Download and print off this free Vacation Bible School curriculum to use in your ministry. Bible Boot Camp “The Armor of God” is a VBS theme based on Ephesians 6:11-18. The links below contain all the lesson plans, craft ideas, and directions you need. Just download the following three PDF files to get started. Special thanks to Tara Merrill, a reader who wanted to share this curriculum with others.
Download this Free VBS Material
More Suggestions & Resources
- Print our free Armor of God coloring pages
- Craft & decoration examples from a church that used this curriculum
For more help be sure to check out our tips for planning VBS, gathering VBS crafts, or some game ideas for VBS.
Note: After you download the curriculum you will see a notice about not making copies without written permission. The curriculum creator has granted permission for you to use this in your local church ministry. So, copies in that context are allowed. For other uses, you can leave a comment on this post for the author.
Learn how you can share your children’s ministry ideas on our website too by writing a guest article.
One of our readers, Tara Merrill, wanted to share this vacation bible school material. I was really impressed when she sent me the files. I could tell right away that put her heart into writing this curriculum. Here is how she described it in a comment on our site. Be sure to leave a message at the bottom of this page to let her know you appreciate her efforts.
I am 22 years old trying to follow God’s call in my life. I believe He is leading me to write low-cost, Scripture-driven VBS programs. By His grace and will, I wrote one this summer centering on the armor of God passage found in Ephesians 6:11-18. It is a full program and can be adapted for any church size, as long as people are willing to volunteer. I provide craft and snack ideas, but do not include the actual materials as I believe it is cheaper to purchase the necessary items in one’s own hometown. I also provide drama scripts and dialog to help guide the leaders.
Please leave your comment below with any ideas for improvements or clarifications that need to be made. Your feedback will help Tara make improvements in future programs.
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{ 117 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks so much!
Wow! What a great job!! Can’t wait to see more. It is worth buying!!
Wow. What a blessing. Thank you for providing this resource Tara!
This is wonderful. Very detailed and outlined. I have bought VBS kits that were no where as helpful as this. I will be using this for 2010 VBS. You can get a lot of the supplies and crafts from http://www.orientaltrading.com .The camouflage helmelts, dog tags ,craft plan white shields,and swords. This really gives you a little more money to by crafts and food supply. I would’nt mind giving a donation. This is really really nice.You have a gift Looking forward to future lessons.Thank you!
Tara, you have a true gift! I love that the emphasis every day is on Jesus & our salvation through Him. The skits & activities look like they will be a lot of fun – they can certainly be used “as is” or embellished as a creative team might be led. I am certainly going to consider using this curriculum this summer.
Thank you all for your support. I pray that this program will fill any need in your church family and help children grow in Christ and in their knowledge of Him. If you have any extra funds left over after using this program, I would rather have the money go to support children’s funds than myself. Compassion.com is a wonderful ministry helping hurting children around the world. They could always use donations. I appreciate constructive comments on how the program works for your church so I can make improvements in future programs.
Thank you so much, I didn’t know how I was going to do VBS because there was no budget. Blessings to you.
Keep up the good work. It looks very well thought out. I pray that God will continue to lead you as you make yourself available to Him. God bless you!
Tara, You have done a wonderful job with this curriculum. My church is very small and thus have practically no budget for VBS. I praise the Lord for giving you this curriculum, your generosity in sharing it, and for leading me to find it for use for VBS 2010 at my church. If you start a website with what you have developed, please let us know.
Super Cool. I’m in process of writing a circus theme curriculm for my church and was looking for VBS supplies to go with it. Really like the theme, and how thought out the manual was.
Tara,
This is amazing and THANKS SO MUCH for sharing!!! May GOD continue to bless you to do his will!!!
This is my first year to organize and plan VBS. I am so thankful God provided me with this awesome curriculum! I can’t wait to really spend some time studying this! Thank you so much, Tara!
This is absolutely fantastic! Thank you and God bless you Tara for creating and sharing this!
Hi – I am writing about the free VBS material called Armor of God.
On one of the downloads, it said that it cannot be reproduced without the written permission of the author. How can written permission be obtained?
Thanks,
Jill
She has given permission for our readers to use it in their churches.
Thank you “the Armor of God” serves as a guide in handling VBS lesson in our local pioneering church.
I am really blessed with the Armor of God Lesson which was prepared by tara Merill. God saw her heart to be faithful for having used her write such a wonderful VBS lesson. god bless Tara!
This is a great deal of material that you have provided. It is so rich, i cant wait to use it at my local church in Uganda. God bless you richly
Ms. Tara I want to say that your VBS Curriculum is like none other. It is really great and to be honest I believe that the parents of the children that go to a VBS that is using your theme should come because they could truly learn something. I am respectfully requesting your permission to use this VBS theme and your material for the church I work with 2010 VBS. Thanks for the excellent material and keep up the good work. You can truly see that God is working in people. Continue to allow God to use you. I can not wait to see more material created by you through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you So much for the work that God has done through you. I am always looking for Free lessons and Ideas That I can use not only in my Sunday School Class but also in Wed. Night Kids program at my Church.
