Up to my elbows in....VBS

Summer has started and last week I was up to my elbows in VBS and working with a mission team.

I love introducing volunteer missionaries to Nevada. Our state has a unique beauty that teams from the South have often never seen before. Beyond the physical beauty of the state, the culture is very different from the South. Mission teams come and learn about our culture and fall in love with the people who live here.


This particular team came from southern Mississippi to help Fellowship Community Church with their VBS, a 6 hour daily adventure on Route 254. A six hour VBS in the daytime has it's challenges. Working people typically can't get the week off, so you are limited in volunteers. Six hours a day with kids can be tiring. However, the rewards are worth the challenges.

Two children, L and G came to VBS last year and were back this year. Although we hadn't seen them for almost a year, the kids had a great time and seeds were planted. They returned on Saturday for a family carnival hosted by the church and had a great time earning prizes.

Mike had never taught at VBS before, but he jumped in and had a great time with recreation. All the kids loved his games and he got to have a lot of fun.

Most of our churches have taken advantage of the western VBS theme, Saddle Ridge Ranch. This week five of our churches led the kids on Saddle Ridge Ranch. I had the priveledge of visiting four of the churches.


Calvary Baptist Church in Dayton, Nevada had a great time putting on their boots and western shirts and decorating the fellowship hall for Saddle Ridge Ranch. The backdrop was beautiful and the campsite and rock pit was a great touch. The kids had a great time dancing to the music and learning new songs. They learned to speak Xhosa in missions rotation and learned a lot about the South African Xhosa people group (great idea with World Cup going on!).

The preschoolers made horses out of pillows to ride to their next rotation. The kids had fun and it was cute to watch them "ride the horses" to music rotation. The kids are the perfect size to rock to class.


Capital Baptist Church decided to branch out this year and have VBS for preschoolers. The preschoolers had a great time learning about Joseph. The kids combined with a slightly older group for all the other rotations, which made for a great day. They had a great time popping balloons during recreation rotation. Snack time was fun and the kids seemed to love making bandannas in crafts time.

Capital's closing rally is so much fun. They mix their music rotation with adding a number of fun songs that the kids sing every year. The day I was there the "cowboys" were winning in the missions offering contest. It was fun to see the kids get into that.


"Discovery Week" is a fun week for all the kids at Discovery Fellowship Church. Discovery combines Saddle Ridge Ranch VBS with their own material to make a great outreach time for kids. They worship in an office complex and I loved seeing the complex transform into a barn with plenty of bales of hay.

They started out with YMCA and I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N (in every version imaginable). The kids were having a great time dancing and moving and enjoying the music. My favorite was watching them sing Jesus is the Rock and watching the kids roll across the floor and then jump back up.

Bible story was a great time of learning that God created the kids to be unique. They made belt buckles with pictures of what they liked to do, a great reminder that God made them different.

Music rotation was a great time for the kids to get to know the pastor of the church and the worship band as they played all sorts of fun kids songs. The kids had a great time getting wet in Recreation. The trick was getting wet without getting their belt buckles wet. Who succeeded? I really don't know. The kids had a great time decorating cookies and watching the missions video. The Cowboy church video really hit home with some of the kids.

For the closing rally the parents were encouraged to come into the sanctuary to view the closing rally. It was a great way to reach out. On the last day of VBS they brought in a petting zoo and a real cowboy to talk to the kids.


First Baptist Church Sun Valley has only been doing VBS for three years, but they improve every year. This year they took advantage of the cowboy theme to go all out in decorations. The pastor brought his equipment from his barn and the sanctuary was transformed. Leaders and kids wore color coded bandannas to keep each group together.

The music rotation was fun. They used the VBS songs, but instead of using the music video, the rotation leaders put a lot of time into learning each song and teaching it to the kids. The kids loved the time with the teachers and loved learning the music. Of course, having a leader who dances with several groups helped them to learn some of the more complicated moves! Her clogging costume also helped the kids get into the time.

To reach families First Baptist Sun Valley decided to do a Chuck Wagon complete with Beef in a Skin, Cowboy Style Frijoles, Chips, and Bronc Bustin Cowboy Tough Punch. The kids had a great time and learned a lot!


I love visiting so many VBS's because no church does VBS exactly alike. Some may reach out to the kids through fun gimicks, some use petting zoo, and some serve a home cooked meal! However the churches do VBS, what is important is that they are reaching out to families in their area.

Funny Story

If you've sat in any classes with me at any time you've probably heard me talk about how children are literal minded...

Yesterday I took 4 children (yes, in my little car!) to Second Baptist Church's VBS. Second is a great black church in our association. They really have a heart for kids and VBS is a church-wide event for all ages. As we were driving to the church, Preston, a five year old started asking questions. When we got to the church he looked at the building and said, that's not a black church!

Just a reminder that kids don't always hear what we think. I was thinking an ethnic group of people worshiping together. Preston heard a building painted black.

The rest of the night was so much fun. It was great to see kids being involved about learning about scripture. I loved seeing the kids faces glowing.

What do you get when you...

What do you get when you have an unusually cold night, an outdoor screen, Shrek the Third, bounce houses, cotton candy, sno cones, popcorn, and hotdogs? A really awesome outreach idea that reaches the whole family.

LifeChurch Reno has been having movie nights for the past few summers. They don't have a traditional VBS because they meet at a school and it is expensive to rent a building for a week. Instead they have three movie nights for this summer. They open the gate at seven and give the kids plenty of time to play in the bounce house and run off extra energy before the movie starts.

They greet everyone at the gate with a movie schedule and an invitation to Sunday morning services.

Looking for creative ways to reach families this summer? Consider fun events such as block parties and movie nights.

Prayer Walking for VBS? I think so!

I have a confession to make. First of all, although I started my time here with a strong committment to prayer-walking, over the past year, the business of life and ministry has gotten me out of the regular prayer-walking loop. However, I will let you know that if you had a VBS in Northwestern Nevada last year and I knew about it, I did at least prayer-drive your area. I hope to do as much prayer-walking as possible for activities this summer also (anybody want to help?).

We had five kids in children's church Sunday morning for the early service. I have taken two of the children in the class prayer-walking on at least two or three different occasions for other events.

Both girls expressed that they wanted to go do that "thing where we walked and then got ice cream (yes I reward the kids for good behavior, sometimes the weather conditions aren't great, but the kids have great attitudes!)

Now, before you accuse me of using bribery and tell me that the kids don't care about prayer-walking as much as they care about the ice cream, let me share a couple of stories.

When I prayer-walk with anyone I give them the freedom to pray however they like, whether that be out loud or silently. I encourage them to pray for things they observe, such as signs that kids live in the house or things that show an interest, like fishing or boating. Sometimes the kids pray for off the wall things that have nothing to do with the event we are praying for, but as a learning experience, I'm willing to deal with that.

One day I was prayer-walking with a girl and her mom. She went down the street praying for the man who worked on the sidewalk and the man who painted the fence. Amazingly, she wouldn't pray for anyone that she saw as we walked because she "didn't know them." Personally, I believe that whoever painted that fence (which looked like it may not have been painted in years) needed a special blessing that day.

Another day I was walking with another leader and 4 or 5 children. It was refreshing to hear the prayers of the kids who would pray out loud. Ranging in ages from 8 to 12, this crew knew their task and was eager to pray for everyone they saw.

Another group prayed for every house that they saw. It was a blessing to hear what they said.

With VBS coming up, will you consider using your children to pray for the event? Imagine how they will feel knowing that they had a big part in praying for VBS this year! Don't worry, you don't have to bribe them with ice cream!