The 15-person VBS coordinating team at Calvary Baptist starts work in January. Maybe that’s why they weren’t overwhelmed by the 1,400 youngsters and leaders who showed up June 4-8 for vacation Bible school.
ALEXANDRIA –
The 15-person VBS coordinating team at Calvary Baptist starts work in
January. Maybe that’s why they weren’t overwhelmed by the 1,400
youngsters and leaders who showed up June 4-8 for vacation Bible school.
This might be the largest VBS in Louisiana, though Trinity Lake Charles anticipated at least 1,200 for its June 18-22 VBS.
It was
one of the largest attendances for the church, acknowledged Gene Ortis,
Calvary’s minister of education for the last 25 years. But numbers just
reflect youngsters who for 15 hours in one week heard and saw the Bible
lived out.
“For some
of these kids, that’s more Bible study than they’ll get all year,”
Ortis said. “I want every one of them to be in heaven one day.”
This year
the Calvary worship center became HERO Stadium for VBS week, complete
with cheerleaders and scoreboard. It was boys against girls all week,
in what is an annual competition. Who could bring in more pennies for
missions?
For 22 of
the last 26 years, Ortis told the energized first- through
sixth-graders (preschoolers do not attend the opening worship rally),
the girls have prevailed. The boys fought hard – bringing in baggies of
pennies and dumping them into blue buckets.
By the end of
the week, more than 1,260 pounds of pennies had been collected. Boys
brought in 680 pounds; girls, 586 pounds poured into their pink
buckets. Together, the pennies totaled nearly $2,500 – nearly the
amount needed to buy a white water raft.
Troy Smith,
pastor at Community Baptist Church in Battle Ground, Wash., about 30
minutes north of the Columbia River near Portland, Ore., needs a raft
for the sports camp he leads each summer as an evangelistic outreach
for area youngsters.
Smith
also authored materials for SAFE – Setting Addicts Free Eternally –
which Calvary has been using for several years. It’s a coincidence that
the missionary they chose for VBS also has this other connection to the
church, Ortis said in conversation with the Message.
Calvary’s
opening session also includes a skit each day designed to make one
simple point. On Tuesday, the point was a take-off on “Keep your eye on
the ball.” Warren Morris, an LSU baseball star from the 1990s and
former Major Leaguer with the Pittsburgh Pirates and now a Calvary
member, dropped by to help make the point.
“Keep
your eye on the ball,” Morris told Waterboy Boy (also known as Dr.
Cliff Stewart, Calvary’s Minister to Singles). Ortis then told
the children, “In baseball you need to keep your eyes on the
ball. In life, you need to keep your eyes on Jesus.
If you do, you’ll act the way Jesus acted. .you’ll talk the way
Jesus talked and you will become a hero for Jesus.”
HERO
Stadium was named by the Calvary Education staff as they built an
acrostic to illustrate the characteristics of a hero. Their
acrostic was: H = honor God; E = excel for God; R = respond to God; O =
obey God. The opening skits day by day illustrated those
characteristics of a hero.
Many factors go into making VBS a positive experience for the church and the children, Ortis said.
“We put a lot of effort into it. We try to make it joyful,” he stated.
Ortis
said the primary person in all the planning and execution of VBS at
Calvary is children’s director Janet Jewell, “Janet has a
well-organized plan, trained volunteers, and the most energy of any
person at Calvary” Ortis stated. The Education and Media
staffs join together to provide high-energy opening skits written by
Jewell and others at the church. The VBS offers recreation and
singing activities designed for youngsters to expend energy, and – each
day – clear, simple, one-point, Bible-based studies reinforced from
opening session through carft/recreation/singing times, and through
in-class Bible studies.
Sunday
afternoon before VBS starts on Monday, Calvary members prayerwalk from
room to room in the church. Even though that’s almost the last thing,
it’s the most important,” Ortis said. “Prayer is the basis for
life-change to happen with our children. Our church members enjoy
walking through the rooms and pausing for a few moments, asking God to
bless everything that will happen in that room during the week of VBS,”
he stated.
In the
months leading up to VBS, Jewell directs the preparations of age-level
leaders and the leaders in each class. First- and second-graders, for
example, have twelve classes of about 20 students each. Over the
years’, volunteers’ giftedness is noted and they are invited to lead in
a specialization. A great craft-maker, for example, might lead crafts
in three classes.
“We’re
making zipper-pulls for backpacks,” explained Dan Humbles, 7. He was
having fun, he said. “I was here last year and it was fun,” he said. So
he came back this year.
One
person serves as a ‘coordinator’ for about six classes. His/Her
assignment throughout each morning is to ask what each teacher in
his/her section needs, and then provide it.
“Janet
Jewell is a jewel,” Ortis said. “She’s been here for 11 years, and her
volunteers come back year after year to work with her.”
Calvary
used about 225 volunteers this year for its VBS. That includes about
100 teens. Teens also make many of the banners, posters and VBS-related
artwork that are put up the weekend before VBS.
“It’s so
much fun being with the kids and having a positive effect in their
lives,” said Tyler Terrell, 16. He was helping with second grade
crafts, he said.
Everybody
who wants to can find a way to help in VBS, Ortis said. One Calvary
member cares for her mother and can’t stay at the church, but she drops
off scrumptious homemade goodies as treats for the people who handle
VBS registration.
Most of
the enrollment these days is online, Ortis said. Signs all over
Alexandria and Pineville advertised Calvary’s VBS, the dates, and the
church website. But an additional 400 youngsters registered Monday at
the church; about 50 more on Tuesday.
“I want
to learn more about God and have fun learning about Him,” said Alexia
Farmar, 9. She’s one of about 400 youngsters from birth through the
sixth grade who attend Calvary. In other words, about 1,000 youngsters
at Calvary’s VBS do NOT go to church there. Ortis sees that as a good
thing.
“We know
that some of the children are here simply because their Mom sees it as
a time to have her kid cared for. But we don’t care why she
brings him. We will take him as long as we can share the
Good News with him,” Ortis stated.
Each
volunteer goes through a background check that costs the church
$12/person. This includes looking for a history of sexual or criminal
misconduct. Additional safety measures: five paid police officers are
on duty every morning VBS is in session. Youngsters in fourth grade and
below are not allowed to leave class at the end of the day until their
parent/guardian picks them up in the classroom.
The lower
level of the preschool building has electronically-secured doors; 16
strategically-located security cameras maintain vigilant watch
throughout the church.
“This is
a huge campus with lots of entrances,” Ortis said. “We do all we can to
ensure the safety of the youngsters in our care.”
Why did 1,400 youngsters and adults participate in Calvary’s VBS?
“I want
to come with my friends,” said Morgan Bryant, 8. She had never been to
VBS before, she said. She does not attend Calvary, but her friends do.
“It was
fun. We got to play around and make things,” said Jacob North, 10. He
attends another church, but does not go to VBS every year. His mother
brought him to Calvary, he said.
“I work
with Dani Fookes,” a Calvary member, said Maria Randolph. “He said it
would be really good this year, so I brought my son. I want to continue
his Christian education.”