May God Contunialy Bless You.
I give my permission for any church or individual to use this program to fit their needs in any church or childcare setting. I pray that God would be glorified by all who use it.
Out of interest, I would like to hear how the program worked for you in your church, so I can improve future programs.
God bless,
Tara Merrill
Thank you for allowing churches to use your material at no cost. I am always looking for good VBS material to use at our church and this program will go along with our Bible Memory program we have going on right now it’s called “I’m In The Lord’s Army.” We have private all the way up to General, verses that they have to memorize. Your lesson just goes along great with it. Can’t wait to use it.
Mrs. Gene Foster
Pastor’s Wife
Caprock Baptist Church
Amarillo, Tx
Thank you. In this time of so many of our people going to fight in the war this is a great opportunity to discuss the war we fight with satan everyday!
It is soooo good to know that you are writing Scripture-driven VBS programs including scripts for skits. I am very interested in Bible based material for all ages. We are a small church with a very small budget and look forward to more of you material. May God bless you mightily in this endeavor. Cher
Thank you very much for the VBS “Boot Camp” The Armor of God. I would like to use this theme for our 2010 VBS, there is a lot of work for me; I usually use a company, but monies are short now a days. I would like to know if you have a song to go with the theme, if you do I really would appreciate it, if you would let me know. I have to look for 8 other songs for each age group, but I just need one theme song for the entire VBS school. thanks again.
We are having trouble printing the manual for this VBS. It will not let us save it as another type of file. Has anyone else had trouble with this?
Halda,
I wanted to give you an idea for theme song that I had looked at. I hope it helps. This is a youtube of the video. I haven’t had time yet to research to see if this is under copyright, but it is a play you might want to start with looking for a VBS song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BujXD_sksBg
There are sever songs available about the Armor of God, but it sounded as though you were looking for something with motions already set up for VBS and this would work well with the theme.
Hope it helps in at least giving you a direction to go for songs.
Can a person use the one from youtube or is it copyright protected. It is very cute. Loved your armor of God Theme and Boot camp You are very talented and We have a small church so it is so nice. I didn’t like any of the themes for this year so this is just perfect. I had a book with more things in it called “Instant Bible Lessons for Preteens” “Equiped for Life” by Rainbow Publishers on pg.51 Hope this helps others and thanks again for your generous way of sharing your talents.
I just read through your VBS. OUTSTANDING work. May God continue to bless and use you to serve His church to continue building warriors in His service. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for the free material. I belong to a small church and we don’t have the funds to buy literature last year we did our own and it was good but this sounds like something we can really use and enjoy and have fun doing it. Thank you so much.
Way to Go! Awesome material!!!!! Love it, love it! We will be using it this summer for our VBS 2010! Keep it up!!!
Thankyou for your help and your inspiration. I prayed for the Lord to show me someway to help guide me in our Sunday School Class and i found you. I have used a couple of ur crafts and they were a hit.
The Lord is good all the time, I’ve been eager towards this kind plan for my children department, now that you have given us the curriculum, i am very happy and at the same time, i will plan to have one of this session in this year and it will still be the same topic, cos this is the armour we need to grow in the Lord. For my children, they will worship the Lord.
After looking through the outline, I can’t tell you how excited I am. God has answered my prayers. I have had an idea for a boot camp for quite some time, I just didn’t know exactly how to pull it off. I’ve even went as far to buy me an drill leaders outfit and the kids some helmets, arm bands and the like. I knew God would come through for me some day. I’ll bet I’ve had that material for 4 years at least. I can’t wait to get started! We have been studing about Elijah for about four months now and I will finish up the lessons next Thursday, to be exact. God is right on time God isn’t He! I just wanted to say a great big THANK YOU for all your hard work. It must have taken you months to get this material together. Our leaders were just discussing yesterday that we needed some new material that would hold our children’s attention better and this should do the trick. To God be the glory, great things HE had done! May God richly bless you as you continue to follow Him.
Hi Tara I had recently purchased a Armor of God curriculum and wasn’t very happy with it and had to find another curriculum to kick off our Summer series. I stumbled over your curriculum and its fantastic. God pointed me towards you and i’m so thankful now that I have a Armor of God curriculum to teach our kids. Do you have any ideas for Armor of God songs? Thank you so much and bless you.
thank you so much this is a great help for me as I direct the children ministry this coming summer.
Thank you so much for this resource!! I do a kids camp every summer and am so EXCITED to be using this curriculum! May the Lord Bless you beyond your dreams as you have blessed us!!
