Lighthouse sponsors 900 children at ten separate locations. But the VBS is open to children who will not be attending school, too. This summer, the VBS-palooza served about 1000 kids. Malia laughed when she shared that moms with one and two-year-olds brought their little ones to participate in crafts. The team prepares enough crafts for 1100 children and donates the extras to Sowers4Pastors to use at other feeding centers as Sunday school activities.
It’s sort of a tag-team mission trip. Those who are able to stay for two weeks, do so. Those who can’t carve out that much time, fly home at the end of the first week or fly to Honduras for the second week. With so many locations to visit, it’s a complicated endeavor, as Rachel touched on in a recent post.
The kids at each VBS break up into groups–older kids and younger ones. Then those groups split again into older kids doing games, younger kids doing crafts, older kids doing crafts, younger kids doing games. And switch! Of course, there are also devotionals, a Bible story, music, and skits. Everything builds on the same theme, which was “Jesus Is” this year.
As an educator, Malia understands that different people learn differently. She said, “Some kids are going to remember the lesson because of the game. Some are going to remember it from the craft. Others are auditory learners and they are going to remember the lesson from the story or skit.”
The “Jesus Is” theme taught children about the synoptic Gospels and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John focus on different qualities of Jesus. By the end of VBS week, someone on stage could say, “Jesus is…” and the children would shout out in unison in the following manner:
VBS worker: “Jesus is…”
Kids: “King!”
VBS worker: “Jesus is…”
Kids: “Servant!”
VBS worker: “Jesus is…”
Kids: “Son of Man!”
VBS worker: “Jesus is…”
Kids: “Son of God!”
Malia laughed and said, “I will tell you that when we hear about VBS in the States, we think it’s a kids’ ministry. In Honduras, it’s not just the kids who are listening. You have teenagers listening. Everybody comes out to hear the gringos!”
The team walks the fine line between “hurrying up to honor people’s time” and “being in the moment.” They make sure to take time to pray each morning before going out and to do an evening devotional as a group. Malia said, “We try to get our hearts right. It’s a balance. We need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and ask, ‘When do I not need to care about time and go 10 minutes over? And when do I need to hurry?”
With so many different locations to visit, each session lasts between 1.5 to 2 hours. Lighthouse aims to make the actual VBS last 1.5 hours to allow for a half hour of free time to play with the kids. Even the free time is structured. One person may set up a station to paint fingernails. Another person may have a jump rope station. In order to maximize the amount of time spent with the children, the team hosts prep parties in the States to cut out some of the pieces that will be used in crafts. This year, they had two prep parties with twenty people cutting out “a bajillion tissue paper circles for flowers.”
“Every year, for one of the crafts, we want to empower the kids to serve others,” Malia explained. “The kids will make two of the same craft, but they have to give one away. This year, it was flowers made with pipe cleaners and tissue paper. Because they had been learning that Jesus is a man…He laughed and cried. He was tempted but he never sinned. We talked about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.’ He was sad. Everyone else was sleeping and He was all alone. But when He was tempted, He prayed. When we are tempted, we should pray. The kids were instructed to give flowers to people in their community who might feel alone–to encourage others in their communities.”
The kids love the crafts! Malia stressed, “If you go to their houses, you can see that they have crafts from years ago. Even the 11 and 12-year-old boys love them. When it is announced that they have two more minutes of craft time and the older boys aren’t finished, they will choose to come back and finish their crafts instead of playing soccer during the free time. It is worth all of the time and energy because we get to see that the kids are so appreciative. It’s not just the crafts. They love the games, too. Nothing is seen as lame. They want to participate. They want to pay attention!”
“If I could encourage other churches, I would say that it’s a lot of work but it’s worth it! In the States, I have to create motivation in the classroom. But I don’t have to create motivation there. There’s no creating buy-in; it’s just there!”
Unofficial Prep Tips for Other Sister Churches
Malia was very clear that she’s not trying to tell other churches what they should do. But some of her tips are so good that we’re passing them on!
For starters, every year, Malia creates an Amazon wishlist for the supplies they will need for crafts and games. Every year, the items get purchased. She posts the link on her social media pages and people step up to support the cause. The majority of the people don’t even attend Lighthouse and some aren’t believers.
Next, in order to make things easier and more sustainable, the Lighthouse teams decided to “recycle” 4 different VBS programs. The program they did this year was the same one they did back in 2017. The large group lessons are the same but the crafts and games are different. This was decided because it will make the program sustainable when Malia is no longer the “VBS person.” It also means that Malia doesn’t have to write a new curriculum each year, but can focus on making improvements.
Finally, even though Malia is the leader of the VBS, when she writes the curriculum, she always enlists the help of others. This is a particularly good fit for her friends who work with elementary school kids. They’re pros at coming up with games and crafts for the different age groups.
- posted by Christi
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