Vacation Bible School 2018
Babylon: Daniel's Courage in Captivity

Babylon: Daniel’s Courage in Captivity transformed our church into parts of ancient Babylon last week! Our sanctuary became a street scene in front of the palace where Daniel was living. We met there twice each day to sing fun songs, learn Bible points and verses, and even share some “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 Royal Animal Courtyard. Other parts of the church building provided small group homes for several Babylonian “families”. The Upper Room became the palace where Daniel, (played by Andy Dickins), was living, all the time being faithful to the One True God, even when it was dangerous. Ashpenaz, King Nebuchadnezzar's chief of staff, was played by Pastor Marty. All in all, it was an awesome week! 
Want to know some numbers?

• 121 different kids attended, which included 7 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 kindergartners through 6th graders.   
• Average attendance each day was 99 kids, which is excellent, especially considering that the following week includes the 4th of July! 
• 77 adults and youth were involved doing anything from being Babylonian 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 28 wonderful youth assisted in just about everything – several 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. This year our missionary gifts and financial offerings are being used for the shipping of Baby Boxes to Haiti, helping to support the Baby Box program of Soaring Unlimited Haiti! Briefly, the Baby Box program gives infants a much better chance to survive infancy in Haiti by providing a box for each participating family. The box becomes a baby bed so that infants don’t have to sleep in rags on the dirt floor! The box is full of clothing, and other supplies, that babies need, all provided by VBS kids & their families, as well as our wonderful staff! In addition each participating Haitian mother attends excellent training classes, helping to teach her how to safely raise her children. Last but not least, the box is covered by a mosquito net to provide safety from mosquitoes. In case you are wondering, the Baby Box program saves lives everywhere it is used around the world!  Our thanks goes to Dorothy Fredrickson, the recently retired director of Soaring Unlimited Haiti, who is heading up this project in Michigan. She drove out to Eaton Rapids on Tuesday and spoke to all of us during the Opening Celebration time of VBS! Seven baskets of baby items were brought in and $338.94 and more was given to ship the boxes to Haiti.        
A special word of thanks goes to our VBS Director team - 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 make VBS happen. VBS is very expensive, but we know that it is worth every penny spent in bringing children to Jesus 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

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