VBS Tools Online is a web-based program that was developed to help churches manage their Vacation Bible Schools. I have had the privilege of doing an overview of VBS Tools Online at our VBS Preview Events for the past few years. I thought it might be helpful to share the information that I shared at our events with the blogosphere!! Here’s a powerpoint presentation that gives a little view into VBS Tools Online. Hopefully it will give you a glimpse of the kind of work it does. (HINT: Hit menu to view full screen on your computer)
If you have used VBS Tools Online, I would love to know what the most helpful feature is to you? What feature do you wish that VBS Tools Online offered?
And no, I’m not talking about the VBS 2012 theme (which I am really excited about). What I’m not supposed to tell you is – WE HAVE A NEW VBS BLOG TEAM!!! This blog has now completely grown out of “unofficial official” status into a full grown blog. I’m so proud
I did manage to get a few pics of the blog team – see if you recognize any of them:
What I can tell you is that this team will be providing additional content about Vacation Bible School multiple times a week, which is much more than I could ever do on my own. I’ll still be contributing every once in a while, but they will take such good care of you, you’ll wish they had been blogging for years!!
The post on our Kids Ministry 101 blog today was so good, I wanted to share it with you guys!!
Today, we’re blessed to have a guest blogger, Carlton McDaniel. Carlton is a champion for kids with special needs, and he’ s sharing some tips about using VBS with kids of all abilities!
On church mission trips, I have alwaysbeen assigned to work with the Backyard Bible Club Team-of course we’ve always used LifeWay VBS or Club VBS. I’ve often wondered if I’m chosen in case a child with special needs shows up, or if everyone in the church knows how terrible I really am at construction! Regardless of the reason, I love the wonder and excitement that kids bring to any experience. And to be honest, I’m at my “ministry best” when I have an opportunity to minister to a kid with special needs.
Whether it’s on a mission trip or at the church, VBS
is about sharing the Gospel with kids in a fun atmosphere with the goal of leading them into a relationship with Christ
extends an open invitation to any and every kid in the community with the greatest potential for an unexpected visit from a child with special needs
uses the greatest number of “once a year volunteers” given the responsibility to teach
That’s why it’s so important to train VBS leaders/volunteers to work with kids of all abilities. Every person who volunteers to teach deserves the opportunity to be at their best, just as every child who attends deserves an opportunity to be taught in the way they learn best. And since many kids are first-time visitors, we don’t have much advance knowledge of their learning needs. So the only option we have is to equip leaders/volunteers to be at their best.
To help your leaders/volunteers prepare for every child, LifeWay has the VBS 2011 Special Friends Leader Guide. Inside there are rotation tips, teaching plans, multi-sensory teaching ideas, and a designated area for working with kids and an area for working with older youth/adults with special needs. Also included is a CD-ROM that has over 100 pages of printable activities and teaching helps. The resource follows the main VBS theme so many of the printable activities can be used in a variety of classroom settings. This resource is helpful in both mainstream and self-contained teaching environments.
If you want to know more, visit www.lifeway.com/vbs. And keep watching for a special training video on using Special Friends VBS in your church that will be posted later in February.
You may not have anyone in your church like me who is “terrible at construction”. But you do have people like me who can be equipped to share the Gospel to kids with special needs. And if God uses one event like VBS to send a family with special needs to your church, let’s be prepared to give our best.
Sarah shared her story with me about how God prompted her to start a homeless ministry in her church after she began going through her VBS sampler. We were able to visit with Sarah at our VBS preview event in Fort Worth, so we did a little video with her.
The audio is hard to hear on the video, so if you can’t hear it, here’s an excerpt of her email to me that tells about her story:
I just wanted to let you know a little more about what God has done. Ben Hayes asked me to partner with them making homeless carepackages. I really prayed about it and the Lord just spoke to me that I really couldn’t do something for the homeless in Houston when I’m doing nothing for the homless in Beaumont (we live about 15 miles from there). It was urgent to begin immediately, so I asked my church to take a Ziploc bag and fill it with things that would make a homeless persons life easier and bring it back the next Sunday. They brought about 40 back, and we went that afternoon and passed them out downtown Beaumont. I had 7 people participate.
While at the Salvation Army we saw a young woman with a small baby. I shared this at church that night. Then next morning a friend of mine called (she did not go with us but I had told her about it at church) – she was very distraught over this lady with the baby – she felt we had to do something to help her. She had been awakened crying over it several times during the night. I called the salvation army and got alittle information but not really any help. My friends’ husband is a police officer, so the next day he stopped by and talked to her. He found out that her baby is a special needs baby, that she has been homeless for at least 6 months, that she has never been in any trouble, and that she was saved and baptized last march. She told him that she was signed up with the housing department. He contacted some people and found that she wasn’t signed up in right place and since she has a special needs baby, she can get emergency placement status. So they helped her take care of all that and now she is next in line for an apartment. When they asked her if she needed anything, she pointed up in the sky and said, “Nope, I’m content. He’s taken care of everything!!!” Unbelievable- a homeless person with a baby that has nothing and she is content – WOW!!!
What is so awesome about this to me – other than that he let me be a part of this – is how he orchestrated all this to take care of one of his children. It started with LifeWay and VBS to Ben Hays to me to my friend and her husband. They were the only ones I know that have the connections to help her. I cannot wait to see what he is going to do next!!! I am praying that this will inspire others to listen to His voice and step out in faith and act even when you have no clue what you are doing. Our homeless ministry is called Feet on the Ground ministries and we are going once a month the homeless in downtown Beaumont. Thanks so much for listening – I pray you are able to share this and others will be inspired to connect with faith, with love, with trust with others with LIFE!!!
I’m so excited about all that God is going to do through Vacation Bible School 2011! I hope that you are all believing that He is going to do great things through your community because of your faithfulness to Him!!
I would love to hear more stories about how VBS is impacting your community. Anyone willing to share???
Can you believe Christmas is almost here? Wow! You know what that means? It’s almost time for VBS!!!
One of my favorite things to do during December is watch old movies and there are some great movies set in New York. I’ve put together a list of some of my favorites that you can enjoy over the Christmas season.
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