Wednesday, July 03, 2013

The Kingdom of God Belongs to These

"But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Luke 18:16
Kingdom Rock VBS Crew
We just wrapped up another stellar year of Vacation Bible School at the Kalkaska Church of Christ. Over 5 straight days, an average of 130 children walked through our church building doors. A week later they are still singing songs about Jesus they heard from Kingdom Rock.

Kingdom Rock VBS raised over $912.31 for the Kid-to-Kid mission of the week. This mission offering is going locally to the Birch Street Elementary School for the purpose of helping needy families during the year with things like health care, warm clothing, and other personal needs.

Generous people in our church body donated $3,200 specifically to VBS. After the costs of student resources, director resources, decorations, and craft materials, we expect to have over $1000 remaining! The Director's of VBS have decided to give that money back into the General Fund of KCC.

Bob Lenz, who spoke recently at The Big Ticket Festival, recited some stats from Christian pollster, George Barna. He said that 2 out of every 3 people who call themselves Christians come to Christ before the age of 18. And 75% of those come to Christ before the age of 14!

These numbers indicate the need to focus on our children's and youth programs and make them a priority! Young people are at the time in their lives when they are going to be making a decision regarding God, Jesus, and the church. It is vitally important that we are reaching out to them in various ways and sharing the Good News of Jesus.Our window of opportunity is wide-open with this young generation, but it will close fast.

VBS almost didn't happen this year. Budget cuts hampered many areas of KCC including VBS. Yet a core group of moms put their faith together and inspired us that with God's help we could pull of VBS with no money budgeted at all. They would give of our own monies & resources, ask for donations, recycle, find free advertising, and have faith in the God we serve! Their "mustard seed" of faith was the catalyst to reaching out to our children, our community, and our world!

Thanks to over 100 volunteers and generous contributors, for reminding all of us that, "the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these!

No comments:

Lessons from Eve

The first mother, Eve, had 2 sons,  Cain and Abel. Cain worked the soil; Abel kept flocks. When taking their offerings to God, Cain was jeal...