Most churches do VBS early in the summer before vacations begin, otherwise they struggle finding adult leadership, especially.
We are not doing a traditional VBS this year but instead "NBCs" - Neighborhood Bible Clubs. Church members have volunteered their yard, or, some groups have gotten together and hosted them at a park near an area that needs that sort of thing, and they do an outside Bible club. Our Minister to Children really felt convicted about bringing the word of God to THEM not expecting them to come to US. So many people have an aversion to the 4 walls of a church, or they don't feel as if they will be welcomed. Our church is in a very low income, needy neighborhood and some are anxious about entering our walls. So we brought it to them instead.
It's been incredible! We have 11 planned throughout the summer, whenever the church member's wanted to host one. LifeGroups (our small groups) have adopted them, Sunday school classes, neighbors, friends, etc. We even have 20 people from area churches that have joined up with neighbors to lead one together, so it crosses church and denominational lines. The kids have turned out by the TONS! Not only that, but many of our members live in those areas (intentionally) and now know some of their neighbors and can continue to reach their needs.
It's been a lot of work for me and the Minister to Children at the church preparing things for them to take with them, but I love seeing the pics and hearing the stories of all the children touched by our actions.
So that's what we're doing this year! We have mostly written our own material, and pulled some from an online resource.
. It's theme was Serengeti Trek as well.
