Connecting Faith and Life
So what do you do when an unexpected crisis comes along? James Blakeney, Alabama Baptist Children’s Consultant, sent us this Big Apple story from Beth Yates and First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa.
“After the tornado hit Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 27, 2011, we didn’t feel right about going about business as usual, especially when it came to VBS. So many churches were damaged, and others were in Disaster Relief support. We decided to take VBS out to the community areas that were hardest hit by the tornado. We wanted to provide some positive activities for kids who still lived in those communities—something that was for them and not about the storm. We also wanted to encourage churches in the hardest hit areas that may not have been able to do VBS on their own.
“We contacted the pastors of Rosedale Baptist Church, The Soma Church, and Alberta Baptist Church, and they were very interested in partnering with us to provide VBS in their communities. Our student ministry also led a backyard Bible club for a mostly Hispanic neighborhood.
“The result was outstanding! The attendance and enrollment grew each day, with our highest attendance on Thursday—710! We were surprised at the number of older kids (above grade 6) who were attracted to VBS activities. We were able to give a Bible to every kid in VBS, cookies and Kool-Aid®, and even lunches at some locations. Our congregation could not have been more supportive.
“Everyone was encouraged by the workers from the other churches and by the kids who participated and their families. Even on the hottest days while they were working hard, many of our workers began to say things like, ‘This is the best VBS ever!’ ‘We should always do VBS this way!’ and ‘We need to do things like this more than once a year!’”
Thanks, Beth, for letting us tell your church’s story. Connecting faith and life . . . what’s your favorite Big Apple story?
awesome story about Christians working together for the Great Commission!!! Praise the Lord for all the good that came from the tornado tragedies.
Stumbled on this sight.
I picked up my daughter the other night after Bible School. I had planned to go to a night club after I got her and left her at my boyfriends. But I didn’t have to go. They were all in a music room singing and dancing. The music was way cool. The only thing it was missing was the booze.
Oh well, it IS church. I guess there has to be some kind of standards. But ya’lls music is awesome. I didn’t know church could be so cool. Don’t really know what the songs were about, but at least I didn’t have to head out to the night club to have a good time dancing.
Thanks,
Tammie
My wife and I were wondering what The Big Apple has anything to do with Vacation Bible School. We are new to our Church and this irreverent way of music and dance in the Church setting. We are from a more honoring, reverent type of church and also new to the Southern Baptist Church.
We worked with the kindergarten group in our VBS this summer using the Big Apple Adventure and found that the music simply created chaos in the children. Yeah, they like the rap song…whatever it said…couldn’t quite make out all the words…
Can ya tone it down next year? If we wanted to dance like fifty cent, or whatever you call him, we’d just bring along one of his music CD’s. Kindof reconsidering if our choice to join the Southern Baptist Church was wise…