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.
Download this Free VBS Material
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.
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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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.
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.
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.