Every other month our CLC Board of Missions updates us with recent news from various mission fields.
People don’t garden like they used to: “It’s too much work . . . no one helped . . . it didn’t turn out as I thought . . . I couldn’t keep up with all the zucchini. . . . ” These aren’t too different from reasons I’ve heard why congregations don’t have a vacation Bible school!
A VBS program offers you a mission field as close to home as a little garden plot right on your church property. And the CLC Traveling VBS (TVBS) program is excited to connect willing kingdom workers with congregations across the United States and Canada in need of helping hands.
Is TVBS still happening? It most certainly has been! In the past, an ILC van full of students crisscrossed the nation. TVBS now directly connects willing kingdom workers with congregations across the United States and Canada according to their specific needs.
Last summer alone, traveling teams helped support six locations. Bethel of Morris, Minnesota; and Redeemer of Bowdle, South Dakota, both held their first VBS in decades. A flyer team canvassed the town of Bowdle with tremendous community response—twelve children, all non-members. Gift of God, Mapleton, North Dakota, ended up with a crop they could barely keep up with. If we could all have such problems!
VBS in Valentine Nebraska
“VBS doesn’t work anymore” simply is not true. It is true that successful VBS gardening requires hard work, not only those few days of the program itself but in months of community engagement beforehand and follow-up throughout the year.
VBS rarely has immediate results. It can take several seasons for the fruit of these brief spurts in tilling and sowing to begin breaking through the soil. It is an opportunity like no other to reach new households and call the youth of our fellowship into leadership roles. Trust is called for—trust that God’s Word never returns to Him void.
If your congregation suffers from VBS fatigue, don’t give up! If, for whatever reason, it’s been some years since you’ve hosted a VBS, the inertia is a perceived hurdle that is worth overcoming.
Nine congregations have reached out for help so far:
- Mountain View (San Francisco), California
- Mapleton (Fargo), North Dakota
- Morris, Minnesota
- Bowdle, South Dakota
- Cheyenne, Wyoming
- Detroit, Michigan
- Valentine, Nebraska
- Rapid City, South Dakota
- Marquette, Michigan
- (Your congregation?)
If you’d like to support the Traveling VBS—directly or indirectly—there are a variety of ways in which you can get involved: teacher, music, recess, crafts, canvassing, or sponsoring a trip for others. You could volunteer on your own, together with a friend, or accept the challenge as a family mission adventure. The TVBS program covers your travel expenses.
Pastor Timothy Daub is the TVBS Coordinator. If you or your congregation would like more details about this summer’s opportunities, contact him at pastor_daub@hotmail.com.
is pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Hecla and Aberdeen, South Dakota, and Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bowdle, South Dakota. He also serves on the CLC Board of Missions.