Our 10th year of VBS! Hard to believe we have been doing this a decade with our friends at the Bethel, AK Church. We came early this year because one of our missionary friends was going to be moving. They invited us to come for an extra weekend with hopes of going to another village. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out however we were able to do an extra weekend of kids programming. Which you will get as bonus material at the end.

The theme this year was Good Shepherd. We were inspired by reading through the parables of Jesus, yes similar to last year. This is the first year we had "repeat" stories (check here for another variation on the theme: Lost and Found.) It was one of our smallest teams yet with some of the biggest kid crowds we had seen. We were blessed to see God providing for us each day as our Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd was our VBS theme. It came about from reading through the book Christ Object Lessons and the corresponding parables of Jesus for Friday night Bible Study. The obvious stories where the Lost Sheep and the Good Shepherd from John 10. When it came to picking the other parables it was harder but made sense that we'd do the Good Samaritan and the Unmerciful Servant both of which answered the question "If Jesus is our Good Shepherd than how should we treat others?" And finally we threw in Psalms 23 on Sabbath as the classic example of God as our shepherd in scripture.

Due to the small number of team members, we decided to once again invite the children to be in the story. We utilized stick puppets for this purpose. First we'd read the story so the kids could know what to expect and then we'd give them a character from the story and re-read it with them playing the parts. This went so well that we ran through each story twice. That way s every kid could have a turn.

Day 1: Shepherd Wind Sock*
Instructions here: https://www.daniellesplace.com/html/bible-crafts-jesus-calms-the-storm.html
*We borrowed a cut out from another project for the shepherd, but not sure of the original source. However we think you can figure out how to make it work from there.

Day 2: Sheep
Instructions here: https://onelittleproject.com/sheep-craft/

Day 3: Walkie Talkie Craft
Instructions here: www.handmadecharlotte.com/80590/

Day 4: Grateful Spinners
Instructions here: https://makeandtakes.com/thankful-wind-spinners

Day 5: Puppets*
Instructions here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkMPxS0sj9Q&t=1s
* Yep, the same as the puppets for the story time. Helpful hint is to pick only one character to make and you'll want to have things pre cut to make it go faster. We made a shepherd puppet.

Day 1:  Beach Ball Towel Toss
Instructions here: https://birthdaypartyideas4kids.com/beach-ball-games.html#google_vignette
 Application ideas: The game is about listening to each other and working together. Just like we listen and work with the Good Shepherd.

Day 2: Lost Sheep Ring Toss
Instructions here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/95279348359220174/
  Application ideas: We are searching for the lost sheep just like the shepherd did.

Day 3: Shepherd's Relay Race
Instructions here: www.daniellesplace.com/html/psalm234sample.html
Application ideas: The Good Shepherd looks after the sheep and is ready to get them across the line. We are helping our sheep like the Good Samaritan helped the injured man.

Day 4: Bowling
Instructions here: https://kansasdiscovery.org/diy-bowling-discovery-at-home/
Application ideas: We are bowling to pay back our debt. Knock down as many pins as you can to see if you can pay your debt back unlike the man in the story.

Day 5: No game (due to timing during sabbath school)

Day 1 and 2- The Lost is Found
https://nestlearning.com/products/the-lost-is-found-video-on-interactive-dvd?_pos=5&_sid=19b7b137d&_ss=r
Day 3 and 4- Forgive Us Our Debts
https://nestlearning.com/products/forgive-us-our-debts-video-on-interactive-dvd?_pos=2&_sid=699e7420c&_ss=r

This year's decorations was all about the sheep! We had sheep everywhere! In the sanctuary where the main program was we had a scene of a shepherd with sheep around them. Above that we put the theme "Good Shepherd." We repeated this scene in the hallway and the craft room. Elsewhere, we had the memory verse hanging up and sheep between it. We also put up streamers, of course, our favorite lightweight travel decoration. Mostly we wanted it to be simple because we had a small team of helpers and not alot of time between travel and start of VBS.

