HENDERSONVILLE INSPIRES CHILDREN TO BE MISSIONARIES

The bell on the boat rings. A child on the boat is wearing the captain’s hat and steering the big wheel, while several other children are raising the sail to begin another exciting evening at VBS.

Be a Missionary was the theme of the Vacation Bible School in July, led by Pastor Jeff Harper, the Family and Youth Pastor for the Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church. About 50 children attended overall, with many church members involved in telling the stories of missionaries such as J. N. Andrews, Hudson Taylor, James Elliott, and David Livingston.

The large, 17-foot, beautiful, handcrafted boat was built by skilled wood craftsman Bob Borgersen, with his wife, Barbara, sewing the two big sails. An interesting side note is that Bob is the master craftsman who actually created and built the incredible captain’s room at the Joseph Bates home in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

The children were often seen climbing the gangplank to go into the boat, don the captain’s hat, or steer the large wheel. It was a very big attraction for them.

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As missionaries to various countries were featured, Ester Rodriquez and her team in the kitchen prepared and served foods from around the world. Examples of some of the food were falafels and hummus, pancit and spring rolls, and bean quesadillas with rice and corn on the cob. The food was mentioned by the children as one of the favorite events of the evening.

Neighbor teens and teens from the church were heavily involved with working with the children in crafts, guiding their groups to the next station, and even leading out with the recreation. One neighbor teen shared during the ride that he doesn’t know whether or not to believe in God — his father is an atheist. He is getting something to think about, and hopefully he chooses to follow the great God he is hearing about at VBS.

Linda Miller and her team guided the children each evening in making an appropriate craft, with the first one of the week being individual passports to be worn with their pictures included inside the passports.

The delightful theme song was “Be a missionary every day! Tell the world that Jesus is the way. Be it in a town or country or the busy avenue, Africa or Asia, the task is up to you” (written by Doris M. Steinhart).

God smiles as He sees His little ones guided in their journey to heaven and encouraged to be missionaries across the ocean or even in their neighborhood!

— by Sharryn Mahorney, member of Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church