New Hope Church holds Vacation Bible School

Frost, W.Va. – Frost is normally a very quiet little place but there’s a lot of activity in the little hamlet this week at the New Hope Church of the Brethren. The church is holding its popular Vacation Bible School every night this week and welcomes everyone to attend between 7:30-9 p.m. Attendance is running high.

Lucy Rittenhouse talks about some of the activities.

“Well, we call it our Bible School,” she said. “It starts at 7:30 each evening this week and it ends with a picnic on Friday. We draw in kids of all ages, along with our high school, middle school and adults in the church. We have a theme this year about Daniel being courageous. So, we have drama and music and snacks and games and all the things that go with having a good time together.

“The goal is just to encourage the fellowship of the believers here in New Hope and be an outreach to our community.”

Lindsey Meyers helps leads songs to start off each evening.

“We have the whole sanctuary full of people,” she said. “We’ve got 100 or more and we all sing fun vacation Bible songs like, ‘If You’re Happy And You Know It.’ We just have some fun singing when we first get together.

“I’m enjoying it very well. It’s one of my favorite things of the year. We always have a lot of fun. We get together and it’s kind of upbeat and kind of casual. Just a fun get-together.”

Every year, the school has a different theme. Frederica Gardner talks about this year’s theme.

“It’s courage and it revolves around Daniel’s stories,” she said. “I’ve learned that to stand out among the others is a fairly good thing and I believe that is important because that’s the way that the world moves forward. So, it could help everybody.”

Jessalyn Hamilton discusses Bible School lessons.

“It’s a mix of having fun and learning about the Bible and all the different studies in it and everything else,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun. Yesterday in class we learned about peer pressure and all the things that it involves. With the peer pressure and stuff, you have to have courage to stand up to it and to be your own self and not fall into all the crowds and everything at school, and stuff like that.”

New Hope Church of the Brethren is five miles north of Frost on Route 92. Church deacon Bill Young invites everyone to stop by this week, or anytime.

“One of the things our Bible School does is – it allows people who maybe haven’t been attending a church – it’s an atmosphere where it’s very easy to come in and to get involved and hear a little bit about Jesus and see the love that Christ has in the hearts of the people that are gathered here,” he said. “It provides them an opportunity to look at the church and the church family and see if that might not be something that they might like to be a part of.

“It is open to anybody. We would be happy to have them and we’d enjoy fellowshipping with them here at New Hope Church.”

Rittenhouse says come early on Friday.

“I guess you’d call our picnic on Friday night our grand finale,” she said. “We meet here at 6:30, eat hot dogs and have a covered dish meal and play games.”