Kids + missions = a great investment!

It's never too early to begin teaching children about missions, and there are so many ways to do that.

Each summer, Church on Mill in Tempe, Arizona, weaves a mission project into their Vacation Bible School (VBS). When a friend from high school, Lesley, invited us to develop a project for Church on Mills VBS to support 20schemes this year, we were happy to be a part -- even long distance! (Can you believe that 90% of this was done via Facebook?)


Working with Lesley, Andrea Heaton (Preschool and Children's Ministry Coordinator for Church on Mill), and Sharon Dickens (Director of Women's Ministries for Niddrie Community Church), we came up with a plan. Sharon introduced the idea of raising funds to provide additional training for Tasha, an apprentice working with youth and children through the ministry of the church in Niddrie. Tasha grew up in the schemes and came to the Lord a little over a year ago. We all agreed that would be a great investment. Andrea also asked if the VBS children could write letters to some of the children Tasha is working with, in hopes of building some penpal relationships.

This was a really fun project for us. The first night of VBS, Andrea interviewed us via Skype -- isn't technology great!

We were also able to send some photos and videos from Jeff's visit to Craigmillar Castle, as well as a few photos of Tasha and the children's ministry in Niddrie, and Church on Mill's resident techie, Bennett, transformed them into multimedia presentations for group time at VBS. You can see by the photos below that the VBS staff took the medieval theme very seriously!

Some creative soul also created a clever castle bank where the children could deposit their mission offering each night.

One of the highlights of the week was hearing from Lesley that the group was praying for us and for 20schemes nightly. During the week, Jeff was also able to talk with Church on Mill's pastor, Chuck Newkirk, to learn more about the church and share the ministry of 20schemes.

We were so happy to be a part of this mission project, and we're thankful for the investment of Church on Mill in future ministry in the schemes of Scotland.


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