Today's scripture at VBS from the Lord's Prayer was "give us this day our daily bread." So we planned to take the Mission Zone group (4th, 5th and 6th graders) to the area Food Pantry supported by our church to help sort donations.Mission Zone is the program we have developed for the older elementary kids who are by now vacation-Bible-schooled-out. The idea is to engage them in hands on mission projects each day that are appropriate for their age group so they can be introduced to the idea of expressing their faith by helping others in the community.
Unfortunately the Pantry volunteers called this morning to say that they had not received expected deliveries, so please don't bring the kids --we don't have anything for them to do.
Time to punt! Our Youth Director, who is leading Mission Zone, called a neighboring mission to the Hispanic community and found that they could put the kids to work. So off we went to see what needed to be done. ( I'm one of the drivers for the group.)
First, the kids loaded bedding and boxes of clothes onto a trailer for the group's upcoming mission trip to Piedras Negras in Mexico. That was easy and quick.
Then we were asked to load unneeded bricks onto two pallets so they could be hauled away. Not so easy and not so quick! Here's a picture of the group hard at work in the hot sun. They vacillated back and forth between whether or not organizing themselves assembly-line style was the most efficient way to attack the project.
I overheard the following exchange between two of the girls as they were nearing the end of their work:
"I thought it was supposed to be VACATION Bible School!"
"No, it's supposed to be MISSION Bible School!"
2 comments:
That is a very good idea.
I'm kind of impressed that you were able to respond to the change of plans.
Thanks.
Come to think of it, the fact that we were able to quickly set up another mission opportunity showed the kids that there are a lot of needs in the community and they can help.
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