Havre's vacation Bible school opens next week

A group of local churches is offering a free children’s Bible school next week.

Interdenominational Vacation Bible School runs Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon with no charge for children from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

VBS is sponsored by First Lutheran Church, 265-5881; Messiah Lutheran Church, 265 -2334; St. Jude Thaddeus Church, 265-4261; First Presbyterian Church, 266-6923, and Van Orsdel United Methodist, 265-4232.

“My favorite part is just being with the kids,” St. Jude’s Catholic Church Ordained Pastor Tim Maroney said. “This is my 30th year on staff here at St. Jude’s, and when I started I was the youth minister, and my role has changed a lot through the years, but helping kids, not only learn cause it is not just about learning, but owning our faith.”

The theme for this year’s VBS is Transformed Community — God’s Agents of Change. Each day is centered around a bible verse that will then focus on a specific word from the verse to be the theme for each day. For example, the Bible story for Monday comes from Acts 2:41-47 and the key word is “generosity.”

Monday morning, the children will arrive at St. Jude’s starting with all grade levels gathered together along with the volunteer counselors, who will lead a celebration of faith through songs, dance and prayer. After that, the first- through sixth-graders will head over to First Lutheran Church with their counselors at designated stations through the morning, and pre-k and kindergarteners will stay at St. Jude’s.

Each station the children go through will be roughly 25 minutes.

Maroney said a key is showing children who want to be agents of change how to do their very best to live God’s will.

“This is introducing the children to that way of being or reaffirming if they have already been introduced,” he said.

People can contact one of the churches listed above for child registration and full registration forms are due at check-in. Check-in is Monday from 8 to 9 a.m., at St. Jude Parish Center. Paperwork and permission is required from the child’s parent in order to participate.

A community pot luck dinner will be held at First Lutheran Church Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Children will be able to pre-register and meet the counselors at the dinner.

“We are, as a Christian people, supposed to be building God’s kingdom. There is a lot of stuff outside of God’s kingdom, and so in order to create that kingdom, we have to be willing to interact and change the world around us,” Maroney said.