Local Church Catches Fire During VBS

by Ima Phibber

Vacation Bible School is something that Southern Baptist churches have been doing for generations. Many churches go all out with decorations, costumes, and more. The kids can’t wait for VBS each year; they love learning about Jesus, singing, dancing, and doing crafts. The biggest draw of course is the Kool-Aid and cookies. They say you can’t have VBS without Kool-Aid and cookies.

The 2nd Baptist Church of Valley City decided to go all out this year. Many 2nd Baptist members feel like they always play second fiddle to the other churches in the area, and they always have fewer kids at their VBS than other area churches. So, the 2nd Baptist VBS director, Pyra Mayniac, decided to go all out this year for VBS and outdo the other churches in the area. Her VBS budget was quadrupled this year, and she was given carte blanche to do whatever she wanted.

2nd Baptist put up signs advertising VBS all around the community. They ruffled some feathers because they put their signs right next to the Valley City Methodist Church’s (VCMC) signs, and 2nd Baptist’s signs were much larger. 2nd Baptist also rented an ice cream truck, and they traveled around the community offering ice cream to kids if they’d attend VBS. One Valley City resident said, “This is so sad that 2nd Baptist is bribing kids to attend VBS. They’re trying to get parents and grandparents to start coming to their church too. I heard they’re telling adults they don’t have to tithe for 3 months if they start coming to their church. So sad!”

2nd Baptist’s VBS was typical, but the big draw was the nightly fireworks show. It was a big hit. Not only did they have a record number of kids this year, but they also had many people from other area churches attending the nightly fireworks shows. Everything went great until the last night’s fireworks show.

Ms. Mayniac allowed her son to handle the fireworks the final night, and he’d never done it before. He made a mistake of having all the fireworks too close to the church building. About 45 seconds into the show, a bystander noticed that the church had caught fire. The fire was put out before the fire department arrived, but there was a good bit of damage to the sanctuary.

Ms. Mayniac said, “I was on cloud nine because the whole week had gone great. We were finally going to outshine the other churches in the area, and then the fire happened. It was crushing and humiliating. I guess I had gotten a little too proud. As the Bible says, pride cometh before a fall.”

The sanctuary will be restored in the coming weeks, and 2nd Baptist expects the work to take about 8 weeks. In the meantime, VCMC extended an offer to 2nd Baptist to have joint services at their church, and 2nd Baptist has agreed to join them as a sign of unity. Mayniac said, “I’m so glad they’re letting us worship with them; this will help unify our little community. God works in mysterious ways as they say. It’s so good this unfortunate event has a happy ending. But, we won’t be baptizing anyone at VCMC; we dunk, we don’t sprinkle.”