Camp Courage
By Caroline Morales
Impact VBS 2018 is in the books and what a summer it was! Our theme this summer was “Camp Courage” and 400 children spent 6 weeks learning about people from the Bible who did (or in some cases did not) exhibit courage. We focused on Joshua 1:9 and taught the children that “we can be brave even when we are afraid because God is with us”. All of us will face scary times in our lives, and I hope the theme of this summer will stay in the children’s hearts forever.
Over the past several years we have challenged the VBS children to memorize large amounts of scripture. This year the the 3rd – 6th graders were challenged to learn Psalm 23, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 56:3-4, Isaiah 41:13, 1 Corinthians 15:58, 1 Timothy 1:7, AND Hebrews 13:5-6. We had a large group of students memorize all of these verses and enjoy a pizza party on the last day of VBS.
We also had an extra challenge – that the first child to memorize all the verses would be the “Director of the Day”. The Director of the Day would get to skip reading class and the other activities and help out in the hallway with Ms. Caroline and Ms. Kelsi. I had expected someone to do this after 3 or 4 week, but as usual the children rose above our expectations. A 5th grade student, Sigi Flores, recited all 14 verses on day 5 of VBS! When I asked him how he learned them so fast, he simply replied, “I took this Bible home every night and read the verses over and over again”. May we all have that heart and drive to learn God’s word!
When the day came for Sigi to be the Director of the Day, we presented him with a shirt so everyone would know his role. He helped lead Big Assembly time, dismissed the children to their reading class, passed out lunches to children, ran the A/V equipment during our devo, and much more! He even got to steal a few pieces of candy from the prize bucket – perks of being a director! When I asked him what he thought at the end of the day he told me, “It was hard because you have to deal with a lot of things, but easy because you get to do whatever you want!”
Every year, these memory verse challenges remind me that is doesn’t matter where our children come from or what their home is like, God gives us all the ability to do big things. When love is poured into our children and expectations are set high, God helps them reach new heights and accomplish big goals!
Thank you friends at Impact for all that you are doing. Your arms are far reaching and what you’re doing brings glory to God the Father and Christ our Savior. It is clear the Holy Spirit is at work among you and the children placed in your care. It was inspiring to be around you and witness the many personal sacrifices each of you make to serve others. Thank you for all of your hard work and blessings to you as you hopefully take a rest!