VBS Outreach Ideas #2

Last year I told you how our church did away with "craft" time at VBS. Instead we did Outreach Activities...You can read about last year's projects HERE.

This year here are our outreach projects:

Day 1:

Blessing Bags for Nurses - We collected tissues, anitbacs, candy and gum and stuffed 250 bags with tissue paper, supplies, a short devotional, tract and information about our church. We are distributing these to Dr. Offices, Dentist Offices, Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Homes, Rehab Centers and the hospital. 

Day 2:

Sock Bundles- We collected 250 pairs of socks, rolled them up and secured them with a rubber band, placed in a ziplock with church information and a tract. We will donate these to a homeless shelter and the Salvation Army. Socks and Underwear are the two most requested items by homeless shelters.

Day 3:

Waiting Room Bags- We collected notepads, tissues, gum, candy, hygiene packets, kleenex, snacks and bundled it with church info, a devotional and a tract and placed in a gift bag to distribute at the hospital in the waiting rooms. 

Day 4:

Water Bottles- We labeled 1000 bottles of water with a well-designed label that advertises our church service times and our children's ministries.  We will distribute these throughout the community at various events.

Thank you notes - our first and second graders wrote 60 thank you notes to the local Police and Fire Departments

It was great fun sharing this time with the children. I love teaching them about looking around and seeing what they can do to share kindness, God's love and joy with our community. 

Outreach Ideas for Vacation Bible School

This year for Vacation Bible School our church did a little something different. Since I'm always on the lookout for new ministry ideas, I figure there might be someone out there that could benefit from hearing what we did.

Instead of crafts this year our kids did outreach activities. Grades 1-6 participated in four activities that will benefit someone else. Our VBS theme was "What's in it for me?"...and obviously we were trying to get them to think of others instead of themselves.

Here's what we did:

Monday: The kids wrapped and boxed 2500 water bottles. We printed labels with the church information...times, programs, contact information... And plan to pass them out at a local July 4th event in our community. We finished nearly 1800 on Monday and completed the rest on Thursday. We boxed them up and took them to a man in our church who has a refrigerated truck and he's cooling them down for us before the event.

Tuesday: We painted a clay flowerpot and planted flowers in each one. The kids were challenged to give there potted plant to a neighbor, elderly person or someone who might be lonely. We heard at least a dozen reports at how people were touched by this act of kindness. Our local Lowe's ordered the pots in bulk for us, so if you need an abundance you might check to see your local stores supply ahead of time.

Wednesday: A few weeks before VBS we started collecting sample/hotel size shampoos, toothpastes, body washes, lotions, conditioners and wash clothes. A local dentist donated several hundred toothbrushes. And we used ziplock bags to assemble 1400 hygiene bags. We donated these to the local pregnancy center, our church food pantry and our local hospital.

Thursday: We closed the week out by purchasing enough fleece to make 30 fleece tie blankets. We bought various colors and patterns to appeal to boys, girls and adults. We donated these to Home Health Care who will distribute them this fall as the weather gets cooler.

The great thing about these outreach activities is that the kids understood the correlation with the lesson time and the activities and had a greater understanding of focusing on others rather than themselves. It was a great week!

Reaching Your City for Christ

Check out this article on reaching your city for Christ from Apprentice for Jesus.

If you like that...read more HERE.