Jesus the King at Summer Bible School

By Lesley Han and Christie Chong

Summer Bible School (SBS) is truly a highlight for kids, parents, and volunteers alike every summer! It is a week filled with learning about God, meeting new friends, working on crafts, eating yummy snacks, and having fun both indoors and outdoors! This year, we were blessed with 55 kids ranging in age from 3-6 years old, as well as 39 caregivers made up of parents, volunteers, and 12 teens from KR3W. It was especially a blessing seeing teenagers often serving alongside their own parents in blessing the younger kids in the community. We are also very much indebted to our faithful infant class volunteers that delivered loving care to 9 of our babies.

This year our Pastors Rocky and Victor developed our theme: “Only King Forever,” which outlined in 5 basic sessions the gospel story from Genesis to Revelation. Day 1 introduced God as the “Only King”, the Creator of the whole world, including man and woman. Day 2 described how Man sinned and tried to take the place of God, becoming a “Fallen King,” knowing good and evil. On Day 3, the children learned how the people of Israel demanded an earthly, “People’s King” instead of God to rule over them. Day 4 begins the redemption arc with the “Humble King,” Jesus the Son of God who came down from Heaven to suffer and die in our place. On the last day, Day 5, we ended with the promise in Revelation of Jesus returning in glory, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the “Only King Forever.”

These gospel themes of kingship were underscored by the daily Bible lessons taught by Shaun Ho and Dave Seiler, the creative week-long craft, the memory verses, as well as the daily large group skits. The skits were an allegorical puppet show about puppets who rebel against their makers, the puppet master and his son. After the puppets run away, the son becomes a puppet himself to demonstrate his love for them and bring them home. The kids were drawn into the drama and often shouted input from the audience or excitedly talked about the story with their teachers and parents.

For the craft, the kids made paper crowns that they “cast down” before Jesus the King. They also worked on a cardboard puppet theater that featured two stick puppets, roll-up curtains, and a decorated backdrop, to remind them of the gospel as depicted through the puppet skits.

At large group, the kids sang worship songs led by Emily Chan on guitar. They picked up fun hand motions and learned the theme song, “Shout to the Lord,” which we all later performed on a following Sunday during the church service. They also got to practice memory verses and work towards winning prizes for correct recitations!

For fun, the kids enjoyed playground time at drop-off as well as some fun outdoor games and challenges. Friday was our water day, with kiddie pools, water guns, water balloons, and very wet campers and KR3W volunteers!

The aim of this week was not only to provide a fun and memorable time for the children, but also to teach each child to see from the Bible how God was always meant to be their one true King. Every year, our desire is that seeds of faith would be planted in the kids’ hearts and that they would make a commitment to follow Him for the rest of their lives. Through this week of fellowship, not only do the children benefit from the love of our church family, our own volunteers develop lasting friendships from the bond of serving together.

On behalf of the SBS Core, thank you church family for making SBS such a success!