Laveen Baptist was originally founded back in the 1940’s through a Vacation Bible School put on by a church from Central Baptist (no longer in existence) so VBS is in our blood. We have put on a VBS every year since including through the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. This year our VBS event was from June 6th – 10th titled “Mystery Island.” We had around 160 children each day from throughout the Laveen and South Phoenix area. These children were ministered to by about 75 volunteers ranging in age from 14 (assistant music lead) to 81 (craft room).
During the week we had three children decide to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and a number of others who wanted to know more about what a relationship with Jesus meant. A large number of the children were first time visitors to our church campus and by all accounts, their families were very happy and impressed with their children’s experience.
The children had a boy’s vs. girl’s competition to raise money for Feed the Children and Crafting in Ruth’s Footprints (our group that makes caps and blankets for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital and other groups) and raised approximately 3,000! We have already begun the planning for 2023 which will have a knight in armor theme as we look at the full armor of God.