The Gold Rush Is Over But the Treasure of God’s Word Remains

It’s good to be blogging again! Life was really crazy the past two weeks so I was forced to break my bi-weekly blog habit, but I’m back in the saddle again (no pun intended!). The week of the AiG Mega Conference here in Kentucky was also the week our church had its Gold Rush VBS. As director/teacher/song leader, I had my hands full, but the effort was worth it. We averaged 20–25 children, which is good for our small church.

I was amazed to see how intently the children listened to the lessons. They asked so many great questions and had a fun time acting out the different events from the life of Christ. The apologetics content of the lessons was tremendous. I’m thrilled to think how these children didn’t just learn a bunch of Bible “stories,” but instead they learned the Bible’s history and how to defend it. One little girl told me her brother told her God was not real (her brother is eleven—very sad). I asked her what she said to him and her reply was, “I hit him!” Well, we all got a good laugh and I told her that I was pleased she took a stand on God’s existence but that next time maybe she could use her words and the material we were learning that week to help her brother know that God is real.

I admit that I was a bit fearful of teaching the junior group (grades 4–6), thinking they would be more difficult to engage. But again, I was really impressed to see them paying attention, answering questions, and engaging the information. The juniors were especially intent on being the group to raise the most money for the missions project, which was to buy a peg for the Ark Encounter project. They came in second by only a few cents, so we declared a tie. The amazing thing was that all the kids raised enough money to buy not just one peg but three pegs!

On Friday night we had the VBS program and I was excited to see so many of the children’s family and friends come to see them perform. I saw one young girl who attended the VBS talking with the pastor before the program (this same little girl brought in a very large jar of pennies for the missions project!). She later came to me and told me she had received Christ as her personal Savior. This past Sunday she was baptized at our church. What a blessing to see the truth of God’s Word making a difference in the lives of these children!

It was truly a group effort on the part of the church, and we are continuing to see God’s blessings from this outreach. I quizzed the kids in Sunday school after the VBS to see how much they remembered, and it was much more than I expected. I credit most of that to the great team of writers, editors, and others for putting together literally the best VBS I have ever been a part of. I’ve put a few pictures below to give you a taste of the Gold Rush excitement. I’m looking forward to being a part of Incrediworld next year.