Coins clinked together as the kids at Woodbury Lutheran Church excitedly dumped donation buckets upside down.

They were counting money they’d collected for Feed My Starving Children as part of their Vacation Bible School.

“What is our job today?” the teacher shouted above the din of chatter and nickels and quarters being dumped out and organized.

“To save people’s lives,” one boy answered.

Woodbury Lutheran Church was using the Orange VBS curriculum Gadgets & Gizmos. This summer, Feed My Starving Children is honored to be the mission emphasis for this curriculum being used by churches across the country.

Imagine how many kids will be fed with FMSC as the mission emphasis of a nationwide VBS curriculum!

God Made You to Shine

This year's VBS focuses on how God made each of us in HIS image and unique at the same time. One of the activities focuses on kids "being a flashlight." The activity includes taking M&Ms® tubes and making flashlights. 

Some churches came up with their own crafts. Woodbury Lutheran printed facts about hunger and the countries FMSC works in for kids to glue onto paper plates with rice. The kids could then take the plates home as prayer reminders.

From the Gadgets & Gizmos curriculum:

God helps us point out the injustices of the world and do our part to help solve them by working together, much like our friends at FMSC who are doing their part in ending hunger all around the world. All the quarters you brought back in your M&Ms flashlights are going to help FMSC feed lots of children around the world.

What are our next steps, though? We have the opportunity to continue shining our light long after VBS is over. Let’s brainstorm a few ways we can continue to help our neighbors here and around the world that do not have enough food.

‘So Many Kids’

Back in Woodbury, Minn., each group of kids called out how much money they counted as the teacher wrote the numbers down on a big poster board.

The total for that session will provide close to 300 meals for children around the world.

Gasps could be heard around the room as the kids realized the difference they had made.

“Wow, that’s so many kids,” one shouted.

The group soon filed out and another came in to count their buckets of change.

All in all, Woodbury Lutheran Church’s VBS raised $1,183 for kids affected by poverty and undernutrition. We are beyond grateful for what these kids did for the Kingdom. 

Your Story

What's your Gadgets & Gizmos VBS story? Share it with us on Facebook or email social@fmsc.org for a chance to be highlighted in a VBS round up blog later this summer.