Also for craft items, games or the food items for the snack station, we also put those needs on post its and create a poster board or use the item such as this year's Fiz and put our needs out there and people take the post it of the items they can donate and bring back to church. These things help so much with our budget. People do like to help even in small ways. Some of our elderly are able to help this way and they feel like they have contributed to helping our VBS, which they have greatly!

Maybe you can try some of these ideas and I hope they can help you.

The once a week is a very cool idea.  I really wish that all Religious Education was done VBS style.  The kids remember so much of it!  The only words of wisdom that I can offer are:  part of the fun of VBS is the immersion.  Will you still be able to create the environment, immerse the participants and the leaders?

My previous experience was with a very large church.  The last several years, I have been running a VBS at a small church.  I needed to make a switch from mostly adult leaders to mentoring junior high and high school students to be the leaders.  This year I have a student director and VBS is going fabulously.  I have a 2 to 1 ratio of children to adolescent leaders.  Everyone is learning!  It is great in so many ways. 

It can be planned and done well in a month's time.

God's Peace.

 I was already on the leadership team (Sonic Sing & Play director) and when the ball was dropped at our church (with almost no planning done and 2 weeks until kickoff), it fell in the lap of our pastor's wife, who asked me to share the load since I only work part-time (so of course I must have all this extra time to devote to this, right?) . The 2 of us tend to be very organized, but this has been extremely stressful. I've been logging the hours spent on this just out of curiosity, and in the past 10 days I've put in over 40 hours. BUT IT CAN BE DONE. A month's planning time seems heavenly compared to what we went through. We begin our VBS Sunday night and I dread this weekend. Our chuch is so small and the people so busy (eevn our pastor is bi-vocational) that not only am I the Sonic Sing & Play (and co-director) but we've had to basically plan every detail of the Bible Blast because that station leader will be there each night but has no extra time to plan beforehand. And did I mention we'll do most of the decorating? I'm exhausted and my husband is threatening to change the locks because he doesn't believe I live here anymore!

The biggest help was that we had already made arrangements from a large church in the area who is doing Power Lab to inherit ALL of their decorations. That was a huge help. If you are anywhere near us (East Tennessee) , you're welcome to them too. Look elsewhere on this forum to see who's closest to you to see if that's a possibility. The director's manual covers pretty much everything you'll need to know, and we had copies of the station leader's guides also so we took care of the supplies needed, etc.

The other thing I need to stress is that you'll have to take the material and tell yourself up front that you can't do everything. There are tons of really neat details that add up to what Power Lab is, but you'll have to make it fit and work for your church. Make the snacks beforehand. Show Cinema Science during treat time. Don't worry about adding the dry ice experiments during Finale if that seems overwhelming (as it did to me). Yes, if you do it exactly as written it's really impressive. But the curriculum is sound and there are still a lot of near things that are done, and even if you take the skeleton of it and only do that, it's still probably going to be lifechanging for the children.

I know I'm alternately negative and then encouraging, but I'm trying to be realistic. Again, it CAN BE DONE, but it will mean a lot of time on your part and a lot of stress to you and your family. Only you can prayerfully decide where to go from here.

Feel free to e-mail me directly if there's anything else I can add or answer. God bless!

Wendy in Maryville, TN

I am so happy to say, I met with 2 other women who were "in charge" of VBS, and we have come to a decision!  I had prayed a great deal about this, and after reading all the posts to my plea for help, it seemed that God was telling me that although this VBS was designed a certain way, and it works very well in that way it was designed for, He is the God of ultimate creativity, and He cannot be put into a box!  He wanted me to search out the best "fit" for my church....fit it to what our kids need, and He would take care of the rest.  So,  I was a bit apprehensive to tell all this at the meeting, because one of the people has had some difficulty with being flexible in the past.  There was some rigidity at first, but then after I told them about all of your comments, and what I felt God was saying through it all, it was as if they had the "AH-HA!" moment....and from then on we just brainstormed! 

So we decided on a once-a-week gathering, and start with just our kids.  Hopefully in time they will bring in their friends.  We will use the Power Lab materials, and once we have finished that, we will go right into a different curriculum....we will make this an on-going group.  Currently, our kids do not have anything outside of what they are offered during Sunday service.  One of you had asked if God had laid it upon my heart to do VBS.....that was so right on!!!!  The answer is NO! He did not!  I felt I HAD to do it, because I was asked to help, and because our kids desperately need SOMEthing! He did seem to "close the door" also, to the one-week idea, since the people I personally approached to help said "no".  And there were very few people to ask in the first place.  But this new idea we have, I DO feel God wants me to help with.  We would also like to incorporate a more serious aspect to our kids' group, one that deals with the issues these kids have to face at school.....most of them are in public schools.  I feel God is telling me that He wants to do a renovation from the "ground up" , so to speak, in my church. If you knew us, you would understand! 

I feel so re-vitalized and excited!  Thank you all, once again, it was as if you were all literally with me at that meeting, God behind us all!  This will help me to ALWAYS seek His answer first, not do things according to what I think should be done.

I pray God will bless all of you BIG time....

Lisa from Indiana