Here's our Mission Zone group from this week's Vacation Bible School. These are our third through fifth graders who think that VBS is for babies. Today we took them to help the volunteers from our church who spend every Tuesday at the local Food Pantry. All the VBS kids were asked to bring canned goods this morning for this group to take as donations.
They were very glad to see us today, because our "regulars" were about 5 people short of their usual number. None of the kids had ever visited the Food Pantry before, and some had never heard of it. ( Several children in the group don't attend our church.)What a great group of youngsters! They divided up into small groups and sorted, stuffed and broke down boxes. Several of the girls had a great time sorting out boxes of donated "hotel size" toiletries and making up little bags. They carefully read each product and we all discovered that there seem to be an infinite number of ways to say "shampoo" and "bath gel"!
Many of the kids asked if they could come back and work again. ( It didn't hurt that one of the men showed them where the soda was kept and invited them to help themselves!)
As I drove my group back home, I heard them making plans to raise money to buy food to donate to the Food Pantry. After some discussion, they settled on the idea of having a lemonade stand in their neighborhood. Then one of the girls asked me, "Mrs. Harrington, do you think our teacher can give us a map to the Food Pantry so my Mom will know how to take us back there?"
I just bet she could!
6 comments:
~applaudes~
I love this!! Such a great project.
The future of our church seems to be in good hands at your church!
Put them on the Mission Committee...and bring cookies!
WAY TO GO!!!
Way to go. I like that they immediately came up with an idea of a fundraiser, and asked how to get back. Would that we adults would be like that instead of our committees after committees.
The most successful (as in well-attended, talked about afterwards)VBS for the "older" kids was a week of different mission projects the church supported in the community. Like your group, ours loved the food pantry and adored going to help serve meals at the shelter. Other projects included going to the big hospital to meet the chaplain and learn how to visit in the hospital and being sensitive to the sick. We organized clothing donated for the Baby Closet, too. The "older" kids loved doing and learning.
I love the idea of visiting with the hospital chaplain and learning how to visit in a hospital. I'll pass that one on to our Mission Zone teachers for next year! Thanks, St. Cass.
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