Dear Tara,
You are truly a wonderful child of God. Thank your for this. It’s really very helpful and informative. We’ll be using it for our 2010 VBS. I’m forwarding this to my Christian friends as well if you don’t mind. God bless you mightily! I’ll update you about the results of our VBS!
Love, Abbie
Ms. Tara! This is an awesome program. We are going to use it this year (2010). We are a small church but our members have a volunteering spirit, so we will not have a shortage of hands to put on this program. I will let you know how it goes! We are so very excited. We are going to start planning in a couple of weeks. Many blessings to you, keep up the great work.
So encouraging to read through Tara’s VBS. She has worked really hard to put together a fun programme with good teaching truths. So many of us working in very poor churches appreciate anything that is free. Thank You Tara. Keep writing.
n page 4 the shoes of peace have a broken cross (the hippie peace sign) I would leave that off. Perhaps reword on page 6 ‘my heart is clean because I follow Jesus’ to ‘my heart is clean and I follow Jesus’. (Our hearts are clean because our sins are forgiven).
Suggestion
Blessings
Tara:
Bless you for allowing God to do a great work in you and through you! We are a small congregation now with limited funds, but I know our children will be blessed through our VBS 2010 (because of you)! Keep up the good work and I am looking forward to more from you.
Thank you all for your support and encouragement. Lorna, thank you for your suggestions, I will work on that.
Many people have asked for music ideas to go along with this. I did some research and found a few songs that might work:
I’m in the Lord’s Army
Onward Christian Soldiers
by Action Bible Songs
The Armor of God – Ephesians 6 (Vocal)
by Songs For Our Spirit
Armor of God
by Steve Eulberg
Put On the Armor of God
by Kids Cry Out
I also wrote lyrics to a song and added some motions. It may not work for everyone, but if anyone out there is adventurous enough, they could add music to this and have some fun with their kids. It is set to the tune of the Hokey Pokey. Please feel free to change and play with this as much as you want!
The Armor of God Hokey Pokey
Buckle your belt on tight (pretend to buckle on a belt)
It’s the belt of truth (touch lips with pointer finger, bring down as if pointing ahead)
Buckle your belt on tight (pretend to buckle on a belt)
Stand firm through the fight (stand with feet apart and hands on hips)
We’re in a battle (pretend to box)
We’re brave and have no doubt, (flex arms, then shake finger, like saying no)
Jesus is what it’s all about! (Sign Jesus. Touch left palm with right finger, then right palm with left finger.)
Put your breastplate on (pretend to put on a breastplate)
It’s for righteousness (use fingers to shape a heart)
Put your breastplate on (pretend to put on a breastplate)
Be sure you’re right with God (stand tall and sign God. Bring flat right hand with thumb towards face down in front of forehead to chest.)
We’re in a battle (pretend to box)
We’re brave and have no doubt, (flex arms, then shake finger, like saying no)
Jesus is what it’s all about! (Sign Jesus. Touch left palm with right finger, then right palm with left finger.)
As shoes for your feet, (point to feet)
Wear the Gospel of peace (make peace sign)
As shoes for your feet, (point to feet)
The Good News can’t be beat (put hands to mouth, like shouting.)
We’re in a battle (pretend to box)
We’re brave and have no doubt, (flex arms, then shake finger, like saying no)
Jesus is what it’s all about! (Sign Jesus. Touch left palm with right finger, then right palm with left finger.)
Carry the shield of faith (put up arm like carrying a shield)
Protects from Satan’s darts (hide behind your pretend shield)
Carry the shield of faith (put up arm like carrying a shield)
Show the devil that you’re smart. (point to temple)
We’re in a battle (pretend to box)
We’re brave and have no doubt, (flex arms, then shake finger, like saying no)
Jesus is what it’s all about! (Sign Jesus. Touch left palm with right finger, then right palm with left finger.)
Snap on your helmet fast (pretend to snap on a bike helmet under chin)
It means God’s salvation (make a cross in front of you using your arms)
Snap on your helmet fast (pretend to snap on a bike helmet under chin)
And your life will always last (spin in a circle with arms out, if room)
We’re in a battle (pretend to box)
We’re brave and have no doubt, (flex arms, then shake finger, like saying no)
Jesus is what it’s all about! (Sign Jesus. Touch left palm with right finger, then right palm with left finger.)
Use the Spirit’s sword, (pretend to use a sword)
It’s called God’s Word (sign Bible. First sign Jesus, then sign book by putting palms together like they’re a book.)
Use the Spirit’s sword (pretend to use a sword)
A defense from the Lord (put arms in front of face, like protecting it from wind.)
