It’s VBS week around FBC Cleveland (and probably about a gazillion other churches in the country). These next few weeks when a majority of the churches (of all denominations) will host VBS are some of the most important corporate days in the area of children’s ministry. Through VBS, thousands of children and their parents – many of whom never come to traditional church – will hear The Gospel of Salvation and be loved on by the body of Christ. If you are involved in your church’s VBS, yay for you! If you aren’t involved in VBS this year, I’m offering you a personal invitation to have an important part in this vital mission.
How?
I’m so glad you asked. 😉 The answer is simple, and it’s something you can do as you go about your busy days:
You can PRAY.
If you would take one letter each day during the months of June and July, and keep these requests rotating before the Throne of Grace, you will have a beautiful part in the changing of countless lives. What God does through the individuals serving in each particular VBS, He will also be doing through you AS. YOU. PRAY. 🙂
P – People. First of all, please pray for the workers and church staff. It is a fun, but exhausting week for adults and youth volunteers. Pray for the patience and love of the Lord Jesus to flow through each servant so that they will see the children {especially the difficult ones} through the eyes of God. Then pray for the little ones – For those feet that run down the halls, the hands smeared with paint and markers, the heads sweaty from outdoor recreation, the mouths turned blue from koolaid, the minds offered truth from God’s Word, the eyes watching to see what love looks like, and the ears hearing how vastly God loves them.
R – Routines/Schedules/Rotations. Pray for smoothness and ease of routines, rotations, and transitions. Pray that the time allotted for each activity will be “enough,” and that the “bumps” along the way will be quickly smoothed. Thank the Lord for going before each day, knowing every moment that will be in each day, and thank God for already having a plan to work it all into something good and glorious.
A – Activities. Pray that in each activity – in each Bible story, mission lesson, arts & crafts project, recreation time,review time, and snack – God will make His message of love and redemption clear. Ask the Lord to shine and bring to pass the purposes behind these activities – which is to glorify Himself in the lives of the leaders and the learners. Through play-dough and piano, cookies and commotion, may God’s truth root deeper in each tender heart.
Y – Yielded Hearts and Lives. Most importantly, pray that the Plan of Salvation, God’s costly and redemptive gift to mankind, will be understood and received – by both children and adults. Ask God to soften hard hearts, mend broken hearts, and make brittle hearts pliable to His Word and Ways. A heart yielded to God, at any age is a beautiful gift to Him.
We have the invitation to join God in what He is doing all over this country and around the Lord as we commit to pray for VBS’s everywhere. God esteems your prayers, and He will be faithful to answer them. Jesus promises in John 14:13-14, “From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do. “
So… Will you pray for VBS this week? Will you pray for VBS all summer?
To help us remember to pray for VBS, God gave me this little jingle… to be sung with the gusto of a pre-schooler to the chorus of “Jingle Bells”. (And when in “Jingle Bells” we say “Hey!” – in this song we’ll yell “Pray!”) 😉 If the diddy gets stuck in your head like it’s stuck in mine, then just sing it loud and sing it proud and let it be a reminder to P.R.A.Y. for VBS this summer. Precious souls will spend eternity in Heaven because of the ministry of VBS. How awesome to get to have a part in life-change through prayer and VBS!
Jingle VBS
by Jennifer Crawford Walker, May 2012
VBS, VBS, It’s that time of year
When church doors are opened wide
To Children, far and near… PRAY!
VBS, VBS, you can have a part
Of all God does in girls and boys
So pray with all your heart… PRAY!
🙂 Have a super week in the Lord, my friends~
