What did you do for VBS this year? How did it turn out?
Leave a comment below and let us know.
- How did your attendance compare to previous years?
- How did your spending compare?
- Which publisher and VBS theme did you use?
Just let us know in the comment section below. I’ll use the results for my special VBS wrap up post later this summer. Plus, I’ll have a better idea which curriculum publishers most interest the readers here on the website.
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Last year I wrote our theme for VBS…”Kings, Queens & Villains -I’m a Kings Kid” It was a great theme, but I gave too much information for the teachers to teach & for the kids to learn. I have truly learned my lesson with that. I have only been doing VBS for 3 years, so I am still new @ this. I was a VBS goer, so I am always excited for the VBS season. I know we have a few months before VBS begins, but this year, I decided to plan a lunch & learn for VBS so that I could meet with other churches in the community to see what they were doing & share ideas. I felt this would be a good way for the smaller churches to reach out to the larger ones to share themes & for the smaller churches on a budget to share how they manage to make their program work with little to no money. Churches have been responding with excitement. We will be able to mark their VBS dates on the calendar so that we can help each other & our children can participate in as many as possible. I put together a planning packet & all the websites as well as 2012 themes. If you want any information, please feel free to let me know & I will email it to you. Good luck to all of you next year!
Our attendance was down the first night. It built up some thru the week. We have been lower in attendance the last 2-3 years.
We had a great group of kids and had a fun week!
We tried to be much more frugal with our spending this year due to the economy.
We used Lifeways, Big Apple Adventure. We especially loved the music! Jeff always does a superb job!
Our Vacation Bible School was tremendous. We used the Program Inside out & Upside Down on Main Street. It was packed with energy and excitement. The songs were exceptional and I thank you for your website because I used a lot of the info you provided in planning. We had an almost 50-50 % community and church. Every year VBS gets better and better.
We used “chase the light” by Rethink. The music was awesome!! We had to come up with our own motions to the songs though, since the cost to get the dance moves was more than we could spend. Our numbers were about 1/2 of last year, but we did have more time to build the relationships with those in attendance. A daycare invited us to come once a week and spend time with their children, so we used a VBS day to share with them once a week. It worked out wonderfully to prepare once and use twice!!! Thanks for all of your hard work to keep us informed and encouraged!!
Since I have been the VBS director at the church, the material from Lifeway, has truly been a blessing to me and the children in our community. This year was the first time that I have the opportunity to attend the major VBS conference and I felt so welcome and to meet Bro. Jeff was truly a blessing. A couple of years ago when VBS was Outrigger Island, I was praying that the next year would something in reference to Hawaii and praise GOD it was. Last year, I was saying to myself, I want to do something in relating to cowboys and what you know, that is what this year’s theme is Sadde Ridge Ranch. So God has just been blessing me through you all. I am so excited about the work, the time and act of kindness manifest through his people at this time, I wish the whole world would just hop on board and join us in celebrating the good news of Jesus.
For the last 3 years we’ve “done our own thing” for VBS. So many of the pre-packaged VBS programs seem to be for much larger churches with 10 or 15 kinds in each age group. We have a small church with 10 or 15 kids in the entire Sunday School. We never know how many kids will be at VBS. In addition to our own students, many kids from the two other churches in town and kids with no church join us. When we make our own VBS we can tailor the crafts to our kids and make sure that any supplies we buy can be used for Sunday School if there are left over supplies.
I’ve found the internet is a great place for VBS ideas. Two years ago we used DLTK’s F.R.O.G VBS as the base for our week’s activities and lessons. Last year I adapted DLTK’s 4 part Moses Sunday School lessons for 5 days of VBS.
This year I adapted Paul Essex’s “How do I get to Heaven” lessons to a train themed VBS. For next year (yes, I’m already thinking about it) we might do Essex’s “Armor of God” lesson as VBS. I think the boys would really like it.
For crafts, many of hte ideas came from the net, many from crafts remembered from the teachers’ days as VBS students. The supplies were from Walmart, Hobby Lobby, JoAnnes, Oriental Trading, the local True Value hardware store and our local lumber company (the materials from the lumber company were donated, next year we need to search for more folks to donate or discount materials). My 20-something son and I spent most of the summer picking up supplies, bit by bit. Some was paid for from the Sunday School funds, some was paid for by parishioners, some form the teachers’ pockets. But by buying bit by bit, as things were on sale, it didn’t seem like a lot was spent. Many of the supplies will also be used through out the year for Sunday School crafts.
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