We’re in a battle (pretend to box)
We’re brave and have no doubt, (flex arms, then shake finger, like saying no)
Jesus is what it’s all about! (Sign Jesus. Touch left palm with right finger, then right palm with left finger.)
Jesus is what it’s all about! (Sign Jesus. Touch left palm with right finger, then right palm with left finger.)
Thank you again and God bless you all,
Tara
Thank you so much for followung God’s calling. I’m not creative but can implement ideas and having this curriculum done for me is a huge blessing for me and the children. Thank you again. God bless!
Thank you for providing your talent for the Lord. Is there any way that I could use KJV scripture in the program?
Tara
Thank you so much for doing this! We will be doing this at our church this year and are VERY EXCITED about it! I have been looking today (because we have a meeting soon) and found the following for a song: (just to let everyone know) – Put on the Armor of God by Brian Howard http://www.butterflysong.com – they do have a single CD of just this song for 5.99 that also includes the music and lyric printout – lyrics can be obtained without the tune at the site.
As stated by many others above – if you produce more – PLEASE let us know – this is a wonderfully done and complete program. We will let you know how it works out at our church!
Thanks again and Gods blessings to you!
I am so grateful that Tara is willing to give so much. This is something i have been looking for to operate on a very low budget. This helps the ministry so much. May the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Cover you in all you do.
Thank you again
little the parts i have read i think is awesome.
When, I first saw the curriculum I was skeptical, but after reviewing the material I was completely blown away! As I read the material I could tell Tara really poured her heart, time, efforts, and energy into this vast project. After reading the material I could not believe Tara would put so much into this curriculum and then offer it for free. The material is clearly explained and very in-depth. It would be easy to adapt to any size group and is budget friendly. Tara definitely has a gift that I hope she will continue to pursue. Thank you sooo much for sharing your curriculum.
This is so good. I was looking for ideas for a weeknight series and I think this will be perfect for our group of kids. I am excited about using this curriculum. Thanks for sharing your gift with us.
Tara,
First, thank you for your curriculum! It is wonderful! My question: Can you direct me to a place where I can find the font for the camo letters? I want to make name tags, signs, etc. with the camo letters and cannot seem to find one that’s as great as yours. THanks in advance!
Thank you for putting together such a detailed guide for a vacation bible school. I was looking for something similar and prayed to God for guidance and your free download came up. God is truly wonderful and you are absolutely amazing. My church has requested that I manage our first VBS and this will truly get it off on a fantastic footing. Keep up the good work. Many heartfelt thanks from the Bahamas!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THESE
MARAMING SALAMAT… it means thank you very much. i am pastoring a small church and you vbs prog would be great help… may you continue to provide such lessons for us to use. Pagpalain ka ng Diyos (God bless your always)..
Hi Tara
Great curriculum, I love it. Can you tell me when you will be releasing your next curriculum please? I don’t want to miss out.
Blessings
Lisa
Jenny, I cheated with the camo letters. First, search “camo pattern” in Google. Download a clean, bright pattern you like. In a word document, insert word art. Use the first, blank outline option. After you type in your words, choose “shape fill.” Then fill with a picture, not a color. Insert your camo download. Easy as that!
Lisa, I’m working on a free website now where things I come up with will be available for download. I’m also starting a VBS over the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. I’ll let you know when it’s done!
Thank you all for your encouragement and support.
Tara,
You are truly a blessing to all. I was going to use another company, but after reading what you have to offer I felt yours was amazing. Thank you so much I now have extra money to feed our children and purchase other things that they might need.
HI Tara
Thanks again for doing this – Wondering if there is any problem with copying the logo from the front of the manuals or any other pictures that you included in the manuals for T-shirts or coloring pages??
Thanks in advance
Thanks Tara for this fabulous VBS material! I am running my churches VBS for the first time this July, and was really nervous until I saw what you had prepared. Thanks again for all your hard work! My own children are already excited about the theme.
I wanted to share some helpful things that I found and researched for those using your Bible Boot Camp that I will be using: Orientaltrading.com has many items we need for great prices.
1. White Hanes Shirts-$12.99 for 6 ($2 each)
2. White Shoe Laces-$2.99 for 12 (24 cents each)
3.80pc Fabulous Fabric Markers Classpack- $29.99 for 80
4. Camouflage Army Dog Tag Necklaces- $3.99 for 12 (33 cents a piece) *White on back, so they can be used as name tags for the week!
5. Camouflage Helmets- $5.99 for 12 ($2 each) *Could be worn by Drill Sergeants, all adults, or everyone depending on budget.
6. Camouflage Personalized Pencils -$5.99 for 24 (24 cents each) Use these throughout the week with the VBS logo, or as a a gift on the last day personalized “Bravery in Battle.”