We hope this has inspired you to make your own Good Shepherd DIY Vacation Bible School. We enjoyed it and know you will too!

This was our 9th year of Children's Programming in Bethel, AK. We took a two person team from Wrangell to join with the Arctic Missionary team on the ground in Bethel. We shared two days worth of programs for Kasigluk, AK and Bethel, AK.

Our theme this year was Good Soil, Jesus in my Heart inspired by a reading of the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13.  We kept the decorations very simple because of various time constraints. As usual we found this theme to speak to us as well as the children. We hope you enjoy!

As mentioned above we were inspired to do the Parable of the Sower. This inspiration came later than usual. As we were reading  the parable with the book Christ Object Lessons (book by Ellen G White), in July, we knew we needed this theme! And we were leaving in August. Anyways, we ended up using a couple more parables throughout the program including the parable of the wheat and tares for sabbath school and then using the first the blade then the ear parable along with the parable of the mustard seed for a sermon.

Our programs were only an hour this year since they were linked with other programs, like in Kasigluk where we had an adult health program shortly after the kids program. This lead us to par down the programming from year's past to what we considered the essentials.

This year since only two of us went from Wrangell, we made a decision to have the kids do the acting for the story time. The way we set it up was to read the story once to the kids from the Bible, then we would ask for volunteers for each part (we will list optional parts below with each parable). We had some costuming or a stuffed animal the kids could act with. This was quite a hit with the kids and fun to watch.

We ended up with a basic design this year. Some of it had to do with decorating two places (one of which we had less than 30 minutes to put stuff up) and the other was because of our flight schedule. We had to take down quickly after the last program. We also didn't have our lovely decorating people with us (you know the folks that have an eye for this stuff!) Anyways... the inspiration was garden. We used greens and decorated with birds, bees, flowers, and stuffed animals.

Another year down and what an adventure. We were excited to be able to do something with the small amount of volunteers that we had to work with. We are thankful to the Arctic Mission Volunteers, Collette and Joy, for suggesting this alternative to a full VBS program this year. We hope that this helps you in your children's programming and that are inspired to do your our DIY of Good Soil parables.

Our 8th year of VBS, we joined forces with folks from Kennewick SDA church and the folks from SDA churches in Anchorage.  We went to Bethel, AK with this fun group.

Our theme this year was Jonah. The crew here put their heart into the acting and props. We had some fun improptu props such as a boat and this whale pictured here. We found this theme to speak us adults as we spent time our morning worship studying the story of Jonah. We hope you find some inspiration in the following VBS materials, too.

This year's inspiration to do the book of Jonah came from a sermon series on the minor prophets that Brooke, our team leader, preached at her local church in Wrangell. Here's what she had to say about it, "When I was doing the research for the minor prophet book of Jonah, I found this story to have so much depth to it. I was especially inspired by a sermon series done by David Asscherick called in a Felly of a Bish.  So, when it came time to do VBS, I knew this was the story that I wanted to share."

 This year we had another group that loved acting and prop building. We had our Jonah and cast of characters who took us from Jonah's running away to Jonah sitting under the vine upset with God. This story was told from the perspective of a mom telling her young daughter, Aleah, the story of Jonah. Spoiler alert, in the end it turns out that the mom and daughter are Ninevehives who were saved by Jonah's preaching. The kids especially loved the night where Jonah was in the whale. 

The team from Kennewick was in charge of decorating this year and it was fantastic, as you can see from the pictures. The idea was to create an underwater scene in most areas, except the front of the sanctuary where we made it more like an ancient  home scene. The home scene we used for the play. We used streamers, die cuts, plastic table cloths, preprinted backgrounds, and so much more. The lighting was key in the water scenes in the lobby area. We had a globe that made it look like underwater! So cool! 

