“I ran into a student the other day who helped with our VBS all the way through junior high and high school and is now doing a college internship for a financial institution in the city, and yet wants to be at our VBS,” says Jen Zerby. “I am always left wondering if VBS is a more powerful ministry to the registrants or to our student leaders!”
Others who are helped by the ministry in Batavia and other Covenant churches around the country are the children of Mexico. This year’s VBS project sponsored by the Department of Covenant World Mission (CWM) will improve health and educational opportunities for children in the Mexican city of Tehuantepec, a community with a population of 40,000 people.
Money raised by children attending VBS at Evangelical Covenant churches in the United States and Canada will help fund Semillas de Salud (Seeds of Health), a Covenant ministry that provides basic health screenings to all children ages three to 12 who attend local schools.
The opportunity to help children locally and around the world draws other young people to assist with VBS. Batavia’s event is staffed almost entirely by students in middle school through college.
“We have students that come out of the woodwork to help with VBS,” Zerby says. “We have older students who take off an entire week of work for VBS. We have had countless families call during the year because their kids refuse to plan the family’s vacation until they know when our VBS is.”
That enthusiasm has enabled the church to have a staff ratio of 75 student staff members to lead the roughly 100 registrants.