7. Design your own! Medals-$8.99 for 24 if you buy 3 or more (37 cents each), or $9.99 for 24 if you buy 2 or less (42 cents each) *These are blank and you can have the kids decorate them on the last day, or their Drill Sergeant can decorate and pass them out on the last day, or have the “grunts” decorate them.
*Do NOT order the swords and shields through Oriental though…they are cheap and flimsy. Stick with tried and true cardboard for them.
* COSTCO is where to go for the pretzels! Huge bag for under $5! People in my church are making the heart shaped cookies, rice krispie treats, and trail mix!
Good Luck everyone from Spokane, Washington!
I still have not decided on the hats though. Anyone have a great idea?
The hats were 12 @ 5.99 Oriental Trading, we have far to many children at that price. We are getting tshirts for each child which will be the armor – they will say God’s Army and dog tags order from USToys they are the cheapest we will make swords using folded newspaper, foil and yarn to tie them and cardboard will be used for the shields wrapped in foil and other decorations. As for the helmetrs I am ordering camo visors which seem to come out the cheapest for the name of that company but you can buy them in bulk. Hope this helps or at least gives you some ideas I am so grateful for this program we have some money for VBS but we also have between 50 -70 children and we feed them dinner since ours is in the evening.
I saw a suggestion about using cakeboards for shields (the kind that are under store bought cakes) and found that you can get them 14″ rounds 100/$48 or less than 50 cents apiece – I am still checking to see if they are waxed or not from a place called uline.com (they deal in bulk cardboard things) – very heavy duty and you could use duct tape for the handles on the back
We could not afford the helmets we have wayto many children and between order tshirts and dog tags for each child I had to cut back, so what I did was order visors foe he children. Search the web for camouflage party visors, they come 8 in a package and it will be a low as $2.62 for 8, I think I order them from amazon.com. Good luck. I can hardly wait if you need any more information email me and maybe we can share ideas.
GOOD DAY! thank you for sharing this. May God bless your good heart!
ei thanks Tara.. this is a great help in our church.
I praise God for finding free downloadable materials for vacation bible school. This is a great help. God will surely bless your ministry.
Thank you! Thank You! I have been looking for material to teach about this. I am actually going to use this for our Wednesday night program next fall. I am soooo excited.
God has truly given you a gift – thank you for sharinig it!
This looks awesome, we are a small Episcopalian Church in Nevada and we are trying to revive our church on very little funds and this will help! Thank you for sharing this with us, you have worked hard and to know that we can use it for free was a “God-send!” in the true sense of the word!!!!
Hi Tara….this is amazing! Thanks so much for all your hard work. We would like to use the picture to make tshirt for our vbs…would that be ok?
Dear Tara, Because your VBS material has been selected by our VBS director & I share ‘missions’, I’m particularly interested in knowing about your ‘spiritual conversion, church affiliation & favorite Bible verse if you don’t mind sharing w/us/me. GOD bless you richly **** Very blest, Rose Marie Carter/John3:16-18;Matt.28:19-20
Tara,
Wow! This is wonderful! Thanks for spreading the word of God in your own way!
Kay
Tara,
I was online looking at Vacation Bible School themes for this year when I ran across yours. I was very excited and would like to hear from you when you complete “Fruits of the Spirit”. May God richly bless you. Thanks for sharing your gift.
Joyce
Love this program armor of God. But would like to know if you have any music to go with the theme
alia
Hi! My son composed a theme song for our BIBLE BOOT CAMP…Just finish our 2day children’s camp.upload later…thanks
Hi Again,The Amor of God program you can use it for any age group right
Alia
thank you so much for doing this. I am 25 yrs old and i teach children form 3yrs to 6yrs and over spring break i did a one day vbs and i used this. the kids really enjoyed it. i had an idea for a craft for the breastplate, we did tye dye shirts so everytime we wear it it will remind us of what we have learned in this vbs. bible boot camp. may God keep blessing you with ideas so you can keep blessing other like my class and i.
Tara, God has truly gifted you in teaching! Our church is planning on using your curriculum this summer for VBS in August. I was approached with the same question, from one of my leaders, that NaTasha Reece has about the graphic and t-shirts. Was there a reply..I hate doubling up one questions if they have already been answered. (BTW – Ms Rose Marie (another post-er) is our missions leader. She is a blessing to us and has a heart for missions!)
Thank you sooo much!! My husband and I are new(er) Christian’s and I had never really heard about the armor of God myself until a lady in our sunday class mentioned it. She gave me printouts about the armor of God and encouraged me to teach my son about this. He suffers with ADHD and has severe (though with God they have gotten MUCH better) behavior problems. I was thrilled to be able to “teach” this to my son… only I didn’t even know where to start since *I* hadn’t ever heard about it before!! This has been such a huge blessing for us.
Thank you very much! I can’t wait to teach my son about the armor of God!