Another year and another excellent VBS team and group of kids. God always provides and this year was no exception as we had team members who brought diverse skills to the set up. From music, decorating, making props, acting, and setting up goodie bags it was a whole experience. The kids were especially engaged and we had a great time sharing with them. As always we hope this provides some inspiration for you to create your own version of a Jonah, Overboard DIY VBS. 

Our 7th year of VBS, we are back in action. We managed to get to one place, tried and true, Bethel, AK. It was touch and go at the beginning. Due to Covid, the church in Bethel was not open until the beginning of June. However we made it work and are so glad we did.

Our theme this year was about Joshua. The kids especially loved helping act out the story of the walls of Jericho. We found the theme to resonate in these times. We hope you find some inspiration and creative ways to share this story. 

This year we had one month to prep the lessons due to short notice (Thank you Covid). This is where preparing ahead pays off. We had started with this theme last year and didn't go anywhere. But since we had one month to do all our prep and planning, we pulled this out and were able to make our from "scratch version" again this year. Joshua was a story we had read together in a Bible study. Many times we tend to only tell one part of this story (e.g. the walls of Jericho) but the story has so much more to it. Joshua was a mighty man of God and his story is worth the sharing with our kids.

This year, we were blessed to have a team who enjoyed acting and telling the story. While we have had acting every year, this year we received extra help and energy from the Alaska Camps team. We didn't know each other's strengths prior to meeting in Bethel so it was  pleasant surprise to put their creative energy to use. We had a narrator and all the cast of characters: Joshua, Rahab, Spies, Priest, Israelites, etc.  We also had the kids help us fill in roles such as walking across the Jordan River with Joshua and then another night march around the walls of Jericho. The kids loved it. Because we improvised most of this on the spot there was no script this year. However, we believe you will be able to use the following materials for your VBS needs. 

The year we tried to recreate the city of Jericho. At the front of the sanctuary we made a wall with soldiers on it. Then to one side we built Rahab's window, where we hung a red cord. Additionally, when the walls of Jericho fell, we took down part of the Rahab window to represent the broke walls. As usual streamers and balloons were our friends. Since we are a traveling VBS team we have to think lightweight and compact for decorating. We were especially pleased with the streamers at the windows, which turned out amazing. We also put our memory verse on the walls throughout the building with pictures of the Bible stories. 

This is no exaggeration to say that this was funner (that's a word, right?) than the previous VBS. What we learned is having a team the works together makes any VBS better. This year was no exception, only God could have put this together. Many of us did not know each other before we got to Bethel. As for the kids, the enthusiasm for learning about how God makes us brave was contagious. We hope that we have inspired you to create your own version of a God Makes Me Brave DIY VBS.

Our sixth year of VBS we were able to branch outside of Alaska! We shared in Trout Creek, MT in May and then Bethel, AK in August.

Our theme this year was based off of the life of Jesus and all the things he did around water. We especially were aiming to connect with the kids in Alaska who are familiar with waterways, but the kids in Montana enjoyed it to.   We are excited to share this year's journey and theme. We hope you can find some inspiration and something that is useful for your VBS.

While there are many stories to chose from about Jesus, we narrowed our picks down to stories mostly related to Jesus using water. You will note some stories that don't fit that criteria, but we wanted to tell them so we added them as a segue into the story that is about water. We also didn't tell the stories entirely in order, again we did that for effect such as telling the Cana Wedding story at the end and inviting the kids to come celebrate with us. Finally, it helps to have a strong knowledge of the gospels in general, especially Matthew and John. 

This year, the creative juices were flowing plus we were down a couple of people so we changed a few things up. The story was told from the front with a character named "Darlane" who was a descendant of the woman at the well, but the kids don't find that out until the 4th night (and yes made up that character. Don't go looking for a Darlane in your Bibles.) Darlane is the keeper of the local well and one day two sisters (Sasha and Manna) show up looking for some water. The rest of the week progresses with Darlane telling them a story about Jesus each night. The girls get more and more excited about the real water of life: Jesus. It is always hard to tell what the VBS kids will like, but this year's idea really caught their attention. We as per usual wrote our own scripts and have posted a copy for your use for free below. 

