A creation from Virtual Summer JAM at Spirit Lake. Photos courtesy of Mike and Libby Flowers.

Spirit Lake Ministry Center and the congregation of The Journey @ Spirit Lake, in North Dakota, see close to 25 families participating in a fun video series. As the word spreads, even more families are requesting to join.

Each summer, the ministry center, and the congregation hold summer JAM—Jesus and Me, for children and youth of the Spirit Lake Nation. COVID-19 did not stop that from happening this summer, and JAM went virtual. 

"The pandemic has made us all think of creative and different ways to reach our congregations and reach out to our community," says Pastor Mike Flowers, who serves the Journey @ Spirit Lake congregation and as the co-director at Spirit Lake Ministry Center.

In a typical summer, 50 or more children come to the Spirit Lake Ministry Center to participate in the summer program, Jesus and Me (JAM). The congregation and Spirit Lake Ministry Center Co-directors, Mike and Libby Flowers, thought this year required a different approach due to the physical distancing requirements.

Pastor Mike says, "I dislike the phrase social distancing. Like everyone else, we can not bring children here to eat, learn, and share the love of Jesus with them. We thought that since we were videoing our worship, why not do a video series for the children who generally come to Summer JAM." 

Virtual Family JAM was born. Parents and grandparents are part of the effort to make JAM work effectively.

"It's been great to see the adults involved in helping the children with the crafts and experiments that go along with the Bible story for the week," says Libby Flowers, co-director at Spirit Lake Ministry Center. "We are not sure how many episodes there will be, but we know it will be more than one and less than a hundred!"

 The supplies are given to the adults and children of the congregation after outdoor worship services on Sunday evening. The videos are published on Vimeo and sent to members of the congregation and others who have expressed an interest in Virtual Family JAM.  View an episode. 

"It is exciting that some of the families receiving the video have never come to our worship services or participated in our summer program. Our goal is to keep the children and adults engaged in learning more about Jesus," says Pastor Mike.