“A friend loves at all times. He is there when trouble comes.” Proverbs 17:7 (NIrV)
Is there anyone that you can call a real “friend”? Someone that would be at your side no matter what you were going through? We had an awesome last day of VBS. And what better way to end it than talking about the best friend we can have…Jesus! We talked about the difference between “real” friends and “pretend” friends, and which one we could always count on. And that Jesus made a promise to never leave us or desert us. The Bible story was about the four friends that took their friend to Jesus, and because they could not get in through the door they let him down through the roof! And Jesus healed him.
We wrapped up the lesson by walking through the plan of salvation. It was amazing how attentive they were and I could see in many of the eyes God doing a big time work. Often times you do VBS, teach the songs and discuss a Bible story, then present the plan of salvation. As those little eyes stare back at you you are thinking, is any of this getting through? As only God can do, He showed us that many of them do get it. After VBS was over and we were waiting for two of the girls’ parents to come get them, both of them individually made the comment that wanted to ask Jesus into their hearts because they did not want to go to that place where they would never see God again. But, they were not sure if they wanted to talk to us about it. Please be in prayer that as we have our VBS Fun Day Thursday that we get an opportunity to talk to these two girls.
Thursday we are having our first annual VBS Fun day. We have invited all the kids and their parents back for an afternoon of fun, games and a hot dog cookout. As part of the day we are going to have a big scavenger hunt where the kids will be looking for all kinds of neat things around the church grounds. We will close the day with the kids’ VBS program and a short message from the team. I will close our time with a brief word about what we have talked about this week.
We have put a lot of neat stuff in their VBS bags, including a Bible, children worship CD and a VBS certificate. We are hoping that the kids continue to seek their place in God’s story long after we are gone! And maybe, just maybe, the parents will pick these up also.
I need big time prayer for my friend Jeremiah. He is the young man that God “had” me meet this week. He did not come by today as he said he would, but I am praying I get to see him before I leave. I have some information for him, and a couple of people that can help him get sober and meet Jesus!
What an amazing week! It goes by so fast, and you think what more could we have done. But many seeds have been planted and now we must trust God to water them!