Thank you the materials. Our church here in Binan, Laguna, Philippine (Christ our Refuge Bible Christian Church) used this material for our 2-day Children’s Camp designed for sunday schoolers (our very first) hold last may 12-13,2010. Thank God for the success… we are truly blessed… Next week we will be using the same materials for our VBS.
Thank you very much
I could only smile when I read your post. God bless you and your family. I know what you are going thur with the ADHD. This is justa suggestion but maybe you both can sit down and make each part of the armor, this can be done with with little or no cost. If interested please email and I’ll give you some ideas.
This is a wonderful curriculum! I know the kids will love it! My husband is in charge of decorating this year. Does anyone have any ideas for the santuary and hallway? Thanks so much for your help.
Hi Tara, I’ve been having a hard time looking for a theme for Vbs but when I saw armor of God I knew this was it. I know our kids are ganna be bless these year with your amazing idea’s….thank you!:D
Hi every body,does any one has pictures of the decorations of armor of God in sanctuary, it it’ll be great help for our vbs, thank you!
Thank you very much Tara for sharing your VBS curriculum. Our church is doing Pilgrim’s Progress this year 2010 for our VBS….I was looking for information regarding that and the Armor of God and ran across your program. I’m so excited because this will help us in so many ways. Again, thank you and looking forward to your other programs you write.
I praise God for your awesome gift he has bestowed on you. This was truly a blessing for me. Our church has no budget for VBS and I usually spend what I have which isn’t much. Thanks you so much for allowing God to use you and not being selfish and sharing your gifts with us. God Bless You!
this is my first year teaching school age children with a limited budget at our church….god is good. thanks so much for the free material.
I am sooo excited about this cirriculum. Our church does not use the material in the stores simply b/c everyone else does. This is perfect and i am sooo excted. thank you so much for all the time you have put into this…it truly is a blessing to me:) thanks you thank you thank you!!!!
I am happy to have found this website and this VBS plan, it looks like what I needed to find for my church this year, we are just starting VBS and I had no idea where to start to look for something to use until we could raise funds for the starter kits that I have been looking at. With permission I would like to use this material this summer for our kids, I know they would love the subject and the activities that are included. I wish I were creative enough to write my own too, I am 24 years old and it is so great to see someone else close to my age who has the desire to teach children about God. thank you again.
Thank you so much for sharing! God bless.
thank you very much,…small church holding vbs with a tight budget??? you helped me soooo much!!!! God bless you more!
Our pioneering church was holding our first VBS children class for 1 week last May 17-23, 2010 and we dont have enough lesson materials the “Armor of God” curriculum has help us a lot..We able to gather more than 60 children in different ages…God is good all the time.
Thank you very much for the free materials that serves as a guide!!!
May God bless you more as you continually impart your knowledge to others in God’s ministry.
Wow, what a blessing to see such a talented young Christian the Lord lead me to this program. God bless you, Keep up the good work!!
I was wondering about the copyright to the clipart. My church is interested in having tshirts printed for VBS and I loved your clipart.
Tara,
Thanks for the great information!! We also are interested in having tshirts printed for VBS can we use the clipart?
Thanks everyone for your interest in this program. Praise God for the work He is doing! I pray that you would all be blessed through using this curriculum as the Lord guides you.
I am not the original artist of the clipart. I did try to contact the original artist but never received a response. Since everyone seems to want to use it solely for ministry purposes, not to make a profit, I highly doubt there can be any issue in using the clipart to enhance your VBS. Good luck and God be with you this summer!
Praying always,
Tara
Our church just finished our wildly successful Armor of God VBS. We have a ton of decorations we would like to donate to a church that is in the North Atlanta (GA) area. Please let me know if you are interested.
We are doing this VBS also . It will be June23rd -27th. 2010. We are in Tucker,Ga. Are you willing to mail them to us. COD would be great.
Shaquana,
Unfortunately our stuff is way too big to mail. Our church is in Alpharetta. We can give you directions if you want to pick them up.
I logged in a few days too late. I hate I missed this post as I am just in middle GA and would have loved to use your props! Oh well! We are getting ready to begin tomorrow night, and we are all excited! What a great tool Tara has given us this year!
I am so excited that I found your site during my VBS planning! We are geared up and ready to begin Bible Boot Camp 2010 tomorrow night and I could not be more pleased with this curriculum! We are a small church without a large budget for VBS kits, so this was wonderful to find! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Tara, for writing and compiling this. You have done a wonderful job. The skits are so much fun and we came up with a few of our own crafts and snacks to add our own personal touch. Some VBS lessons aren’t as interesting (the themes are cute, but lack the real meat and potatoes I look for in lessons). Your VBS has it all! This lesson (armor of God) is also not one we study much, so I found it an interesting “study” for myself as I prepared the daily lessons. It will give the children (and us adults) the reasoning behind the many tools we need as Christians. Again, thank you for offering this much needed tool for small churches like mine. I cross my fingers that you may have more out there for us in the future.
we just completed our Bible Boot Camp this week and had a great time! The energy level was great and we loved how everything was integrated each night, reinforcing the theme with each step.
