Grand Island children are able to learn about God and engage in fun activities as part of an in-person event this week.

New Life Community Church hosted its first in-person vacation Bible school session Monday at Pier Park. The daily event continues through Friday.

Those attending Mondays session were split into four groups: crafts, Bible verse, Bible lesson and group time. After rotating through the groups, participants were served snacks.

What we do is we come together, we have songs, a skit, a Bible story and crafts, said co-coordinator Eric Miller. They are all tied together with a curriculum that was written by my wife (Tonya) that teaches the Scripture to kids. It teaches them about Jesus and shares the truth of Gods love for kids.

Miller said a question New Life was faced with a few months ago was whether to have VBS at this time. He said the church met, talked about this and decided that if the Central District Health Department was in Phase 3, the church would proceed with VBS.

We want to go to the children of our community and that is why we have VBS outside of the church. We want to take that message of hope and love to our community, he said. There are several of our church kids here and several from the community. We are excited to do that and represent Christ to our community.

This was the first VBS New Life has had in many years.

Miller said this years VBS was planned before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

He said 28 elementary-age kids attended Mondays session. A number of precautions were implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the Bible verse station on the Pier Park tennis courts, a volunteer laid out Hula Hoops to help kids maintain a proper social distance.

Obviously, in a setting like this, you are not going to be 100% accurate in keeping social distancing, but we are doing our best, Miller said.

We are asking the teachers and the group leaders to wear masks any time they are within close proximity to the kids. We love the kids and want to keep them safe. But at the same time, we wanted to bring a certain level of normalcy back to our community.

Rev. Sean Amen, lead pastor at New Life, said it is imperative that the church continue to meet together and maintain its outreach to the community. VBS this week allows New Life to share the gospel with the Grand Island community and give kids a sense of normalcy.

I think our kids, in many ways, have had normal ripped away, Amen said. I even heard that language with my own kids. They make comments like Maybe after corona we can go to the zoo or do (other) things. The sense of stuff that you and I had when we were growing up has been pulled away from them. We are trying to give kids that sense of normality.

Amen said he was impressed by the turnout for the first session of VBS. About 10% of the kids were from New Life, while the remaining were from the Grand Island community.

Miller said if kids want to participate in VBS this week, they can do so by showing up at 9 a.m. at Pier Park to register. There is no cost to participate.

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