Spring Break VBS

When you think VBS, most of us think of summer. But when you are a smaller church plant, like my family is a part of, the summer months are often a challenge to organize a large ministry effort, especially a Vacation Bible School.
But perhaps there would be a better time during the year to hold a VBS? We know that VBS is a great opportunity to reach unconnected families and it is one of the largest evangelistic ministries that the Lord has blessed the Church with. We know that during Spring Break there are lots of families in our community that do not travel, do not go on vacation, and most parents need something for their kids to do while they are working during the day since school is not in session. And so when a small team from our church met to discuss ministry opportunities during Spring Break, the idea of doing VBS was born! Turns out, we aren’t the only ones that have had this idea! Check out this recent post on our blog that highlighted another church in our community who also held a Spring Break VBS!
Being a church plant though, we would have different challenges than FBC Gallatin. Obviously, location was going to be a challenge. The local YMCA (where we meet each weekend) would still be open for business and could not accommodate us during the day, so that option was out. The type of facility we desired needed to have plenty of indoor space for small groups, but also ample space for recreation. We needed access to restrooms, tables, chairs, etc. And we needed our facility to be in a location that is easy to get to and is well known to the community, in order for families to be comfortable letting their kids be a part. Our wish list seemed impossible to meet.
But what about all of those school buildings that are sitting empty during Spring Break? Would it be possible to find one that fit all of these criteria? By the Lord’s grace, our pastor was blessed to be able to reach out to a specific principal in our district who agreed to let us use part of their facility, including the cafeteria and the gym. Not only was the space ideal, but the location of the school was within 1-2 miles of over 3500 families! We were pumped!  The biggest piece of the puzzle had been solved.
Over the next couple of weeks on the blog, I’ll share more about our experience with our Spring Break VBS. We saw over 40 kids (which represented over 20 different unreached families) take part. We couldn’t be more excited! More to come, so stay tuned!