Something else new this year was we recorded a short segment that we called Water of Life Videos. These videos used people from our church that were willing to share about their answer to the question "What does Jesus, Water of Life mean to you?"  We encourage you to consider making your own videos to share, too. 

Theme song: I've Got a River of Life

About 3 songs this year filled up the time. We made it a little shorter because we felt like the kids got bored with the longer set up.

Special music: There were only two On Fire for Him members that went to VBS this year so we kept it to a special at church. Here is a link to the song: here  (shown as performed for Easter not during VBS).

This year's inspiration, of course, was WATER! We decorated the front of the sanctuary with a water background, with boats, fishes and streamers to represent waves. The main attraction up front was the well that the Water Seekers met at each night to hear the story of the night. We got creative and made one with wrapping that looks like stone and covering the outside of a laundry hamper.  And we had some posters of various water scenes with kids on them that we put on the walls of the church. The registration table had the theme on the front "Jesus, Water of Life" as well as some boats and fishes.  We did streamers elsewhere per usual especially in the craft room at Bethel we had fish hanging from the ceiling. We posted the memory verse everywhere at kid height so that the kids could see it and learn. 

This was the most fun VBS that any of us could remember. The flow worked out really well with the double rotation. We had a lot of laughs. The kids got into all of it, but especially loved the water activities this year.  Anyways, we hope we have inspired you to try your hand at your own variation of a Jesus, Water of Life DIY VBS. And per usual all the materials we created are free to use. 

Our fifth year of VBS included two full VBS weeks in Bethel,AK and later in Craig, AK. We also did a mini-VBS in Ketchikan, AK.

Our theme this year came from our classes’ Sabbath school study of David’s life. At first we knew that we want the theme on prayer. This came from our Pastor’s emphasis on having a prayer life. We started deciding what types of prayers we wanted to teach and were going to use different Bible characters to tell the story. Once we got into it, we thought of Prayer Warriors and because we had recently studied David, well… the rest is this VBS’ history. Read more below...

We recommend for you to read 1 Samuel 16-31, 2 Samuel as a whole, 1 Chronicles 28- 29:10-20, and then 1 Kings 1:28-3. This will give you the whole of David's life and beginning of Solomon's ruling, which you will understand why when you see the lessons. We think this helps to tell the story, knowing the background of what happens between each lesson.                                                                                                                                                                                                         

This year we decided on continuing what we did last year in that we taught the story in two different formats. At the beginning of the VBS, we had two prayers warriors introduce the prayer topic of the day. One prayer warrior was in training. They got a video from HQ or Headquarters nightly that reinforced the mission of the VBS for the evening. After the kids came back from activity time, they would receive another video from HQ that featured "David" speaking one of his Psalms. We wrote and video taped all our own materials to use. Below is a copy of the scripts for the Prayers Warriors, HQ, and then David. They are free to use.

Day 1: Sling Shot Throw
How to: Put down three lines and a starting line. Have the kids make sling shots out of string, cups, and aluminum foil ball. See who can throw their foil ball the furthest

Day 2: True and False Game
How to: Put up signs between two objects, two walls or two chairs. One sign says "True" and the other "False". Then ask the child questions related to the topic of day or bible story of yesterday and have them run to where they think the answer is.

Day 3: Praise Game
How to: Put down lines on either end of the room. The kids line up at one end. The caller yells out something they are thankful for, if the kids are thankful for the same thing they run to the other side. The caller tries to tag them.

Day 4:  Balloon Popping Game
How to: Kids get a balloon with string to tie around their ankles. Then, they get to run around trying to pop each others balloons.  

Day 5: No game, because it was sabbath morning

Tip: After each game, have a debriefing about how the game fits the theme of the day. 

 Snacks: This year we requested for the church's to provide snacks. Some ideas from that were: Apples, cake, carrots, and animal crackers. And as always make sure you are aware of any food allergies.

