“Even though I have no connection with VBS, when I heard of the project giving sandals and Bibles to people in Sudan, I had to give,” she wrote in a letter accompanying her contribution to the Department of World Mission (WM), which sponsors the project.
Depuy, who attends Grace Covenant Church in Lakewood, Colorado, became the first person to contribute when she took almost all her savings and donated $23.50. “Use the money to suit your needs and glorify God,” she wrote.
Depuy and hundreds of children across the denomination who did attend VBS raised $41,130 – far exceeding the goal of $27,000. Nearly 90 churches participated in the project, which included special curriculum for the congregations.
“We’re overwhelmed by the generosity of the children of the Covenant,” says Patty Shepherd, world mission events manager.
Their contributions will help provide sandals for children attending Covenant schools in the Bentiu and Waat regions of Sudan. Approximately 4,500 children attend the two schools. The hard economic conditions in these areas make it impossible for most parents to purchase even inexpensive sandals for their children to wear to school. As a result, the children frequently suffer injuries as they traverse the rough terrain.
The donations also will provide Bibles and songbooks for pastors and members of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Sudan (ECCSS). As a result of years of war, pastors and church members have few Bibles and songbooks.
Congregations added their own creative touches to inspire the children during VBS. Salem Covenant Church in Pennock, Minnesota, teamed with five other local churches and chose “Sandals for Sudan” to be their project. Using a pattern, the children made sandals from carpeting and rope to remind them of the young people thousands of miles away.
Children attending the VBS sponsored by the Evangelical Covenant Church and three other congregations in Crookston, Minnesota, cheered each day as the number of sandal cutouts rose higher on the wall as the donations came in. The boys were pitted against the girls, who wound up raising two more sandals than their competitors. “It was close to the very end,” says Steve Anderson, pastor of the Crookston church.
Anderson says the children could relate to what it might mean to have no shoes. He challenged the students to consider what it would be like if they had no shoes to wear in their cold winter climate.
Children of Sudanese refugees were part of a VBS sponsored by Prairie Hills Covenant Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that raised more than $400. The ECCSS has its roots in the church, where refugees began attending in the 1990s. Since then, more than 200 churches have spread internationally. The ECCSS will distribute items purchased with the children’s donations.
For more information on the work of the Covenant in Sudan, see the August issue of the World Mission newsletter.
