Vacation Bible School for Apache Children

25 July 2008 - The Baptist church Becky and I have been attending here in Creede have teamed with a Baptist church in northern Alabama to provide the children on the Apache Indian Reservation in Dulce, NM with a Vacation Bible School. The church in Alabama began running the VBS in 2001 and planned to do it for 5 years at which time they would turn it over to the local church. Eight years later they are still making the trip. What a great group of Christians they are!! They brought most of the supplies with them on their flight and rented two 15 passenger vans to transport the children to and from VBS. The church here in Creede took the large items from their VBS (both churches had the same theme for their own VBS) and provided additional resources to assist the Alabama group run the classes.

Becky and I drove down after church on Sunday to help get everything set up and assist the Alabama group in planning that evening and then get all of the children registered and off to a good start on Monday. Monday was mostly dedicated to putting up a large tent (Dave) and helping out with the kids followed by preparing dinner for all the staff (Becky). In addition Dave managed to remove one large snake that created quite a stir among the ladies present. Getting the tent ready was a true exercise in patience and teamwork among the men as there were no instructions and no one who had erected the tent previously!! Eventually we succeeded (sorry about no photos) and it proved invaluable for the craft classes as the sun was hot. Becky and I were VERY aware of the rise in temperature associated with the 2000 foot drop in altitude.

Here are shots of some of the activities and the children attending. We had 59 children the first day and expected to have around 80 by mid-week. Becky and I were only able to stay 2 days (only hotel in the area was fully booked!) but enjoyed the fellowship and children while we were there. It was great working with all the children that looked as though they could have been Becky's nieces and nephews!!

Here are two shots showing the 'theme' of the VBS.






Big sister helps register her little sister.



Perhaps the youngest one attending looks back at the other children during music time in the sanctuary.




Another shot of music time as the Alabama group leads the way.



One of the age groups (children were sorted into 4 groups by age) line up to go into the story time activity.


These four are discussing the VBS version of softball - the large yellow blow-up is the ball and foam 'noodles' were the bats.


More baseball groups.




Here an older group prepare to burn up some of their excess energy.


The little ones enjoy Music Activity as they learn the hand motions to the songs.



The next shot was taken early in the day. Note the kids in the two back rows sitting while the other children stand and join in. These are the 'older' kids who are afraid of being 'uncool'.



If you look at the kids in the back you will see the same ones who were sitting before are now standing and joining in. Amazing what seeing a bunch of adults making a fool of themselves does to teenagers. In these situations it is all a matter of 'whatever it takes' if you want to get through to the kids. The group from Alabama have obviously worked with teens before!!