Dear Friends,
We hope that you are enjoying a wonderful and fruitful summer in the Lord’s service. The beginning of July was our Vacation Bible School, and we had a great time that week. Our theme was “Fishers of Men.” A mission team from Cornerstone Baptist Church in Massillon, Ohio, came down to help us, and we are very thankful for their help during their visit. We had a high attendance of 102, and many of them were brand new contacts within walking distance of the church.
Instead of having one combined class, we split the VBS into two separate classes. Debbie taught the primary (5-8 year olds) class, while Joshua Barzon taught the junior (9-12 year olds) class. Josh has spent two months working as a summer intern with us.
One of the highlights to the VBS was the memory verse contest. Every child was given a packet of pre-selected memory verses at the beginning of the week to study at home. Each day before and after class, the children could say the verses to workers to have the verse initialed off. Any child who said over 100 verses won a real fishing rod. Five children won this completion with over 100 verses each, and one child won first place by saying 202 verses in just four days!
A tremendous help during this year’s VBS was from our own church people. A husband and wife in our church took time off work to teach the books of the Bible to the junior class. Another church lady took time off as well to teach the younger children. We put our faithful teenagers to work also in the VBS. It is amazing to see the desire of our church members to serve in the church.
The week of VBS was full of blessings, but the brightest of these blessings was on the last day of VBS. We gave a salvation message during the lesson time followed by an invitation. Among the many who responded to the gospel invitation, seven received Christ! We praise the Lord for those saved, and trust that more will be saved in the months to come.
We thank you for all the prayer that you have given to our VBS and growing ministry to Belize City. Please continue to pray that God would help us as we follow up on the visitors and their families from Vacation Bible School, and endeavor to teach and to disciple those that were saved during that week. Our hearts are being stirred to the growing need of the gospel throughout the country of Belize; please pray for laborers for this open field!
Sincerely,
Don Whitecar
Kindle