Sycamore Baptist Church is holding its annual Vacation Bible School July 13th through July 17th at Sycamore Baptist Church, 142 Sycamore St., Jackson, MI 49202. “To Eternity and Beyond” is their theme this year, and the church is going all out in decorations and costumes. You may have seen some of the VBS characters at the fireworks show this past weekend, as members of Sycamore spent some time in costume, taking pictures with people in the crowd and handing out flyers with information about VBS.
Vacation Bible School starts each day at 9:00 a.m. with a time of songs, skits and games. All classes are divided into one of two teams, either the Red Rocketeers or the Blue Star Commanders. The teams compete against each other for points by participating in the games and songs, chanting cheers, and memorizing Bible verses.
After the Opening Assembly (re: Fun Time), the classes (divided by age) enjoy snack time and then head to their individual classrooms for age-appropriate lessons and a time of games or crafts and fun. The morning then wraps up with another general session called Rally Time, which includes two highlights of Sycamore’s Vacation Bible School: The Main Skit and “Let’s Make A Deal”.
The Main Skit is a continuing skit or play that has a new episode each day of Vacation Bible School. Kids will watch as Randall, Bill and Julie travel through the solar system in a malfunctioning transporter, visiting other planets as they continually struggle to get back to earth. The Main Skit includes an evil villain and his two hilarious henchmen, and a hero named Houston.
Rally Time ends with Let’s Make A Deal. The members of Sycamore have been collecting and donating new toys and games for months in anticipation of VBS. Members of different classes are called up each day to play as our host, Captain Matt, heaps up an exciting pile of toys, games and prizes and then asks the kids if they’d like to trade their pile of goodies for what’s under Box Number One, Two or Three. Captain Matt trades, bargains and adds goodies to the piles for each deal, but in the end each child that plays walks off with bags of goodies from their deal.
Vacation Bible School ends with a free lunch provided by the Jackson County Health Department and their “Meet Up and Eat Up” program.
VBS runs for the entire week, with new items added each day such as “Popcorn Day”, “Snow Cone Day” and “Cotton Candy Day”. The week culminates with VBS Graduation on Friday evening at 7:00. Each of the classes put on a performance for the parents, each teacher gives out some awards for their class, more Let’s Make A Deal is played. All children attending Graduation Night are entered into one of two drawings to win a brand new girl’s bike or boy’s bike. After the graduation program, cookies are served and the parents have a chance to view all the decorations and meet the teachers.
Vacation Bible School at Sycamore Baptist Church is open to any children ages 4 through 12. Admission is free, and you can register by calling the church at 517-764-1680 or going online to sycamorebaptistjackson.org.