We used these songs: The Armor of God (from the Butterfly Song people), The Battle Belongs to the Lord, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, I Have Decided to Follow Jesus, I’m in the Lord’s Army…and had on hand We Are More Than Conquerors and O Worship the King (verses 1 and 5).
We reworked the artwork for the youngest group’s worksheets (one of our teens is very gifted in this area) using a manga-style Roman Soldier to highlight the pieces of armor (and shrunk them down to put on the older kid’s workbook pages).
We found the shoelace idea to be too short of a craft. Maybe try the flip-flop frames from Oriental Trading? We have a men’s group that cut out plywood shields for us, primed them and painted them silver and we decoupaged heraldry symbols on them – I think that was the biggest hit of the crafts.
I am looking forward to seeing the Fruit of the Spirit materials when you finish them up…our experience with Bible Boot Camp was so very positive!
Thank God for Tara Merrill. To find this website and the Armor of God Bible Bootcamp was a holy hook up. I was asked in March to put together a June VBS had no experience but I knew God would work it out. I know that our children are under attack and wanted to arm them with Ephesians 6:11-18 and had the idea of a super gospel gang/warrior type theme. I was lead to this website and it was all there for us to use. Last week was our VBS and it was truly a hit with the volunteers, children, parents and grandparents. Our pastor was beaming. We are going to use it again every other year. Our teens did not enjoy the activity book so they went out in the trenches “evangelistic training” – they did enjoy water wars and the temptation game. It was a huge learning experience. Thank you again.
We are beginning our VBS on Friday night and we are so excited to be using “The Armor of God.” You did an excellent job with this theme. We are a small Methodist Churh on a limited income. I have had so much fun preparing for the lessons and other activities. Everything has fallen right into place as we have been anticipating this event for several months now. Please pray for me as I teach the Bible lessons and that our VBS will be successful with many precious, young souls being blessed.
Hello!!!!!!!!!!!thank you very much for posting FREE dvbs MATERIAL. This was what we used last May DVBS and it had been very useful and very informative for us teachers. As sunday School teachers in a remote place in the Philippines, it is again our desire that we be able to download materials for our next DVBS as it is truly difficult for us to secure other materials
We are using this material for our VBS in August 2010. Our church had decided we wanted to develop our own curriculum this year, and your material has been a blessing in guiding us through this process. Thank you for sharing it!! One question – we would like to have the children make their own t-shirts as suggested in your material. However, we would like to use the logo of the knight in armor that you have in your curriculum. Do we have your permission to make iron-on patterns of this figure for our t-shirt craft?
It’s great to hear how this material is being used. You have permission to make t-shirts or any other use in your church.
Thanks so much. We found child’s t-shirts for 94 cents each at http://www.theadairgroup.com. This will be a great craft and the children will have something nice to take home that will always be a reminder of the armor of God.
Hi guys! this curriculum ROCKS! so excited and am working hard on this BBC VBS right now…i am however having trouble locating white (fat) shoe laces for a reasonable price and was wondering if anyone else had any luck finding them for less than 1.00 per pair?
Thank you so much for providing this curriculum. You literally saved our VBS this year b/c we were completely unprepared unfortunately and were thinking of canceling it. Thanks so much again and I praise God for using you for His glory!.
Be blessed:)
Tara you are an answered prayer and I do mean that. My husband, a pastor is part of a brand new church beginning. (been in the church ministry for over 20 years) and I have been searching for something that is sound to teach a mixed group of ages, Sunday School, to our kiddos. I have taken VBS material before and spread it out and did this once before and it works really well to a group. To have found this when funds are limited was an answer. Thank you for your obedience to His Calling!
I cant thank you enough i have been doing curriculums for years and i was running out of new ideas then i ran accross you page…. Thank you sooooooooo Much….. Mat God continue to bless you…. Im 23 as well and its just time to live on purpuse following the answering the call on our lives…. Thanks again Tori
Hey Tara, were you ever able to get a response from Paul Dallgas-Freyabout using the armor of God guy? He states on his site that you can use his artwork, etc, for non-commercial use-just let him know you are using it. His family would love that you used it for vbs/ We used Mojo’s Army combined with his Armor Dude & some other ideas for Children’s church.
Tara! We’re just so grateful for the wonderful hard work you put into this VBS program. There wasn’t one thing we didn’t like. Our favorite turned out to be the skits. They were so in tune with the lessons, snacks, crafts, and games and gave a perfect ending each eveing. Our teenagers had a blast and weren’t intimidated by any complextity. Just fabulous. We just ended VBS this past week in our small country church. Like so many others financially this was a life saver! Thanks and may you be blessed many times over.
