August 14, 2000
Grants from offering help smaller
churches have Vacation Bible School
___"Thank you," the child wrote.
___The note was printed in big round letters in pencil on the back of an offering envelope. Workers found it in the offering plate after Vacation Bible School at Community Baptist Church in Weatherford.
___The little girl--at least workers think the writer is a girl--thanked her teachers for the lessons about Jesus, for the craft projects and for "all the fun."
___Scotty Marsh, who became pastor of the small church in a lower-income area in northwest Weatherford only a week before the VBS was held, read the letter to his congregation the Sunday after VBS had drawn 40 children to the church each day.
___VBS at Community Baptist Church was made possible by a grant from the bivocational/ smaller church development department at the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Funds for the grant were made possible by gifts of Texas Baptists to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
___"We could not have had materials for our VBS without the grant," Marsh said.
___The VBS brought the church visibility and credibility in the community and brought church members together to minister, the pastor said. And it changed the life of at least one child who wanted to offer her thanks to Texas Baptists as well.
___Her story was included among the reports sent to the BGCT, said Ed Hale, coordinator of work with bivocational and smaller churches.
___"Reading those reports makes it all worthwhile," Hale said. "It is hard to keep from tearing up when you read about people being saved and about the work which is done in the Vacation Bible Schools."
___This year, 37 grants of $200 each were given to bivocational or smaller-membership churches through Mary Hill Davis Offering funds.
___"We are trying to reach children of low-income and single-parent families," Hale said, noting churches that might not be able to have VBS without the grants are prime places to do this ministry. In most cases, the $200 will pay for all of the expenses and materials for a VBS.
___As a result of VBS, Community Baptist Church enrolled five new members in its children's department, and two new adults are attending Sunday School and worship.
___Here are a few of the stories:
___First Baptist Church of Thorp Springs came to Mision Bautista Vida en Cristo in Glen Rose to help conduct VBS.
___"We provided the building and the children, and they did the rest," said Santos Porras, mission pastor. "We at the mission were truly blessed by the love shown to us by the members of Thorp Springs Baptist Church. They were all caring people, and we saw the light of Jesus in their faces and in their actions."
___Although no public decisions for Christ were made, "the members of Vida en Cristo were encouraged and reminded that we are not alone," the pastor said. "God is always with us."
___
___"Because of the summer vacation, many of the kids don't get school meals. We used the money provided by the BGCT to serve breakfast and lunch each day," wrote Kevin LaRusse.
___"We had some adults who came, and we had a crafts class for them. Everybody had a great time singing praise and worship music. They had a great time learning that Christ is the answer, that church can be fun as well as worshipful, and they began to trust the people here at the church," he added.
___Two years ago, the church was averaging about 20 people, all over 60 years old, LaRusse said. But now it involves about 90 people of all ages. "Praise God, and thanks for your great help," he said.
___
___On the Sunday after VBS, when the invitation was given at the end of the worship service, three people came forward to make professions of faith. Two o were adults who had attended VBS.
___Also, two adults who never had taught before "were nervous going into the week, but when it was over they told everybody what a blessing it was," she said.
___
___"This was the first time many of the children had heard the message of Jesus," said former First Baptist Pastor Donald Noble. "When the week was over, 14 had made professions of faith."
___
___"We started with a day camp and followed that with a VBS," he said. "The first day, we had 15. And by end it had grown to 46 children," he said, adding that the church has made contact with at least four new families. "It is a big boost for our children's ministry."
___An added blessing for the church, he said, is that the youth of the congregation worked in the VBS. "It helped get our youth involved in outreach."
___Mary Hill Davis Offering funds also were used to help children and youth from smaller churches attend Baptist camps, to send leaders to training and inspirational events and to help ministers and their spouses attend retreats.
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