Goodie bags: The usual brown paper bags, marked "G" for girls and "B" for boys. Inside each bag was some non-edible goodies such as a ball, small game, coloring pages, and other various items.

Prize box: Kids got prizes for learning the memory verse and for answering the nightly questions. These were usually larger items and not something found in the goodie bags. Kids got to pick what they wanted from a box. ​The things that work well here are larger items like bubbles , small games, and art supplies.

Alas, as we look over the photos we took, we missed a very important decorated element and that was our mural of David's life. The idea was to show visually David from being a shepherd to becoming king. You'll have to use your own creativity to recreate that idea. We had a sign with it too that said Prayer Warrior: Life of David. Anyways, everything else is pretty much here. We were even shorter on VBS team members this year so our decorating was very simplified (except Ketchikan, who gracefully set us up with an elaborate Prayer Garden). We used poster showing kids praying. We had posters that said "Prayer Warrior" and also copies of the Memory Verse up. We used many prayer hands around the spaces. And, of course, streamers... what would our VBS be without them. We decided for the most part less twist and to make it look like "ribs" of a whale.  

 ​We learned a lot about prayer this year. One story from our Bethel VBS is this. A little boy’s mother told us that after he left VBS one night he told her that they had forgotten to pray in the car. This was after we had told a story about the importance of prayer. We hope we have inspired you to try your hand at your own Prayer Warrior Vacation Bible School. And as usual feel free to borrow/use material and make it your own. All our posted materials that we made are for use for free.

As a side note: If you'd like to know more about how our VBS Trips went this year, we did a vlog each day of our travels. Click below if you'd like to watch them. 

Our fourth year of VBS, included three locations: Bethel, Craig, and Ketchikan, AK. 

This year's theme was once again inspired by reading with our church's Bible study group which focused on Genesis. Originally the plan had included a night for Moses and Joshua (to extend our story into the promise land), but quickly it became apparent that our stars this year would be Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. This year also marked another creative inspiration that we called OT News. Want more? Read below

We recommend you read Genesis 12-50. Yes that is chapters not verses. This will help set up the background so that you can tell the story effectively. 

​Games- 10-15 min
Songs- 10-15 min
Group time & Memory Verse- 5 min- 10 min
Craft- 15 min
(rotate for larger groups)
Activity-15 min
Lesson- 20 min
Q&A- 5 min
Snack time/Prize bag- 5 min
Total: 1. 5 hours

This year we decide to present the story in two formats. The first way was in the activity where the kids got to listen to the story of the day while coloring. The second way was in the lesson time where we shared the lesson in a news story format. Each night we had three newscasters at our Old Testament News Channel (OT News) who reported on the story. The two in the studio, who set up the background for our story, and then a roaming reporter who met with the characters. Below is a copy of the scripts that we made. Feel free to use!

Day 2: Isaac
Emphasis: God leads His people to obedience
​Genesis 22:1-19

Day 3: Jacob
Emphasis: God leads His people in determination
Genesis 27-28

Day 4: Joseph Pt. 1
Emphasis: God leads His people in faith
Genesis 37

Day 5: Joseph Pt. 2
Emphasis: God leads His people to listen to His voice
Genesis 39-40

Day 6: Joseph Pt. 3
Emphasis: God Leads His people to be strong
Genesis 41-50

Snacks: Fruit was the order of the day. Fruit cups worked well because then kids could pick out what they liked to eat. Apples and grapes are a hit. And of course we had some cookies. Word of caution: remember to check for food allergies.

Goodie  bags: Brown paper bags again. We decided on only putting in 3-4 items each especially at some of the locations where they had easier access to fun little items in their town.

Prize box: We used our prize box for both answering questions at the end of the night and memory verse memorizers. We had our highest number of participants this year for memorizing the memory verse.

