CHILLICOTHE – The Vacation Bible School (VBS) held at First Baptist Church Chillicothe went beyond just studying Bible stories, the boys and girls learned how to apply what they learned through giving. Giving to missions is a tradition for the children attending VBS in Chillicothe. This year, they collected almost $500 for the Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief effort.
“We’ve always selected local, home or international missions to support with the offering,” Tena Eggers, member and VBS teacher, said. “I’ve served as a teacher or in leadership for more than thirty years and we focus on a ministry that we want the children to know.”
Pastor Rob Hurtgen explained the decision, to give to Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief. “We wanted to support the Iowa relief effort,” he said. “Iowa is our backyard. There is an urgent need to clean up from flooding and tornadoes. Several people in our congregation work with the Disaster Relief ministry. So, at the beginning of VBS, we laid out the cause to the children.”
“It is important for the children to participate in this offering opportunity,” Hurtgen continued, “because they are taught generosity in giving to missions. Giving communicates the value we have in serving in missions and being in the lives of others. They also get to see the impact that they can have on a situation.”
Eggers agreed with the importance of the mission giving. “We build excitement in the giving with the kids,” she said, “by making it a competition. There is no reward other than competing the boys against the girls.”
“I taught VBX (Lifeway’s preteen curriculum) with the fifth and sixth grade,” Eggers continued. “They were self-contained, but they wanted to know the score everyday and they were willing to break open their piggy bank or bring in the money that they were saving for something else.”
“It was always interesting to see what they brought in,” she said. “Sometimes it was a twenty-dollar bill or a bag full of change that someone had to count.”
Dawn Dupy is one of the members of FBC Chillicothe who serves with Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief, and she just returned from a call to Iowa. “I just returned from serving in Spencer, Iowa,” Dupy said. “I worked the shower and laundry unit that was set up next to the Red Cross shelter that housed about eighty people. It was a building located on the fairgrounds. These people had to evacuate their homes because of flooding.”
Dupy was delighted to hear that the children from her church were supporting the Disaster Relief cause. “I think it is awesome,” she said, “it can open up an opportunity to serve that they might not have recognized. We become the hands and feet of Jesus as we serve in Jesus’ name to people facing not only the loss of their homes, but also their personal items. Our ministry provides hope and healing, and it is a nice message for them to support.”