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VBS In Tampa, Florida
On July 20th-25th, we were given the opportunity to travel to Tampa, Florida & conduct a Vacation Bible School at the Temple Crest church of Christ. Last year was the first year a team of Christians here @ Wildercroft came together & traveled out of the country to engage in evangelism on the island of Barbados & conduct VBS. This trip was so successful & enriching; we have made it a goal to go somewhere every summer & work with a group of Christians committing ourselves for 2 weeks in helping a church or churches. Our goal for 2014 was to go back to Barbados & work there for 2 weeks. Nevertheless, around the time we desired to go, two other congregations committed themselves for this particular year (Ocala, Florida & Minneapolis, Minnesota). Hence, we decided to go to Tortola instead.
There was much confusion regarding the VBS in Tortola, so we decided to postpone Tortola for the group until 2015 & we looked desperately for another place to work because the brethren here were eager to do the Lord’s work. This led to a phone call to my friend, brother, & fellow laborer in the gospel, Johnny Douglas. Temple Crest & Belmont Heights alternate each year conducting VBS. This year was Temple Crest’s turn & due to many deaths, shut-ins, & lack of children in the congregation, they were planning to postpone. When it was expressed what we were ready to do, the congregation met & was excited to have us come down.
The team that accompanied me was Ruth Branson, Angelita Dillon, Molly Graham, & Terry McDaniel. Angelita was the new comer to the group because Ruth, Molly, & Terry were with me in Barbados last year. Catherine Myrick was kind enough to make 1,000 flyers & send them to Tampa ahead of us for the purposes of door-knocking on both Monday & Tuesday. The church in Tampa had already passed out the first half of the flyers prior to our arrival. Molly taught ages 2-5. Ruth & Angelita taught grades 1-3. Terry taught grades 4-8. I taught high school & adults. The attendance each night was as follows: 44, 53, 46, 70, & 64, which was an average of 55 nightly. These were excellent numbers for this group. The young people wanted to come to class. Majority of the children were from the community. The congregation has vowed to follow up with all the contacts we gathered while there. The brethren were very encouraged by our organization, spirituality, & zeal in knowledge, zeal, & evangelism. To God be the glory!
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