-month-old Church At Station Hill (Brentwood Baptist's south campus) partnered with our main campus to conduct VBS. Zach Van Gieson, Children's Minister at Station Hill, said, "We saw the value of being a regional campus. We were able to plug into the existing infrastructure of Brentwood Baptist and allow our people to serve and use their gifts for the kingdom."
During the week, children from both campuses—four years old to fifth grade—rounded up questions like: Who am I? Does God care about me? What is God's plan for me? How can I be like Jesus? What do I do now? And each day at noon, they road off into the sunset with answers straight from the Bible.
In addition to daily Bible study, the children participated in recreation, worship, arts and crafts, and more. Each day, they learned about missionaries around the world and ultimately gave more than $1,100 in offerings for missions.
School children in kindergarten through fifth grade attended an opening worship rally every day where Van Gieson shared the day's lesson with the whole group. Back in their classrooms, the teachers went in-depth, explaining the Bible story and verse.
Wednesday was "ABC Day" for kindergarten through fifth graders. Van Gieson presented the plan of salvation, explaining how to believe in Jesus, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life with God in heaven. More than 70 children were counseled and 38 kids made the decision to follow Jesus.
The week wrapped up with a Family Celebration Night on Friday with highlights from the week and a time of worship led by the children.
As for the success of Station Hill's partnership this year and future VBS endeavors, Van Gieson said, "Several Station Hill members served in key roles during VBS, thereby allowing our Brentwood campus friends to see the ministry potential of their Station Hill brothers and sisters. It's our hope that we can again partner with the Brentwood Campus in 2011 as well as provide a local VBS opportunity in our own community.”
At the end of the week, Amy Carter, Children's Minister at Brentwood Baptist, said, "One prayer of mine is that VBS wouldn't just reach the children that attend, but that it would also extend to the homes from which these children come. There are many folks who attended last week who don't belong to Brentwood Baptist or any church. Continue to pray for the connections that were established—that they will provide a launching pad for sharing the gospel in these homes."
Photos by Joe Hendricks
Story by Kaylan Christopher