Natchez — Even when Morgantown Baptist Church members saw the attendance for their summer vacation Bible school dropping, they knew they didn’t want to stop having the yearly event.

So they came up with a plan. Vacation Bible school director Patricia Jamison and other church members worked in the weeks prior to vacation Bible school to distribute flyers publicizing the week-long event.

“We don’t have a lot of children in our church but we really wanted to continue having vacation Bible school,” Jamison said. “We really wanted to continue having it so we did a door to door thing.

Last year, Morgantown Baptist did a similar campaign but this year Jamison also placed flyers in area grocery stores, something the church had never done before.

“Maybe that made the difference. We had about 16 children this year,” Jamison said. “Last years we only had about six.”

The theme for this year was Outrigger Island and used Hawaiian themed activities to teach the children that God is real, Jamison said.

The week-long Bible study had daily Bible stories, games, arts and crafts and songs to reinforce the theme for the week.

According to Jamison one of the biggest hits of the week was when Bible school teachers used a child-sized swimming pool full of sand and character figurines to tell the days Bible story.

“They were just mezmorized by that,” Jamison said.

The Bible stories were a favorite part of the week for Brennon McDowell, 10, who came from Brandon to attend VBS with her cousin Allison Carter.

“My favorite story is the one where the Red Sea collapsed on the Egyptians,” McDowell said. “I couldn’t believe what God did. That was one of the coolest miracles.”

Colby Passman, 7, liked the stories, too but he also enjoyed the arts and crafts.

“We had a wooden boat and attached the triangle sail to it,” Passman said. “It was really fun.”

Jamison said that she hoped the children would return to Morgantown Baptist Church after vacation Bible school has ended but is just happy she can provide the event to the children.

“We hope to see the children and their families back but many of them do have home churches,” Jamison said. “But we do it for the kids.”