By NICK YAMASHITA
The Progress
Local kids learned how to build a firm foundation for their lives at Summer Vacation Bible School event held at the Lake Mead Baptist Church last week. The theme for this year’s camp was “Concrete and Cranes” to highlight the statement and belief of “building a foundation on Jesus.”
Starting on Monday, June 7 and running through Friday, June 11, the church hosted over 20 youth in Overton.
Christina Tobler headed up the coordinating and supervision of the camp. Her husband, Pastor Mitchell Tobler was grateful to help and host.
“It is a wonderful event that helps our youth learn so much in becoming better followers of Christ,” Pastor Tobler said. “But I can’t take credit for it, as it has been my wife who has been the driving force behind it.”
The construction theme saw the youth with hard hats learning the construction of their own faith. There were multiple projects based around arts and crafts, dancing, music, puppet shows, and historical tales of the Bible, with even more creative projects.
Even the snacks and desserts were construction-themed with Rice Krispie treats paintbrushes, Bugle chip construction cones, and more.
The camp was host to elementary school-age kids from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Each day the attendance varied, but on the busiest day, they had 21 youth. Along with that, they had 12 volunteers who were members of the church and willing to help out.
Local education expert Clint Brill was active in putting on a puppet performance of a lifetime as the kids enjoyed the show. This was just one stop on the round-robin style of workshops for the camp.
“We are so excited doing VBS this year as we had to cancel last year’s due to the unfortunate circumstances,” said Christina Tobler. “Since we had all the materials from last year and never used them, we did what we planned for last year for this year.”
The VBS program was developed by a Christian Publishing Company known as Lifeway Christian Resources based out of Nashville, TN which has been providing resources since 1891. It has been providing publications for one of the biggest religious conventions in the world known as the Southern Baptist Convention.
“Everything in the program works together to reinforce the morals and values that highlight the need to build a foundation based on Jesus Christ,” said Christina Tobler.
Tobler explained that besides the round-robin workshops and activities, each youth got “point books” which helped with attendance, memorization of scripture, learning words of the day, and more. When the youth completed the different “point book” challenges, then they got tickets that allowed them to trade in for “arcade-type” prizes at the end of the day. These challenges were known as “excavator missions.”
“There is no time better than now to build your foundation on Christ,” said Christina Tobler.”Then truly the youth can be confident in Christ and perform their mission to him, highlighting our theme scripture of Phillipiams 1:6.”
After a successful VBS week, Pastor Mitchell Tobler and Christina expressed their gratitude to all the workers and helpers.
“Besides our helpers, we have to thank the parents, the children, and the community for their support,” Pastor Tobler said.
For more information on the Lake Mead Baptist Church and upcoming events visit their website at www.lakemeadbaptist.org.
