VBS at Messiah: "Follow the Lamb"

"Follow the Lamb" was the theme this year at Messiah's Vacation Bible School. It was held the evenings of July 19-23 but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. Sorry, too, about the poor quality of the pictures...I used my camera phone. I hope to post a few pictures from Tony Cataldo who took some great shots with his digital SLR camera. We got to see those in the slide show at the VBS closing on Friday.

The curriculum we used is available from Concordia Publishing House, but is not their annually promoted version of VBS. "Follow the Lamb" was written and published by Deaconess Pam Nielsen several years ago and is now being offered through CPH. Dcs. Nielsen is Senior Editor for Sunday School, Youth, and Family Materials at CPH.

"Follow the Lamb" takes the children through the highlights of the life of Christ while introducing them to the Church Year calendar and what life may have been like for the first Christians. Here's one of the class rotations hearing about the birth of Jesus and placing the figures in a creche.

Bible memory time was outside.

Craft time was in the social hall.

Each group also had their turn at the "Catechumen's Cafe." Snacks were designed around the theme of the day. The students also learned Psalm 145:15-16 and the mealtime prayer from Luther's Small Catechism.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, "That's a strange looking student in that crowd." Actually, that's a sheep that was part of a special presentation on Friday. They were brought in from a local farm.

Here's one of the groups enjoying the sheep. Later, they were able to feed and pet the animals. And were told to be careful where they step.

The children learned about Christmas, Holy Week, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. Just so you know, we did NOT set the children's hair on fire to simulate the tongues of flame resting upon the disciples on Pentecost. These were tiny electric candles that the children were able to place on their heads while the teacher shared how the Holy Spirit came upon the Church on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).

I don't have any pictures of our opening worship held in the chapel. That's because I was leading it. As the children were arriving, Jackie Nolte led us in singing some fun favorite songs from past summers. Then, each night we had an order of worship which included liturgical responses, hymns, Scripture readings, and prayers. The theme hymn was "I Am Jesus' Little Lamb," which, by the way, my son (3) now absolutely loves. Every night before bed he requests that I sing, as he calls it, "Wittle Wamb."