Life Way's VBS themes

Probably, but not always. The idea is to make it memorable for the kids and to give workers some ideas and helps for VBS. Last year our church's theme was "Son River Canyon Adventure." It was fun, memorable, and the kid's learned more about Jesus.

My only concern is that my church often goes overboard and makes the VBS program much larger and complicated than necessary.

 

LOL... ExxonMobil, anyone can write and submit their VBS ideas to LifeWay. I had questioned that a few years ago when I notice the themes seemed 'alike'.

I really liked 'Truth Tracker's' and 'Kingdom Caper's' looks interesting. I didn't especially love 'Amazon Outfitter's' tho. I was the director for 'Truth Tracker's' and had SO much fun!

Diane

 

I loved Amazon Outfitters. And I'm looking forward to Kingdom Capers. Although it is not as easy to decorate for as AO. I teach 1st-6th crafts and the stuff we had to go by was great! Each day my craft is on VBS theme and goes with the Bible lesson for the day.

 

April, I'm the craft director and don't have a book. Do you know how much yarn it takes for each of the sheep? Which crafts are YOU doing?

I've chosen several that fit but are not on their list. We have 400-500 kids each year and don't want to spend a lot of money on the crafts.

Diane
tavegia@bellsouth.net

 

400-500 children, that is outstanding!

 

I'm sorry the book does not say how much yarn it will take to wrap the sheep. I'm doing the Irish Soda Bread, the Puzzle Partners Backpack Tags, For day three I made up a craft for a picture frame for there VBS picture, the ABC Morse Code Choker, and the Palace Guard. At my Church we always make a list of things that can be donated and put it in the bulliten. That helps. Plus, some times local businesses will donate stuff.

 

I just got this reply and now think I'm going to have to rethink the lamb!

500 kids times 14 feet of yarn..... 7,000 feet. Anyone know how many feet of yarn is on a skein? LOL...

Diane

 

What is the Palace Guard?

What I have planned is:

1. A Scottish Terrier picture frame made from black craft foam with a plaid ribbon on his neck, a tan pompom for a nose and a google eye. I followed a link off the Lifeway VBS Craft Ideas for this one.

2. Love Lamb Reminder with the lamb cut from cardboard with a black felt nose and feet, google eye. (I have the cardboard and felt and the eyes for this craft already)

3. Sherlock Holmes Paper doll with clothes to color and glue on. www.makingfriends.com (The only cost for this craft was the cardstock paper in a skin tone.)

4. ABC Thursday is a salvation bracelet made with beads that go along with a salvation message printed out. Yellow is your birth. Black stands for the sin we all are born into. Red, blood of Jesus, White as snow after accepting Christ, Blue is following in believer's baptism and green is growing daily as we let Jesus be our guide and constant companion. (The cost of this craft is minimal. The beads were about $9.00 and I'll have some left over. The cord was only a couple of dollars. The printing of the little card was free and I already had the baggies left over from our Fall Festival and am using those to hold each 'kit'. The Girl Scouts who meet at our church have offered to cut the cord, tie the center knot, divide up the beads and load the baggies for me.)

On Friday, we have a program for parents and friends and a cook-out. The kids practice as a group so we don't have crafts that day. We usually have about 2,000 people for hot dogs and chili!

I was saved during VBS at the age of 8 so VBS is very important to me!

Diane

 

WE do Friday as normal and do the family thing on the following Sunday night. They preform the songs they learned and walk their parents to the class they had and introduce them to their teacher. And then we meet in the Fellowship hall and serve the snacks that the kids had that week to their parents. We are a small Chruch in the boon docks so we only have not quite 200 kids each years. Still a very good turn out.

Friday's lesson is about people knowing you are a Christian by the way you act. So, we are making Palace Guards with little cards titled Guard YOur Character and has Colossians 3:12-14 on it. The guards are made with Wooden doll pins.I am useing markers instead of paint. Black pom-pom for hat, Matches w/end already burnt for arms. they paint a face on the head of the doll pin, then a red top and black pants. Gold dots for buttons, gold belt. Glue on red colored matches for arms, and pom-pom hat. YOu are suppose to glue guard to the card and put magnetic tape on back of card to make refridgerator magnet, but I don't know that I'll do that.

 

Neat! I've used the old fashioned clothes pins to make little dolls before but that is so cute! Doesn't sound like it would cost much of anything!

We do the Friday afternoon thing because we've discovered that the un-churched parents don't come back. We have tables set up with info about our church activities and we have a tiny salvation style message from our preacher at the end of the program. Every year we have a few parents come forward for salvation.

THEN... we send our Faith team out to visit EVERY family that says they are not in church. Those who say they are Methodist and not in church or C of C, etc. we give to the matching church in our area for contact.

