Village Blog

By now, you’ve probably heard the words: shine, victory, Uganda, ice cream and bucket drums over a hundred times! It’s no doubt we had a rockin’ time at VBS today!

We got pumped this morning for an action packed adventure beginning with a "Can You Dig It?" celebration. Once dismissed, we disbursed to various rotations including a "Smokin’ Bible Adventure", where we learned about the crown of victory – given to those who work hard for God. 

Today’s Bible story focused on the Tower of Babel. When Noah’s family left the ark, God told them to spread across the earth and multiply. The people who settled in Babylonia decided to build a tower that reached heaven instead of listening to God’s command. God saw the tower and He knew their disobedient plan, so God mixed up their languages and they couldn’t understand each other anymore. God also scattered the people all over the earth, and they stopped building the tower.

From this story, we learned that God’s way is always the best way. To earn the crown of Victory, we must follow God’s command and work for Him. Not ourselves.

In our missions moment, Lisa O'Brien and Kate Duff talked about some of the amazing things God is doing in Uganda through a ministry called Juna Amagara Ministries. The kids learned that Juna Amagara means "Saving Lives." Juna Amagara has a variety of ministries, focused on caring for orphans and holistically saving lives. They also learned some basic things about the country of Uganda and what life is like there. One highlight was talking about what it is like to fetch water for families that don't have running water (or electricity). Many children (and adults) regularly have to carry a jerry can (or two) filled with five gallons of water. Some of these Ugandans even carry one on their head with no heads, while hiking up mountains! Some kids got to try picking up a 5 gallon water bottle to get an idea of how challenging that really is!

In Pet Rock Crafts, we created bucket drums for Platform Music. The drums will be used to give glory to God each day as we worship Him. The children can take the drums home at the end of the week.

We also had refreshing ice cream, played an intense game of capture the flag, learned some beats on our bucket drums!

Oh yeah - almost forgot! Throughout the week, we’ll be raising money to help the work Juna Amgara is doing with orphans in Uganda. Every day we'll have a competition on stage (girls vs. boys) to see who can fill their bucket with the most support. Children may bring coins or cash to drop off in their respective bucket at the beginning of each morning.

The stars are the limit with SHINE VBS! Stay tuned for more of this week’s festivities, and even more about Juna Amagara Ministries (www.amagara.org)!