Vacation Bible School

Just wrapped up my church's first VBS in a decade. They CAN still work. A few lessons learned...

- Call it summer camp. These days, parents out there have no idea what VBS means.
- We took advantage of various free advertising opportunities (radio, newspaper, flyers...), but it appeared to be a waste of time and effort. People came because they were personally invited by a trusted friend.
- If you're the guy in charge, keep yourself as untasked as possible, so you can run around to fix glitches.
- Schedule TWO training sessions for your volunteers. Most of ours couldn't make the single long-scheduled session.
- Give the parents a flyer about your church on the last day. Provide them with snacks, too. (We did shrimp on the barbie. A big hit, given our VBS theme.)
- Until delivery conditions improve, don't schedule your VBS too soon in the summer. Our materials barely arrived in time.
- Pray, pray, pray. Then give it over to God.

You know it was a success when the kids ask if they can come back the next Monday.

Outstanding! glad to hear it went well

Already working on next year's VBS, which will be entirely home-grown and created. "Fort Challenge" will be a sesquicentennial (1873-2023) camp and use a 19th century US Cavalry theme. Five days...five spiritual challenges that come from the story of 12-year old Jesus at the temple. The wife and I already have 4 pages of ideas.

Although this summer's VBS had a lot of volunteers, it was from the usual cadre of willing servants. Next year, I want to provide opportunities for those who have yet to step into lay ministry.

So far, I have a lead on a young lady who used to attend our church as a teenager, but hasn't gone anywhere in years. She's a musician, so I may ask her to write our VBS songs. Also, there's a super-quiet older man in church who has artistic ability. He's excited about creating a wall-sized drawing that kids will be able to color in.

Pretty much all churches have a shortage of volunteers, especially these days. Be creative and give people a "baby step," which can open up the potential for a future marathon runner.

Fort Challenge is coming along. Using boy Jesus' temple visit as the overall story, our daily themes are:

Be (show character)
Ready (with an answer)
Available (even better than ability)
Must (compelled by God)
Stand (for what's right)

You can even get an acronym out of it: Be RAMS. Bighorn rams are big in Montana, and we can borrow a mascot uniform from a local school. I've already received a quote for making custom challenge coins. This is starting to get fun.

Work continues with Fort Challenge. The only Christian bookstore left in my state is making our challenge coins. They look cool. And my pastor and I hot-pressed the logos on the t-shirts today. $5.25 total for each t-shirt. I did a limited run through a local shop last year and they charged $30 apiece.

Today, I received an 1873 copy of a New York newspaper. I'm using it as a prop for when I share news stories from that year. The editor's name seemed familiar, so I did a little digging. The Beecher family was highly influential in the 19th century. The patriarch was a key figure in the Second Great Awakening, and some of his sons became preachers, including the newspaper editor. And one of the girls? Well, all she did was become a leading abolitionist, writing Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Volunteer sign-ups are completed. I have 16 adults who will be there Mon-Fri, filling in various positions. And I have another 6 who will do the construction and decorating ahead of time. What a load off of my schedule.

I spent the winter working on all the details, including scripts and songs. Next Sunday, I'll be handing out packages to all of them. Eight weeks to go. To paraphrase the A-Team leader, "I love it when (God's) plan comes together."

42 kids are registered! We opted to do it online this year, which tells us ahead of time how many to expect. Our whiz guy also programmed it to take a max of 50 kids, so we won't be overwhelmed, or short on supplies, either. After giving our church members and friends and family the first shot, we put an ad on Facebook. It brought in 8 kids, so that's good.

Fort Challenge starts on Monday with cool temps and most likely rain. We have an indoor plan just in case. A few days ago, another overseas missionary sent us a video, so we now have a personal message to show the kids on each day.

The kids will be raising funds for the China Bible School, which is online through Springfield. An up-and-coming pastor can be trained up for only $54. Did you read that? A new underground church can be started for only $54.

Counting the hours until we start.

joecool wrote: The kids will be raising funds for the China Bible School, which is online through Springfield. An up-and-coming pastor can be trained up for only $54. Did you read that? A new underground church can be started for only $54.

