March 28, 2024

Grace Church kicks off vacation Bible School

Grace Church kicked off it's vacation Bible school Tuesday night with a lot of hard work and elbow grease from volunteers and church patrons.
The set design and decorations, all themed around the medieval era, are aimed to engage young churchgoers into learning about the Bible and having fun with it too.

Cheryl Hayton, the wife of Pastor Dan Hayton, said she attended such vacation Bible schools as a kid.

“Vacation Bible school is an opportunity for the kids during the summer time to come in a little more relaxed maybe more fun atmosphere than just a Sunday morning and just the learn stories about the Bible and do crafts, sing songs, learn verses,” she said. “Just lots of fun activities for the kids.”

The service project the church will be working on with the children is raising money for a ministry center in Lima, Peru.

“This will be a place center for missionaries that go there with their children,” she said. “So we’re really happy to help support the Wollbrink family who are missionaries in Lima, Peru.”

The students will be learning about King David and how he learned to be a shepherd before he was a king. The students will also learn about Queen Esther and how she was an orphan before she was queen, which is a role she fulfilled when God called on her.

Cheryl said she enjoyed vacation Bible school when she was young and found it to be a fun and engaging activity over her summers.

“It seemed like mothers weren’t working outside the home like they do now, but all the moms were there and it was just a really fun time,” she said. “They always had crafts to work on daily and I had great memories.”

Cheryl said she believes vacation Bible schools are important in teaching children valuable lessons.

“There’s just a lot of messages out in the world that would be teaching the kids that maybe they don’t need God in their life but our desire here at our church is to leave the kids the knowing more about God and they can have a personal relationship with God,” she said.

The vacation Bible school will last two more days at Grace Church. Cheryl said the decorations this year were “bumped up to the extreme” because of Linda Gauch, who has spent many hours on the set and scenery as the VBS coordinator.

“She is just incredible,” Cheryl said. “She is very imaginative.”