Several Stories from Your Churches!

It's been awhile since I've had time to sit down and write, so I thought I'd share some of your stories.

Pastor Mark Launer from Neighbor's Christian Fellowship took an idea from the VBS book and expanded it. He took the braided bracelet idea from the curriculum and changed it to make a salvation bracelet. He used leather strips of green, white, and blue. The strips represented our sin nature (blue), Christ's perfection (white), and the new life available through Christ (green). He explained that God was perfect and could not allow sin to enter into heaven. He explained that we all have sinned and that makes us unable to get into heaven. Because Jesus came and lived a perfect life and died on the cross for our sins, we can have new life in Christ if we choose to follow him.

First Baptist Church of Sun Valley had a great back to school carnival! Kids could come and play 12 different games. At each booth they got an age appropriate school supply, so that by the end of the carnival, they were prepared for back to school! The kids had a great time and the members of the church loved seeing the joy on the kids faces.

A group of teachers and volunteers from South Reno Baptist Church gathered at Southwest Village Apartments for Back to School Blast. The kids worked hard all week to learn reading and math skills to help this school year. L, a second grader, told his math teacher, "I want to learn multiplication tables!" The next day he brought a multiplication learning tablet. In a group of kids who are mostly way below their grade levels in math, this was an exciting thing to hear. However, even more exciting than that was the "aha!" moments that kids had when they suddenly understood the math concept that they were learning.