We just completed our VBS 7/23/10 and used the free Armor of God VBS. It was great. We did a belt out of foam sheets from an idea we found on line, a breastplate out of posterboard covered with foil strips, the shoestrings, & a crown, shield, & sword (all from oriental trading). The kids loved it. Your materials are so well written & well organized. We did everything per your instructions accept a couple of things. We changed the water balloons to water balls – they worked great and could be re-used – once water balloons are gone, the game would be over. We did not find a pattern in the materials for the sword bible verse booklets, so we did not do that. Also, we could not find a helmet pattern anywhere, so we used a crown instead. Everyone involved were so happy with the materials and how smoothly everything flowed together. We used songs: Kids of the Kingdom, We are Marching, and This Little Light of Mine. My husband made a castle backdrop from cardboard and put the Armor of God logo on the door. God bless you for your efforts and may you use your talents in the future to further God’s kingdom.
Thanks again.
Our church just finished up our Bible Boot Camp, and I was in charge of crafts. I blogged about it with pictures and details here:
http://blackflipflops.blogspot.com/2010/07/camp-cornerstone-bible-boot-camp-armour.html
We loved the VBS Armor of God! We got complements on the great Armor of God clip art you created! We enjoyed that we could pull VBS off for minimal cost to our small church. The only things we’d change would be the use of a peace symbol in the youngest boot camp book. A peace symbol is actually a broken cross & was offensive to a few adult leaders – I’d missed it in my studying the unit. The other thing that’d be helpful is if the unit could be in a different format instead of pdf so that it could easily be copied & edited to fit a specific group or make changes to games, snacks, take home letter, etc… What a great talent you have for creating – hope to see more! : )
i think this an excellent idea,i have considered putting my own together, but found it somewhat challenging. it saves tremendously on cost and makes creativity a must!
Tara,
God is truly using you. I facilitated VBS this year using “The Armor of God” curriculum and it was awesome. We had over 65 youth from the community. We exceeded all expectations and plan to do it again next year for 2 weeks. I hope you will provide us with another outstanding curriculum as you have made the program so easy to follow and offer craft ideas as well as recreation ideas. I loved it!!!!! Thanks again for providing a magnificant curriculum.
God loves you and so do I!!!! Continue to let God use you.
Peace & Agape Love
Trena Parks-Bradley
We just finished our VBS this year using the Armor of God. It was great for us! Being a small church it saved us financially. It was amazing the props we came up with to use. You should have seen our stick horses, they were pretty good, if I say so myself! Again, as I stated in a previous comment, thanks so much. The lessons worked really well, and our adults had a blast doing the skits.
We had 42 – 45 each night which was great!
Mrs. Gene Foster
Caprock Baptist Church
Amarillo, Tx
Thank you so much for the Armor of God VBS lessons. Kids and Adults all had a great time at our church using your material. We asked the kids to write down their favorite part of VBS and here were some of the comments:
“Games”, “Crafts”, “Working together”, “Listening to the Bible”, “Skits”, “Singing”…
We also created a “Bible Boot Camp Chant” that we used to start off each day. I have listed the words with the hand motions below. It goes to the tune of a typical Army Chant. Thanks again! It really is a wonderfully put together VBS kit. It was a blessing for our church.
BIBLE BOOT CAMP CHANT
Bible Boot Camp is the best
(marching arms)
God will put us to the test
(marching arms)
We will put our armor on
(hands to head and chest)
To fight for God, brave and strong
(muscle man arms)
Sound off 1……….2
Sound off 3……….4
Break it down…
1..2..3..4…..1..2…..3..4
(marching arms)
Belt of Truth starts this song
(hands on waist)
Fight for truth all day long
(punching arms forward)
Protect us, Belt, from Satan’s lies
(hands on waist)
Help live life through God’s eyes
(point to eyes)
Breastplate is the next piece on
(Thumbs at armpits, fingers spread)
Protect our hearts and keep us strong
(hand over heart)
Right with God is righteousness
(arms upward toward heaven)
Help us, Father, do our best
(marching arms)
Shoes and Shields are three and four
(Rt. Foot and Rt. Hand palm out in front, Lf. Foot and Lf. Hand palm out
in front)
As we walk out through the door
(marching arms)
Shoes and Shields protect us too
(same as first line)
So, God, we can fight for you
(punching arms forward)
Helmet and Sword complete our song
(Raise helmet off head and then back on)
Now we go fight brave and strong
(figure 8 with imaginary sword in hand)
God has put us to the test
(marching arms)
Now we go and do our best
(Thumbs point to chest and then arms extend forward)
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