Greetings from Swedesburg Evangelical Lutheran Church! We are planning a new and exciting opportunity for Christian growth that your children will want to participate in: “This Changes Everything” VBS Camp! We want to encourage parents to have your children involved in this unique opportunity. “This Changes Everything” VBS Camp is a Christian education program offered in partnership with Ewalu Bible Camp in Strawberry Point, Iowa. Ewalu brings elements of summer camp to our summer VBS program. VBS is set up for children who are still too young to spend an entire week at camp, and also for those who love camp so much they want to take advantage of another opportunity. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to have basic elements of a “summer Bible camp” experience here in our own church! VBS is led with the help of trained, enthusiastic college-age youth ministry staff from Camp Ewalu, along with staff and volunteers from our Swedesburg congregation. The youth will be more involved in Bible studies, recreation, participatory worship, crafts, games, and much more! It will be an outstanding VBS experience. We are super excited to welcome paid Ewalu camp staffers this year and VBS, as always, is free and welcome to all, but this year especially we would welcome free-will donations to help us cover this amazing experience. The week our church has reserved is July 23rd through July 26th (Monday through Thursday). As done in the past, our church will provide dinner starting at 5:30 PM with camp from 6-8:15 PM. The program will be using the Swedesburg Parish Hall (201 Academy Avenue) as the “home base” while occasionally making use of the Swedesburg Lutheran Church as well. The program may run late on some of the evenings. On Sunday, July 29th, we invite you to our church worship at 10 AM for the youth to return and sing for our congregation for a “VBS Showcase”. If your family is unable to participate in the showcase, and you would like to see and hear what your children have learned, you are welcome to come and see them on the last day around 8 PM for their rehearsal. Please prayerfully consider this exciting opportunity for your children. We hope that all of our kids that are now completing grades K-5 (entering grades 1-6 next fall) will participate in this fun VBS week. Youth that are older than completing grade 6 are welcome as volunteers for VBS. For children that are ages 3 through preschool (and fully potty trained), we will have a supplemental program entirely led by church volunteers and not Ewalu counselors. If your child is in this age group, please have an adult staying or ensure they are comfortable with our church volunteers. Please be sure to invite your friends! Contact the church office with any questions at 319-254-2216.