Longview Friends Church VBS Exceeds Expectations

Longview Friends Church (Danville, VA) reports growing numbers in their children's program. The "Frogs Club Values - Forgive, Respect, Obey, Give Thanks and Serve" theme provided ideas for VBS, great attention getters, and most of all, valuable lessons straight from the Bible. They planned for three class levels with ten children per class. Special invitations brought new faces into the church and all were pleased when attendance tripled.

Everyone had a great week of singing, puppet shows, class and story time, crafts, prizes, food, and a pizza party with the closing program on Sunday night. Enthusiastic teachers, assistants and volunteers showed the love of Jesus Christ to the children. They were especially excited to welcome some children who spoke only Spanish. There were no Spanish-speaking teachers, but communication was successful with the help of other children and the grace of God. His love abounded.

Longview Friends took their VBS offering goal very seriously. In past years they had raised around $200.00. This year, they decided to set a higher, but attainable goal of $500. "We had several projects going on to reach our goal," explained one of the leaders. "Our children gave offering every Sunday during worship hour from March until June, we saved cans before and during VBS to recycle, our regular offering during the week of VBS, and of course our 'Jesus Run 2001 Wednesday Obstacle Course' where our children were challenged to get sponsors from family, friends, and neighbors. Our children were really excited about the 'Jesus Run' which subsequently raised $501.23." The total missionary offering was $822!

Longview Friends feels a large part of the credit for their successful VBS program is due to the ideas they received from the Christian Education Seminar in Greensboro, NC, at Hunter Hills Friends led by Marva Hoopes and Carol Williams. They learned to set reachable goals and received ideas to help reach their goals. "Anyone who has not attended one of these seminars does not know what they are missing. I encourage anyone, especially if you work with children, to attend. You won't be sorry. We're planning to start a Wednesday evening program to keep seeing these new faces on a regular basis!"