PRAYING TOGETHER BEFORE SERVICES TODAY

We’ll be meeting for prayer at 9:30-9:50am in the Elks Conference Room 2nd Floor this morning specifically to pray for the healing services.

You are welcome to join us.

 

VBS Brings Hope to Area Children!

(Pictures will be added soon.)

“VBS @ Baldwin” brought a week of hope to the children of Georgetown South and the surrounding area, trained youth volunteers, and provided our community with an opportunity to give and serve.  Over 100 volunteers, of all ages and different congregations, provided a quality program and excellent loving care, showing what the body of Christ can do when we all work together!

We reached out to over 200+ different children, who came to our daily program from 8:30am – 2:00pm.  We were blessed by “Virginia Kids Eat Free, Inc.” program (“Feeding the Physical, Spiritual and Intellectual Needs of Kids”).  Thanks to generous donations of individuals and groups alike,

the entire week for the children was FREE!  They received a t-shirt, backpack, and were fed breakfast and lunch!

Many of their siblings and families came to Friday’s Family Fun Day, hosted by The Life Church.  Parents, siblings and other family members celebrated the close of VBS by attending and participating together with free food, games, moon bounces, music, and fun.

Here are just a few comments from our VBS staff volunteers:

“The week was amazing!  On Friday late morning, what joy to see two girls kneeling and praying together in the hall outside the Main Office of the school!”

“It was so amazing the love, like a family, in the volunteers both young and old.  It was such a joy for me to meet those from the Life Church and other congregations!”

“I loved coming in and seeing so many children singing worship songs to the Lord! The Missions track was wonderful and I loved the time I had with them, sharing about the American Indians on the Santee Reservation!!”

“Seven of the kids in my group accepted Christ on Friday in our team rooms.”

“The most poignant moment for me was standing in line with one of my “students” to get cotton candy. She looked up at me and said, “I’ve never been to a fun fair before.  I’ve never had cotton candy.”  Now I pray in her 5 year-old mind she will associate the love of Jesus with these happy memories. Incidentally, at the beginning of the week this same child was terrified to be left and cried most of the first day.  So glad she kept coming back!!”

“The best part of VBS for me was seeing the transformation in Bruce – a kid who didn’t want to be there and who thought ‘nothing was fun.’  He started connecting and I think he really felt cared for because on Friday, he came to find me before he left to say goodbye, and wanted to make sure I told the other leaders he said goodbye, too.  I’m praying that the love of God continues to soften his heart.”

“On Monday many members of my team were unenthusiastic, uninterested, uncooperative.  By the end of the week it was amazing to see how much they turned around!  They were extremely spirited, participating and engaged in a lot of the lessons and activities.  One of the neatest things I saw was how supportive they became of one another and genuinely making new friends.  I had a lot of the kids tell me that next year even though they might be too old to be a cadet, they really wanted to come back and volunteer.  We even had our most difficult cadet proactively asking if there was any way he could help during the family fun day.  Pretty cool!”

Of course our most exciting outcome of this week was children giving their hearts to Christ!  Many throughout the week raised their hands to accept Jesus.  Our final Worship Rally on Friday concluded with 20 students asking Christ to come into their heart.

All of the preparation, prayer, and planning paid off!  I could have taken this team ANYWHERE.  The amazing thing was that every volunteer – no matter the age – LOVED being together and doing God’s work.

Yes, we all left tired, but with smiles on our faces…job well done…mainly because the family of God just got bigger.

Until next year…keep spreading His love!

Jo Ann