This year, the First Presbyterian Church of Iselin held its Vacation Bible School from Monday, August 4th through Friday, August 8th from 9:00am to 12:00pm. Forty-eight children registered for an exciting week of music, bible stories, snacks, crafts, outside fun, and closing activities. Instead of having a themed week, the VBS team kept it simple and chose five bible stories that they felt were good for the children to know.

The first day, the kids learned “I Am A C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N” and “God Made Everything.” They tried spelling with letter cards to the fast song and everyone had a great time. Then they moved on to Bible Story and read the story of Creation, which tied in to the “God Made Everything” song. After that, the children had their snack of apples, which also tied into the story. The craft for this day was painting a baby food jar with bright colored paints. Everyone then went outside to run off some energy and then they came back in for closing activities, including a recap of the story and the songs.

On day two, the two songs were “Come Let Us Gather” and “Who Built the Ark.” The kids learned some dance moves and used some musical instruments during the song. The Bible Story for today was the story of Noah and the ark. The snack for today was animal crackers to tie in with the Noah story. The kids strung beads on yarn to make a faith bracelet and then went outside to play. The team finished up the day with the songs and musical instruments.

The third day began with singing and dancing to “Jesus I Love You” and “Who Did Swallow Jonah?” The song segued into the bible story of Jonah and the whale. Snack time consisted of whale and fish crackers and craft time produced beautiful sun catchers painted by the children themselves. The weather was not pleasant that day so the kids stayed inside and experienced how dark it might be inside a whale’s belly! The day ended with singing and dancing for all of the songs they had learned so far.

On Thursday, the kids learned “The Lord is My Rock” and “Happy All the Time.” They moved on to the bible story which was the story of Jesus feeding 5000 with the loaves and fishes. The snack represented the story with crackers that resembles loaves of bread and Swedish fish to represent the fish. The kids laced up necklaces and glued little foam fish to the front of the necklace. They ran outside and then came back in to end the day with coloring and puzzle pages.

On the last day, the children sang and danced to “Father Abraham” and “The Fruit of the Spirit.” The kids matched up fruit pictures to the actual meanings each represents. The story for the day was Galatians, which discusses the fruits of the spirit. The snack was all different kinds of fruit and for the craft, the kids made door hangers with different religious foam shapes glued to it. Outside, the kids took the painted baby food jars from Monday and planted a little flower in each of them. The week ended with a pizza party sponsored by the Bolledu family.

The week was very successful, educational, and most of all, FUN! Many thanks to all the helpers, including Jim Thomas, Alaine Bolton, Kay Pintak, Betty Stauffer, MaryLou Pettipaw, Wendy Loss, Pat Lille, Joan Sito, Sarah Hansen, Linda Ruiz, Fran Pakla, and many more!!

Be sure to watch for announcements for VBS for next year so your children can have a great time, too!