As I am writing to you we are just a few weeks away from kicking off our Colossal Coaster World VBS. I am reminded each year at this time when the Lord saved me at Vacation Bible School at the First Baptist Church of Taylorsville. That was a pivotal moment for me. While my life has not always reflected what Christ did that day, I know that he saved me.

I read recently about several people who I grew up with who have been arrested on charges related to drug use. As I saw the mug shots that accompanied the story of their arrest, my mind was drawn to the pictures in our class yearbook. Those seemed to be happy times as people were all smiles for their senior pictures. Their mug shot seems to be a more accurate portrait of the turmoil within—a turmoil that may have been present underneath that smile of those pictures taken a decade ago.
Why do I mention this? Here are people who I once knew. Some of whom I considered to be friends, and yet now I see the fiasco that is their life.

What do they need? I’m sure the answer is “a lot”. I’m sure there are myriads and myriads of answers to that question. However, at the core of their problems is the absence of a savior—they need Jesus. That is where we come in.

We do VBS so we can tell people about Jesus. We have outreach event so we can tell people about Christ. We give to missions and befriend our neighbors to show them the Savior. We will never make apologies for that. We want people to have fun. We want people to fellowship. However, we exist to make Christ known to those who are perishing. My hope is that we will always take full advantage of the great calling God has given us.

I want to leave you with these words from the hymnist Fanny Crosby on our great calling to reach out to those who do not know our Lord:

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
weep over the erring one, lift up the fallen,
tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.