Photos and content provided by Kelcy Nash, Murdo / Draper UMC.

The kids just kept coming! That was the story at Murdo and Draper United Methodist Churches.  The churches held their annual Vacation Bible School (VBS) July 23-29 at the Murdo Church where 49 children learned to be God's heroes at "Hero Central". VBS was held five nights and ended with a celebration potluck and program on the sixth night.

“Typically we see between 30-40 students each year, but we were surprised when they kept coming in, and coming in, and coming in on the first night,” said Kelcy Nash, Murdo / Draper UMC. “We draw many students from our local communities, but we also get many children from hundreds of miles away. They come stay with grandparents and aunts and uncles specifically for our VBS week, which just goes to show the power of God's message here in Murdo and Draper.”

Nash outlined that the success to VBS in Murdo / Draper can be attributed to the efforts to decorate, promote and celebrate.

The congregation puts forth a tremendous effort when it comes to decorating for VBS.  The entire fellowship hall in the basement, as well as the hallway leading into it, is decorated. There are large-scale decorations on the outside of our church to add to promotion efforts.  Nash stated, “This year we made 4,800 pieces of paper chain to hang from the ceiling!”

Over the past several years each student and leader received a t-shirt to commemorate their time with God during VBS.  “We are always so pleased to see that they continue to wear them throughout the year and for years to come. We realize that this is a huge expense for our congregations, but we feel that it's an important contribution to God's education of our community's children,” said Nash.

In another effort to get kids to participate all week of VBS, the church started taking attendance and keeping track of all the children who attend all six nights of VBS. At the celebration program a drawing was held, to give away our puppet to one of the students who had perfect attendance. Nash noted, “This year out of 49 students, we had 26 who had perfect attendance!”