Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Vacation Bible School Starting Early This Year At Harvest Community Church




Back-to-school shopping requires little more than a trip to the store for most American families. But even basic school supplies like pencils, notebooks and erasers are hard to come by - and nearly impossible to afford - for many families living in poverty around the world.
That's why Baptist Global Response is sponsoring the "Kits for Kids" campaign -- and why LifeWay Christian Resources is featuring Kits for Kids as its 2011 Vacation Bible School mission project. It's a unique opportunity to help equip a child with the tools they need to get an education. It's also a chance for families to teach their children what it means to love others by helping needy kids.

Kits for Kids is simple. Church groups and families across the United States assemble "kits" of basic school supplies and drop them in the mail. Then, using its global network of national partners, Baptist Global Response distributes the kits to families in dozens of countries around the globe.


Let's get started!

**Below are instructions on how to assemble your own kits, however Harvest will be providing the zip lock bags, and will be coordinating an event after VBS to assemble all of our kits together.  The largest need at this time are the items that are included in the kits.  However, if you want to assemble your own kits and bring them to them to Harvest, we would appreciate that as well.

1. Go shopping!
Families, this part can be a lot of fun, especially for children. Be sure to give them plenty of opportunity to "help" pick out supplies. It's also a great chance to explain why it's important to help others. (Leaders: If you are planning to pack very many kits, please be sure to notify local retailers about your project. They may need to order more supplies and may even want to partner with you in the project!)
"Kits for Kids" shopping list:
  • 5 Composition notebooks (non-spiral, hardback)
  • 1 Ruler (with metrics)
  • 1 Zippered pencil case
  • 6 Blue ink pens
  • 6 No. 2 pencils
  • 2 Pencil sharpeners
  • 2 or 3 Regular-sized glue sticks
  • 2 Pink erasers
  • 1 box of 12-count colored pencils
  • 1 Pair of safety scissors
2. Pack your kit!
- Place all the items for each kit in a 2.5 gallon plastic slide-lock bag
- Include a kit label for each bag, either printed on paper and placed inside the bag or printed as a sticker and placed on the outside of the bag. (See resources: kit labels).
- Please do not include items in the kit that are not on the list; the contents need to be similar for each child who receives a kit
- Box your kits securely, with adequate padding, and ship to the address below


3. Ship your kit!
The deadline for shipping your kits is Oct. 31, 2011.

Harvest Community Church will be providing the shipping labels, and will ship all of the kits out together. . .no need to worry about shipping cost, however if you would like to donate anything to the cost of shipping, that would be very much appreciated.

For questions about this opportunity to give, please contact Jennifer Gaskill at harvestonmission@gmail.com, or Melanie Wilson at melaniew@hcceugene.org.

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