Wow that is super cheap!

First day was a big success. Kids love it, and so do the volunteers. This home-grown VBS package (30+ pages of scripts, schedules and more) is yours for free. Contact me at yulluvmt2@msn.com and I'll e-mail the file to you.

Fort Challenge closed with a bang. The kids raised enough money to pay for the training of 10 Chinese pastors. That's 10 new underground churches (forts). Way to go, Troopers!

A couple of us old guys were talking afterwards, saying that the parents in our church need to get more involved. So the wife and I are drafting the outline of a 4-evening VBS, with two hours a night. We'll push for parental participation.

Everyone seems to want the Montana cavalry again. Maybe it will have a pre-millenium 1899 look, or a centennial jump back to 1924. We have a large National Guard base outside of town, along with a great military museum. Perhaps we could get loaned props and soldiers to speak?

joecool wrote: Everyone seems to want the Montana cavalry again. Maybe it will have a pre-millenium 1899 look, or a centennial jump back to 1924. We have a large National Guard base outside of town, along with a great military museum. Perhaps we could get loaned props and soldiers to speak?

Someone I know is friends with the guy who runs the museum. He will introduce me to him soon. I've already lined up a guy to make my prop artillery piece. He's chomping at the bitts and wants to include sound effects with it (But, no powder!)

joecool wrote:

Everyone seems to want the Montana cavalry again. Maybe it will have a pre-millenium 1899 look, or a centennial jump back to 1924. We have a large National Guard base outside of town, along with a great military museum. Perhaps we could get loaned props and soldiers to speak?

On Ebay & Amazon, you can find Kids' civil war caps (which were the same as early cavalry caps).  I just checked, and they ran from $11.00 to $13.00.  Assign a hat to a kid, put his/her name in it with a piece of tape, and let them wear the hat, while they're at VBS.

Claymore wrote: On Ebay & Amazon, you can find Kids' civil war caps (which were the same as early cavalry caps).  I just checked, and they ran from $11.00 to $13.00.  Assign a hat to a kid, put his/her name in it with a piece of tape, and let them wear the hat, while they're at VBS.

Yep, we used the kepi caps for our 1873 fort, and the kids loved them. For our 1924 camp, we're thinking of garrison hats that my wife will make. The senior adults might wear campaign hats.

I found a 1925 Model A pickup for sale and thought it would be cool to repaint in Army colors/markings. My wife told me to go ahead and buy it, but $18,000 is a little steep for a prop. Besides, I'd rather spend it on a Kharmann Ghia convertible. One of these days...

Things are moving along with the 1924 version of Fort Challenge. While on our summer trip, we bought a WW1-era Army blanket, which my wife will turn into garrison caps for the kids. The 5 patrols will be named after heroes, like Sgt York and Eddie Rickenbacker.

My church's two ham radio operators will provide us with the means to get our daily orders from the general. As it turns out, Gen "Black Jack" Pershing had once been assigned to a fort right here in Montana, commanding a troop of Buffalo Soldiers. And that's how he got the nickname. Another bit of trivia: Although he once held a temporary rank of Major, he was returned to Captain...Later, he skipped Major, Lt Col and Colonel in his promotion to Brig. General. Ability, rather than seniority, was finally rewarded.

I have known him since he was a teenager. A US Army Colonel (Chaplain) has agreed to make videos to show each day during our Fort Challenge Centennial. Is that cool or what?

Ordered a bear costume for our fort mascot. His name is "Paw! Not Pa!" and he's the not-so-well known brother of Smokey the Bear. Balsa wood bi-plane gliders are on the way, too. Perfect for the 1924 Army Air Corps.

One of the WW1 heroes that I highlight in Fort Challenge Centennial is Eddie Rickenbacker. I just made an offer on an autographed book he wrote in 1943, detailing his 24 days in a rubber raft in the Pacific. An amazing man who credited God for his survival through many a plane crash over his lifetime.

Update: Offer accepted!