Ninety-one children, ages 3–12, traveled to Cactusville, a small mining town in the Wild West, during the Spokane Valley Church’s Vacation Bible School, held July 17–21. Throughout the week, they discovered they were all called by God to be different, to be faithful, to forgive, to serve and to give.
They sang songs, played games, made crafts, ate snacks and learned about John the Baptist, Abraham, Joseph, Deborah and Jesus. Also, each day during the morning roundup, Sheriff Dusty and his sidekick, Crusty, took the children on a gold-mining expedition to find another part of their Gold Nugget memory verse for the week — 2 Tim. 1:9. They even raised a total of $385.84 for Operation Wheels, a mission dedicated to raising money for the Arizona Conference to buy more buses for their refugee program.
At the end of the week, the children received a certificate, a gold nugget and a sheriff’s badge to remind them God had given all of them a purpose to reach others for Him.
Claudia Martinez, the VBS director, said she “felt really blessed to be able to direct VBS for our church and community. When the children moved from station to station, it was just awesome to hear them singing and saying the Gold Nugget with a great 'yeehaw' at the end.”
Being a part of Vacation Bible School in any capacity really is a blessing. Martinez and her team of 38 volunteers really made this Cactusville VBS a successful one, through which children learned about Jesus and had fun at the same time.
Kids sing the theme song.
Making crafts at the trading post was a favorite VBS activity.
Prayers go up from Sunset Canyon.
One day, the VBS kids learned about bees.
