2024 Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible School returns July 21st-25th at Faith Lutheran Church! The theme for this year is “Lava Lava Luau: Controlling Our Emotions”, where children ages pre-k to high school are invited to join us for a fun 5-day event. Lava Lava Luau VBS offers a variety of activities to help kids learn Biblical ways to express and deal with their emotions: cool crafts, creative team-building games, catchy songs, tasty treats, and amazing Bible-learning experiences!

“God gave us his Spirit. And the Spirit doesn’t make us weak and fearful. Instead, the Spirit gives us power and love. He helps us control ourselves.” 2 Timothy 1:7

Starting at 5:30pm with a meal, we’ll help kids see what God’s Word says about anger, sadness, jealousy, and frustration and learn how we can respond to others who may be feeling these emotions as well. Emotions are like a force of nature, but with God’s help, we can learn to take control of our emotions before a storm hits. At Lava Lava Luau VBS, kids will be “KEEPING COOL WHEN THINGS GET HOT”!

During this year’s Vacation Bible School, we will also be having a class for adults! We encourage parents, grandparents, family and friends to join us for a meal and a 5-session bible study of the book of Matthew led by Dr. Bradley Trick.

Eyes to See and Ears to Hear: A Study of Matthew
“Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear” (Matthew 13:16).

This 5-session study will re-introduce you to Matthew’s Gospel, focusing particularly on the way Matthew grounds his portrait of Jesus in Isaiah’s Immanuel child (Isa 6-9). As part of this grounding, Matthew also adopts Isaiah’s accompanying language of seeing and hearing. What does it mean to read Matthew’s Gospel with eyes that see and ears that hear? Such language is not just vague poetic metaphor for Matthew. To the contrary, he portrays each sense as discerning a distinct aspect of Jesus, meaning that God’s people must both see and hear to understand Jesus truly. Come join us as we learn to read Matthew’s Gospel with eyes that see and ears that hear so we might again encounter Jesus for the first time!

Recommended preparation for first class:
Read Isaiah 6:1-9:7. Then look at the fulfillment citation in Matt 1:22-23 (citing Isa 7:14). In what sense is this OT passage a prophecy looking for fulfillment? If you were a Jew, would you find this scriptural “fulfillment” compelling, or does Matthew seem to “twist the scriptures”? Ask the same questions about the use of Hosea 11:1 in Matt 2:15.

Bradley R. Trick has an MDiv and ThM from Regent College (Vancouver, BC) and a PhD in New Testament from Duke University. He taught New Testament for 10 years at Hood Theological Seminary and is the author of Abrahamic Descent, Testamentary Adoption, and the Law in Galatians (NovTSup 169; Leiden: Brill, 2016). His principal interests include Pauline theology, the unity of the testaments, narrative approaches to scripture, and the ways in which the gospel creates interdependence between different genders, generations, and races.

Each day, Lava Lava Luau VBS features a Big Idea with one emotion to focus on, one Key Bible Passage to discuss, and an objective that outlines how children can work on controlling their emotions.