This year we were inspired by our studio set up for OT News. And we tried to keep everything else deserty since these stories were in the desert areas. So we decorated in the main room for the desert with a image for each night of story on the wall, except the jail which we put up the night of during the Joseph 2 story. We especially liked the "V" formation this year with the streamers. We had to get creative as we use them every year. We also like the decorative balls . We made signs for the different rooms as well such as "crafts" and "story." We made sure to post the memory verse all over and also have a couple of signs for our theme "God Leads His People."

Our third year of DIY VBS, was a special year as we expanded our VBS vision to include two locations: Bethel, AK and Ketchikan, AK. 

This year's theme was born out of inspiration from a program that our youth group, On Fire for Him, did at Easter time.

This included stories of lost and found sheep, coins, and people. We had a lot of fun expanding our time to include rotations between craft and a new activity time this year.

We hope you enjoy and get the chance to make your own Lost and Found VBS!

Luke Chapter 19 - The Parable of the Lost Sheep, Coin, and Son
Then we used parts of Jesus' story to explain how he came to find the lost (us!)

​1. Games- 10 min 
2. Music – 10-15 min
3. Lost and Found Story time-5-10
4. Arts and crafts-10 min 
5. Lost and found treasure hunt- 10 min
6. Lesson 10-15 min 
7. Memory Verse- 5 min
8. Snack- 5 min (as leaving)

For this year's lessons we decided on using a narrator and acting out the stories. The narrator read the story exactly as it is in the Bible with pauses at spots for characters to ad-lib something to the story. For example the Lost Coin is a short story in the narrative but with the narrator pausing the lady can talk about her coins. Surprisingly this was one of the favorites with the kids as our lady had them help her count the coins and then look for her lost coin. Some times it's the simple things that do the best.

 Goodie bags: This year we carried on the brown paper bag tradition. We found that we could use up goodies from previous years  or "leftovers" with the new stuff as we go. Anything on the small side goes (with exception of bags for the little ones). Coloring pages, bouncy balls, and glow sticks were some  of the goods this time.

Prize box: Also we had a prize box for those who answer questions at the end of the lesson and also those who memorized the memory verse. These goodies were things that didn't go into the regular bags: think bubbles, bigger balls, small games, etc.

Snacks: Cookies! Cookies! Cookies! We know healthy might be better, but these always go over well and we do mix it up with some fruit. 

This year's decoration inspiration was lost and found beach, but as you will notice we didn't carry that all the way through. We ended up making our main room about Jesus and pointed the kids to that Jesus is looking for the lost people. In the hallway, we did our beach with found items that the kids could see while they passed by. In the craft room, we had colored pictures of the different stories. As usual with luggage space being an issue, we used streamers and deco balloons to round it all out.  The exception was Ketchikan where they were nice enough to decorate a beach scene for us so we didn't have to bring materials. 

Our second year of making aDIY VBS, we decided to be more creative and utilized an idea that we had done at church years before with our youth group. Faithful God was born out of this. Below is the information on how we did it.

So right about now would be a good time to remind everyone that this is a traveling VBS team. That means not only are we limited by space but also when we fly we are restricted by baggage and weight. This is why you see lightweight items in the themes such as this year, balloons, streamers, and paper decorations. Those of you who have a stationary VBS, can afford the space to make bigger large cutouts and decorations, etc.  

Anyways, the inspiration for this year's theme was Old Testament characters so we created what we called an Old Testament marketplace. The main room was decorated with our theme saying: God is Faithful and each night we'd add a paper copy of the tagline for the night. This was a small way that we could add to decoration each night to make it different without having to add a lot more decoration like we did in a previous theme. Also we decorated the entrance with the mini-theme papers. Down the hallway we had water and boats going into the craft room. And into the craft room we happened to have had Daniel themed decorations that we hung in there. As usual, this is only limited by your imagination in how you decorate for this theme. 

 We hope this has inspired you to try your own version of a DIY VBS Faithful God. We had alot of fun this year with the new stuff we tried. We all personally learned more about God's faithfulness to us which was timeless and invaluable. As always feel free to copy what you see here and enjoy!