With school starting back in just a couple of weeks, now is the time to make sure kids have a different kind of education, a moral education.

That’s the point of Vacation Bible School, said Tracey Wilson, Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church director of in-reach activities.

“It gives us an opportunity to reach out to the community and let the children learn about God,” she said. “It’s sort of like outreach.”

The theme for this year’s VBS is Walk His Way, Wilson said.

“It’s basically teaching children to follow Jesus,” she said.

Wilson said over the course of three days, children enjoy a variety of activities while learning about Christianity.

“We do singing, then movies, then biblical application,” she said. “That’s where we have adult leaders who explain to them what they watched in the movies and how they can apply it to their everyday life.”

Wilson said the children learn a different lesson each day.

“On day one, they actually learn who Jesus is,” she said. “You would be surprised how many kids don’t know who Jesus is, so the first thing was the introduction to Jesus.”

The second day’s lesson was on trust, Wilson said.

“We learned about following Jesus,” she said. “We talked about Daniel and how he refused to eat the king’s food and we talked about trust with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery pit. By trusting in Jesus we don’t have to give into peer pressure.”

Day three provided a lesson on staying the path, Wilson said.

“We’re going to talk about Daniel and the lion’s den,” she said.

Wilson said they put on VBS to help change the lives of children in the community.

“This is a way to get God in the hearts of children,” she said. “It’s a way to teach them that they don’t have to go out and be a part of the community, they can go beyond that and be leaders, but they have to put God first.”

Wilson said by coming to VBS the children are learning God is the way, the only way.

“Hopefully we’ll reach those kids and help them to know that by reaching for God they don’t have to give in to peer pressure,” she said. “They don’t have to go out there and learn to become robbers; they can go out there and get their education. There is an alternative lifestyle.”

Pastor Mitchell Dent said VBS is an opportunity for the church to impart more knowledge with children before they head back to school.

“As they embark on the school year they will be empowered with something other than what the world says,” he said.

Dent said one of the biggest issues in school today is bullying, which is an issue addressed at VBS.

“By teaching them the principles of the word of the Lord, it helps them to find another route and even gives them the courage to speak up when they see something going wrong,” he said. ‘The scripture says, ‘train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.’”