VBS at Grace Baptist

The kids attended VBS at Grace Baptist Church in Waverly.  I volunteered to be on the planning team and helped with "busy activities" between the family meal and the start of the programming.  It was a lot of fun to share some of our favorite toys with 45 kids!

The Grace Baptist team did an amazing job of putting together a completely original curriculum called "The Incredible Journey" based on Little Pilgrim's Progress, which is a children's adaptation of John Bunyan's famous Pilgrim's Progress.  In preparation, we had been reading the book as family devotions.  Emily & Lincoln loved it and couldn't wait to go to VBS! The programming included worship dance songs, a narrated mime of the story and smaller groups of age-appropriate activities with a workbook and crafts.  The decorations around the church were amazing and all handmade especially for VBS.

During the week, the kids were challenged to memorize Isaiah 12:2 using hand actions. 

“Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For the Lord God is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.”   (NASB)

The deal was if they could recite it on the last night they could squirt the "bad guys" from the mime story with water guns.  Both Emily & Lincoln practiced and knew it by heart.  Unfortunately, it was raining the last night.  Fortunately, it was a Baptist church, so they went with Plan B and had the kids squirt the characters in the baptismal pool.  The kids LOVED it!

Because of time and age constraints, the programming only covered the story through Christian's arrival at Vanity Fair and then jumped to entering the Celestial City.  It was a beautiful gospel message!  When reading the book to the kids, we had to do a little bit of ad-lib editing since there are still some scary, violent parts of the story that may not be appropriate for younger kids.  However, we look forward to reading it together again and remembering the fun time we had at VBS!