AprilDawn, you've been a GREAT help!
Diane

 

LOL We send our Faith team out to vist the families too! Have you seen the send home thing for the parents. I'm really trying to get my director to buy those and those cards you send out after wards to invite them to church. Also we are thinking about giveing eachchild that cames to VBS a NT Bible. The ones that fit this theme are only like $1.99 I think. It adds up. So, it is still not for sure.

Are you on the Faith Team? Is your Chruch doing the evangelism through Sunday School Class?

 

We gave the Bibles out last year so I'm not sure if we'll do it again this year. Same director as last year.... Her husband is our Lifeway Store Manager!

I've taken the Faith training. The teams that go out are the teams currently in the Faith Training.

We do evangelize through our Sunday School but I haven't heard of the class for that. Last week we had over 500 contacts through our S/S! I average 90 a week. The majority of my contacts are phone and email. I get the list of visitors by Wednesday of each week and also new members. I'm the Chairwoman of the New Members Inclusion Committee so it's my place to call every new member and get them involved in S/S and other activities. I started contacting every visitor on my own. Hubby and I also do hospital and nursing home visits to help take the load off the pastor.

I'm going to look for those contact cards. I'm saving so much on crafts that I could ask them to put some of my money toward evangelism.

Does your church collect pennies, etc? (We had a contest with boys against girls last year and weighed the pennies every day.) There's a fund raiser through WMU that provides clean water to missionary families. It's called "Pure Water, Pure Love". For $250. you can provide clean water for a missionary family for 4 years! It's right off the WMU website. I've turned in the info asking our church to use our offering for that.

Diane

 

The Faith training was what I was talking about. I am taking the basics class right now. As I said I live in the Boon Docks (lol) so no where near the the amount of vistors. You must go to a huge church!

A friend on the inside at Lifeway...that is the dream of one of my friend!

I'm not in the WMU at our church. I have no idea if they collect money for the "Pure water, Pure love" fund, but it sounds like a good idea. In in Adult 1 Sunday School Class and we do collect pocket change to use for different things. Having the kids compete is a great idea! Especially girls against boys...man are they competetive!

 

Pure Water, Pure Love

FOR A DONATION OF $250 HELP PROVIDE SOUTHERN BAPTIST MISSIONARIES WITH THEIR BASIC PHYSICAL NEED:

PURE WATER

Woman's Missionary Union® is proud to sponsor Pure Water, Pure Love. Since 1997 WMU, SBC has been implementing this missions project to help Southern Baptist missionaries around the world have a healthier lifestyle while working in some of the most disease-ridden areas. The goal of this campaign is to provide every missionary with a water purifier that will remove disease-causing microorganisms. You can help by providing the funds to purchase a water purifier that will provide enough drinking water for four years. This unit is simple and easy-to-install. For maximum efficiency, the unit must be operated with electricity. However, it operates effectively without electricity.
The PWPL project is popular among associations, churches, WMU groups, Sunday School classes and even children in Vacation Bible School. The PWPL project enables a single missionary, or a missionary family, to receive, at no charge, a Living Water unit manufactured by Alpine Industries, Greeneville, TN. WMU purchases the filters with funds donated by SBC churches and groups. The units retail for nearly $400, and groups usually donate at least $250 toward the cost of the filter.

WMU notifies the donor concerning which missionary will receive their filter and where that missionary will serve. The missionary also receives a letter identifying the name and address of the group which made their filter possible. The church or donor group often establishes a prayer relationship with the missionary family who receives "their" filter. Missions is personalized for the church by simply writing a check to provide clean drinking water.

To purchase a unit, send a check made out to Woman's Missionary Union®, P.O. Box 830010, Birmingham, AL 35283-0010. (Please mark the envelope PWPL.) Please tell us the contact person for your church, team, Sunday School, etc.


For more information, please call
Woman's Missionary Union® at
(205) 991-4073 or email mminor@wmu.org.

Comments from missionaries who have received the filters include the following:

Water purifiers are essential in the area in which we serve and they promote many days of healthy, happy living.

Providing clean, healthy water for our family is very important to us. We have three small children and are concerned about reducing lead contents in our drinking water.

Thank you for the wonderful water filter system we received yesterday just in time to add to our loads for Ghana. This by far is the best system I have seen in my 18 years of service in West Africa.

As missionaries in Bangladesh, we will be able to put this purifier to good use for our family as well as for the many visitors who visit in our home.

We were so thrilled to receive our water purifier and want to express our appreciation to the WMU for this wonderful gift. This filter will save me hours of time -I call it my "dipping and pouring"job. The daily hassle of filtering and boiling water, waiting for it to cool (and keeping it clean during those hours) is a very time consuming job. Thank you for freeing me this extra time in which to do meaningful things for the Lord.

The provision of this water filter is absolutely essential to our health and well-being as the local water supply is contaminated and unreliable. This gift will enable us to live among these unreached peoples in hopes of taking the Living Water of Christ to them.

 

Thanks I'll print that out and ask about the WMU leader at our church if they are doing that!