VBS Day 1 - God Promises to Love and Care for His Children



Waiting for VBS to begin!!!

 We were blessed with the attendance of over 95 children; many were waiting before the doors were open!  The day included music - some songs from prior years as well as some new ones.

The Bible story today was about Noah and the Ark.  The verse of the day was "I am putting my rainbow in the sky as a sign of my promise to you."  Genesis 9:13  We opened with an introduction from Kristin and the puppet, Scottie (Dave).  The Messiah kids took over and presented the Noah story in skit form.

Southend kids were not afraid to answer all of our questions!

One of the focuses this week is to teach the Gospel in a nutshell by memorizing John 3:16.  Each day we are leaning a part of this verse.  By Thursday, we hope they all will be able to say the verse by memory.  We are giving the kids a wristband each day with the daily Bible verse and one of them is John 3:16.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."  John 3:16        

After Bible time, we split the kids into 2 groups and the younger kids played parachute games and the older kids played "Sheep & Shepherds" and other tag games.

The kids worked up a thirst after playing games, so we all took a break and served a snack of watermelon and animal crackers with water.  We ended with more music and the craft of the day which was a salvation necklace.

After a break of clean-up and swimming, we prepared to host our first teen night.  Our team has never hosted one in past years.  We were pleased there were about 15 Southend teens that joined us.  They had fun playing soccer and other games and shared a devotion together.  We brought blue t-shirts for everyone that say "Jesus Loves Southend".  This is the same logo we used last year for the VBS kids and the teens had wanted to have one as well.

We provided lots of pizza, watermelon, cookies & lemonade as well as a campfire.  We hope these teens and more come back on Wednesday night which will be our 2nd and final teen night this year.



Playing "World Cup" soccer game in their new T-shirts!



Playing soccer in the un-mowed fields at the school. 

We thank God for a GREAT Monday!!