By Joe Dupree, Message Staff Writer
BALL – Summer is upon us and you know what that means … it’s Vacation Bible School time.
Kingsville Baptist Church in Ball is one of many Louisiana Baptist churches that are hosting or will host VBS this summer. VBS is considered to be one of the biggest outreach ministries a church has during the year.
“Like any other opportunity placed into the life of a church, the importance of VBS depends on the individual church,” said David Anderson, Children’s Ministry Strategist, Louisiana Baptist Convention.
“VBS is still the single largest evangelistic opportunity that the church will have all year long,” said Anderson. “We also know that unchurched families will bring their children and engage with the church like no other time during the year.”
Kingsville wrapped up their VBS festivities last week averaging 280 kids per day and 130 workers (teenagers and adults).
“We have seen a renewed interest in training for VBS as we doubled our registration and attendance at the state wide training this year,” said Anderson.
Several churches have also requested that GOLA (summer missions program for college students) teams come to their churches to help assist them with VBS.
“In traveling around the state and visiting VBS at churches of many different sizes, I find it to be alive and well and continuing to be the single largest evangelistic emphasis of the church every year,” Anderson said.
A child does arts and crafts at one of the churches this summer for Vacation Bible School.
“It has been a great week. I am overwhelmed with the gracious spirit of our volunteers and God’s provision,” said Wendy Blocker, Kingsville’s children’s minister. “These kids have been blessed this week.”
Each day starts with morning worship rally where the kids learn the theme song of Vacation Bible School and a new song that features hand motions that make each song more interactive and kid-friendly.
After morning worship rally, the kids all go to their classes for bible study before venturing to different stations for the next couple of hours.
“We had such a great week,” said Judy Boles, Kingsville preschool director. “I’m so thankful for all our hard-working volunteers. Now, we only have 51 more weeks until we ‘Submerge’ for VBS 2016!”
