VBS, Mission,

VBS in a Pandemic

I am the kid’s ministry director at Wallula Christian Church in Leavenworth, Kansas. We have a unique situation in that our church building sits on a highway. There are multiple towns only ten to fifteen minutes away. We are very diverse. Wallula has more than seven different school districts represented in our kids and student ministries. On Sunday mornings, before COVID, we had an average of fifty kids, birth through fifth grades attending. Now with the pandemic, that has been cut in half. We still have several families that worship online with us. I’m hopeful they will be able to join us in person again soon! 

INTO THE UNKNOWN

We did Vacation Bible School in July of 2020, in the middle of a pandemic! We had just come back to worshipping in person at the beginning of June. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect as far as how many kids and families would feel comfortable attending in person. Historically we have had upwards of two hundred kids attend VBS!

Our biggest challenge was all of the unknowns that came with 2020. We had trouble getting volunteers to help and our attendance was down fifty percent. The biggest thing I learned from VBS last year, is to never doubt God’s power! He pulled through in a HUGE way. The theme, Rocky Railway, was perfect for us to see how he provided. We successfully hosted an in-person VBS, during COVID, with over one hundred people on campus, and nobody got sick through it all. God is SO GOOD!

VBS on a Mission

In the past, our VBS has supported the mission organizations that were provided with the VBS curriculum. A few years ago, I decided it would be better to choose a mission for our VBS by working with our missions team. I pick an organization or missionary that our church already supports. Missions are a huge part of WCC’s budget each year, and every year, we see God’s faithfulness and provision. It has been so cool to see the passion build for families as we support more local ministries that we already know of and hear about on Sundays.

We were excited to see that Cookson Hills provides materials and resources for VBS missions. It was SO handy. The kids really connected with the material. The kids have fun with it and learned something along the way too! I picked a goal of $800 for our week, thinking that would be doable for the number of students that might attend. Even with a group almost half the size I had planned, God came through in a HUGE way. We had an amazing offering total, almost doubling what we had set our goal for. It spoke volumes to me, to never doubt what God can do if we just trust in Him.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR — Katy Baker is the Kids Director at Wallula Christian Church in Leavenworth, Kansas. She and her husband, Will, have a dog, Tucker. When she’s not at church, she can be found spending time with the family and enjoying married life! (They just got married in September) She also enjoys crafting, cooking, and traveling!