Remembering September 11

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One church's plans for follow-up. . .

The Kuna, Idaho, church reports plans for a Sept. 11 day of prayer at their church. They had planned to invite the public to drop by and pray at any time during the day. "We're just going to be open all day with a banner inviting people to "Stop here today and pray," reports Aileen Sox, a church elder at Kuna. "We're going to keep a list of requests and have people praying for the list all day (probably once an hour). We're going to be running the a video called "My House Shall Be Called A House of Prayer" all day and serving refreshments. We're advertising in various ways too. And we're asking our members to participate by coming to the church or praying wherever they are."

But Kuna's plans have suddenly grown much bigger than they could have expected. And it all came about because of this summer's VBS outreach. Aileen tells about it in her own words:

We had a little boy named Jeffrey* at Bug Safari who was so out-of-control he bit Bradley, our pastor's 16-year-old son. Bradley had been trying desperately hard to help Jeffrey enjoy VBS, and was handling him pretty well. But Jeffrey lost it and we called to have his parents come get him.

Jeffrey's mother is a leader well known and active in our little town. She's also highly placed in the highway district offices. So we were glad that she allowed Jeffrey's brother and sister to continue attending VBS even though Jeffrey didn't.

Jeffrey's mother remembered our facility when she was casting about for a place to hold a Sept. 11 rally to include the mayor, firefighters, and other VIPs. We have the biggest church in Kuna. Our sanctuary isn't large, but we have a very nice carpeted gym where we have church these days.

So she contacted our pastor about having the rally at our church. The pastor went to discuss plans with her and took his son along. and the woman recognized Bradley. Which made another connection--thankfully positive.

So now, because of a very successful VBS, we have people to invite to our church for our Sept 11 day of prayer, and we have even more people who want to partner with us for another very positive event, and more possibilities to interact with our community than ever before.

Without a doubt, Bug Safari was the most successful outreach event we've ever done at our church. Who knows what else God has planned to grow out of it.

It is wonderful what happens when people catch a vision for outreach and pray for God's leading. The Kuna Church is all pumped to do VBS next year.

See www.childmin.com for information about next year's VBS. Remember, the more children's ministries you advertise for community families to be involved in, the greater your churches chance of attracting unchurched families and the greater your growth rate is likely to be.

(*Name changed)