City-Wide Virtual Vacation Bible School Comes to Tallahassee

This summer, a group of local churches in Tallahassee are coming together to host a city-wide virtual Vacation Bible School (VBS) event. The effort, led by Jamie Whitaker, children and family ministry director at Bradfordville First Baptist Church, aims to connect with local families and congregations through Lifeway's 2020 VBS theme, 'Concrete & Cranes.'

The idea for the virtual VBS began when Whitaker started hearing about local churches deciding to cancel or postpone their summer VBS events due to the COVID-19 crisis. She realized that many kids in the community were at risk of missing out on this important ministry opportunity.

'We began to dream together about what could happen in our community,' said Whitaker. 'We wanted to find a way to share the burden and lean in and bear one another's burdens together as ministry leaders.'

The virtual VBS will be livestreamed on the 'VBS Tallahassee' website from June 15-19, featuring kids ministry leaders from participating churches. The event has already attracted over 20 local congregations spanning multiple denominations, including 17 in Tallahassee and three others in North Florida.

One of the key goals of the virtual VBS is to connect with kids who have been disconnected from church and community for some time. 'We want to do more than just present the gospel and reach kids for Christ,' said Whitaker. 'We want to do it in a way that we connect with our city and the kids who have been disconnected for so long.'

The event has also attracted attention from other Tallahassee-area host churches, including Morningside Church, Celebration Baptist Church, First Baptist Church Tallahassee, and Seminole Baptist Church.

'We're excited to see this vision come to life,' said Jenny Whitaker, children and family ministry director at Bradfordville FBC. 'Everything we do funnels through that vision, and Vacation Bible School is a huge part of that.'

The virtual VBS will be a great opportunity for kids in the Tallahassee community to experience the excitement and joy of VBS, even from the comfort of their own homes.

'We anticipate these numbers will steadily increase as we encourage registration and do some focused ads to reach our demographics,' said Jamie Pafford, children and families pastor at Morningside Church.

For more information on how to participate in this exciting event, visit the 'VBS Tallahassee' website.

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