Vacation Bible School 2017 Rome: Paul and the Underground Church
VBS Was Great Again This Year!
Rome: Paul & the Underground Church transformed our church into parts of ancient Rome last week! Our sanctuary became a street scene in front of a coliseum, where we met twice each day to sing fun songs, learn Bible points and verses and even share come “cheers” from each family. Our gym was a bustling Market Place, full of various crafts, a food shop, and a missionary shop; outside was the Animal Courtyard. Other parts of the church building provided small group homes for several Roman families. The Upper Room became Paul’s prison where he had a Roman guard (played by Bill Botti and Rick Sederlund). Then the back part of the balcony was turned into a dark underground cave where the kids visited two members of the early Christian church, played by Mandy Myers and Brad White. Our deep thanks to Lance & Denise Bertram for their awesome work setting the Underground Church up for us! All in all, it was an awesome week, and according to staff, parents, and even many of the long-time-attending kids, probably the best and most impressive VBS ever!
Want to know some numbers?
132different kids attended, which included 4 little ones in the nursery. All of the other kids were in 12 Roman families, including a family of 4 year olds and 11 other families of kids ranging from kindergarteners through 6th graders.
Average attendance each day was 115 kids, which is excellent, especially considering that the dates we chose led into the long 4th of July week!
68 adults and youth were involved doing anything from being Roman family leaders/ shopkeepers/drama people/kitchen helpers/video techs/game leaders/registrars/song and dance leaders/nursery workers/ decorators/VBS Directors and others who provided a helping hand wherever needed. And at least 23 wonderful youth assisted in just about everything – some of them as teachers and leaders! These numbers don’t count the awesome number of people who provided program supplies and brought LOTS of yummy (and healthy!) food to feed everybody all week. Thank you SO much, everybody!!
About the offering. We are pleased to share that the offerings collected each day (totaling at least $500) will be sent to GROUP to help dig wells for children and their families in Peru. Since each $5.00 provides one child fresh drinking water for a year, that means we sent enough for more than 100 children in Peru to have safe drinking water for a year!
A special thanks goes to our VBS Director team: Kristy Acker, Sue Shoultz and Joyce Showerman, who have been meeting since January to plan everything. And we want to thank YOU, our FUMER Family, for your generous monetary donations that made VBS happen. VBS is very expensive, but we know that it is worth every penny spent in bringing children to Christ and the church. Your generous gifts helped make this year’s VBS possible, with some left over for next year. Praise God! Joyce Showerman
