When I told my five-year-old son that we would be gone the week of Vacation Bible School, he was not happy. “Maybe you can go to one at another church,” I suggested.
“I won’t know anyone,” he argued successfully.

Then I had an idea. We lived in a neighborhood with lots of kids and had at least a dozen kids right on our own street. “Let’s have our own Bible school in the backyard with all your neighborhood friends,” I told my son. He thought about it for a moment and nodded his head in agreement.

A few days later, with my two-year-old in the stroller, my son and I walked through the neighborhood delivering our handmade invitations for Bowman’s Backyard Bible school. When our Bible school week finally arrived, I was surprised to find twelve children on my doorstep at 9:30 in the morning. We went to the backyard and played duck-duck-goose in the grass. Then we colored pictures of Jesus on the picnic table, sang happy praise songs, and ate a snack. During the final minutes of our Bible school, I gathered the children in a circle and told them stories of Jesus and how much he loved each one of them.

For the next seven summers, the neighborhood children came to Bowman’s Backyard Bible School. As the children grew, so did the numbers (I added another child of my own to the group!). I commissioned some of the older children to be helpers since they still wanted to attend and also got help from another mom in the neighborhood. I soon became known as “The Bible School Mom.”  When the kids came trick-or-treating at my door in October, many of them asked, “Are you going to do that Bible thing again this summer?”  My answer was yes.

If you are looking for a way to reach out to your neighborhood children this summer, consider having Bible school in your backyard. Remember to keep it simple. I didn’t do fancy crafts or even use any visuals. I just sat on the lawn with the children at my feet and told them about Jesus.

 . . . for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these. (Matthew 19:14)  

Crystal