Wilderness Wonders VBS Plans & Prep (updated 7/17/18)
The Setzers come as "missionaries to young people" desiring to minister to all ages in "Family VBS"! THANK you for the opportunity to come! Our view of the meeting is that it is a special time of exalting God for Who He is as the Creator of all things! Jesus Himself said, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me." As we exalt our great God, the Creator of all, people will be drawn to Him! In the process, the faith of believers will be strengthened, and those who have yet believed will be challenged to do so! Since we began in 1991, we have never charged a fee. As in previous years, because of multiple expenses we incur through ordering for the summer (e.g. award and miscellaneous supplies or promotional materials), we ask churches to send in a pre-summer donation of $300-500 (depending on your budget) to:
Creation Family Ministries
PO Box 11196
Hickory, NC 28603
DIFFERENT SCHEDULE
Due to health reasons, this year will be different from previous years. One, it will involve a shorter week, Saturday - Wednesday. We always desire to minister to adults and teens, so we are continuing to make ourselves available to serve both in Sunday school and regular services, with Jeff being available to speak in the main service while Heather organizes the Sunday school and junior church times with the assistance of church leaders. Due to a shorter schedule, it is optimum if there is a time on Saturday that can be utilized for a brief session with the children, mainly to distribute handbooks and get them excited about the week, perhaps a church-wide cookout as a Kickoff! At some point during the time, we will gather the kids around us and tell them about the week. We will also need a team meeting sometime on Friday or Saturday after we arrive in town. Since we are always hard-pressed to get in the desired material, we'll be curtailing the normal presentation material to include just the most important material. We encourage each church to decorate as much as possible along the lines of a woodsy theme, with the subjects of wolves, bears, bison, moose, mammoths, pterosaurs, and bigfoot.
SCHEDULE POINTERS
--We have 5 presentations to go along with 5 segments of "Charlie Takes a Wilderness Hike."
--Story segment #1 - Sun AM (or Saturday if there is a church wide cookout).
--Story segment #2 - Sunday PM
--Story segment #3 - Monday PM
--Story segment #4 - Tuesday PM
--Story segment #5 - Wednesday PM (awards night)
--For keeping track of points, there will be records sheets on clipboards assigned to team leaders for age groups
--Titles such as "God Likes Rocks" in a creation series of messages for adults and teens
RALLY TIME PRESENTATION TITLES
We have 5 presentations titles for the Rally Time sessions:
--Presentation #1 - "Petrifacts & Packs"
--Presentation #2 - "Big Beasts" (Bison, Moose, Mammoths)
--Presentation #3 - "Can You Bear This?"
--Presentation #4 - "Flying Dragons--Alive?"
--Presentation #5 - "The Big Deal About Bigfoot"
VBS PLAN AND PREP
1. We encourage churches to announce the meeting a month or more in advance, and to regularly mention the outreach effort for prayer.
2. For the meeting, we encourage an event on the Saturday of the starting weekend (e.g. church-wide cookout) that serves as a "kickoff" to the week. During this time, we promote the subjects of the week, awards, and team competition. In addition, we give out the handbooks so that the children can get a start on the verses. If no Saturday event is desired, we can accomplish these things in Sunday school or Sunday junior church.
3. Prior to the meeting, schedule a planning meeting with the Setzers for all VBS workers. This will help all participants to be "on the same page." This can be held sometime either Friday or Saturday depending on when the Setzers arrive.
4. With a shorter week schedule, it is needful that Sunday evening be the first official VBS night.
5. The final night will be Wednesday night, a regular VBS schedule with about 15 minutes for awards at the end.
(more later)