Bethel Baptist Church of Hurricane Creek Road hosted Rocky Railway Vacation Bible School the week of June 21 through 26. The VBS program had a railroad theme, and children could imagine that they were taking a train trip through the Rocky Mountains. The motto of the program was “Jesus’ power pulls us through.”
Lessons were taught with the assistance of “Bible Buddies” which are animals native to the Rocky Mountain region. Ramsey the big horn sheep, Ava the red tail hawk, Sierra the mountain lion, Finn the rainbow trout, and Lawrence Elk the elk all helped children learn important points in the lessons.
Throughout the program, children collected coins which will be donated to the West Virginia Baptist Camp at Cowen. Boys and girls competed with each other to see who could collect the most coins, measured by weight. Over the course of the week, the children collected a total of 82 pounds of coins, with the boys out collecting the girls by a 47 to 35 pound margin.
Denise Erwin was the director of the Vacation Bible School, with Luann Searls serving as co-director. Teachers included Loren Gibson, Raven Schoen, and Ciara King, who taught the nursery and Pre-K class; Donna Stowers and Denise Edwards, who taught kindergarten through second grade; Robin Rogers and Angie Godby, who taught grades three through five; and Rusty and Robin Withrow, who taught the middle school and high school class. In addition to children’s classes, Bethel Baptist offered a VBS program for adults, a thing which not many other churches offer. Teaching the adult class were Pastor Todd Godby, F.D. Searls, Ron Allen and Dave Edwards.
An average of sixty-five people, both children and adults, attended each night.
When the decision to hold VBS was made in April, participants at public gatherings were required to wear masks and maintain social distancing. Those Covid-19 restrictions were lifted just one week before the first day of Bethel’s VBS.
On Saturday, the church held a celebration to commemorate the end of the Vacation Bible School. The children enjoyed pizza in the fellowship hall and a hayride in the fields behind the church. During the Sunday morning service, the teachers of each class showed off some of the crafts that were made throughout the week, and the children sang several songs that they had learned during Bible school.
