By Mark Maynard
Kentucky Today
What’s a little heat among friends?
The pastoral staff at Erlanger Baptist – Lead Pastor BJ Donahue, Worship and Missions Leader Jim Cantwell and Children’s Pastor Eric Thomason – were given a plate of wings with extra spicy sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings after the Vacation Bible School goal was reached.
Worship Pastor Jimmy Cantwell, left, and Lead Pastor BJ Donahue tap hot wings while Children’s Pastor Eric Thomason looks on (Photo from Kentucky Today)
The $10,000 goal wasn’t just reached, it was doubled at $20,123 with another weekend of donations still to count.
Donahue, who said extra hot wings were far from his regular diet, choked them down in front of more than 250 cheering children Friday night at the conclusion of a highly successful VBS.
“They certainly lived up to the billing,” he said. “Three bowls of ice cream could not thwart the heat radiating in my mouth. But well worth every wing. Praise the Lord for His stirring in our faith family and guests.”
“This was not a part of seminary training,” Donahue said. “The things I have done for VBS have challenged me in different ways.”
The extraordinary VBS offering will be going to the Second Baptist Gdansk in Poland. Donahue learned about the church at a presentation put together by Charles Frazier, the associational mission strategist for the Northern Kentucky Baptist Association.
Erlanger Baptist averaged 264 children per night at its Vacation Bible School last week. (Photo from Kentucky Today)
“I had a pastor fellowship on that day for lunch with Pastor Adrian (Stozek) and Travis (Ammon),” Frazier said. “They are trying to raise $100,000 for a heat pump and solar panels. With all that is going on in Europe with Russia and Ukraine, they want to be a little more self-sustaining.”
Ammon is married to Frazier’s daughter, Victoria, and is the youth and discipleship pastor for the church along with his wife Victoria.
Donahue said he was inspired by the presentation and felt the Lord was calling Erlanger Baptist to help the church in some way.
“The Lord opened my heart to participate,” he said. “Eric had spent some time in Poland in college and had a desire to go back. Once I shared the opportunity with him, he certainly embraced it. We prayed through it and thought it out. We were going to help that church and challenged the congregation with our VBS offering set as a goal.”
Donahue said they typically set a goal of around $3,000 in VBS but moved that to $10,000 and announced it ahead of time to the congregation so if people wanted to participate, they could. He said the first day gifts of $6,000 came through online giving and “that set the stage for an incredible week that transpired.”
By the second day they had nearly $10,000 and eclipsed the goal the following day. On Wednesday of that week it was announced that there was a $2,500 matching gift and that night $2,504 was collected to put them over $15,000. And by the last night of the VBS, another $5,000 had been given.
Students perform during the Erlanger Baptist VBS. (Photo from Kentucky Today)
“The church embraced it,” Donahue said. “We’ve set a mission trip to go to Poland for a vision trip in October. Pastor Eric is going to lead that. We hope that this begins something more to be a part of with that church. It’s remarkable how the Lord directs your steps. I look back on this and say, ‘Wow! All of this transpired because of a lunch presentation.’”
As for the VBS itself, attendance records were broken each night with an average of 264 students each night.
“We are very blessed,” Donahue said. “Our children’s pastor (Thomason) has been with us 10 years in July. He has an amazing team that works together. This church is known for running a positive, organized, encouraging VBS that has a Bible-centered experience for our kids. We have kids that come from a lot of different churches.”
Frazier said he was thankful for Erlanger Baptist and the great leadership of Pastor Donahue, who guided more than 150 church members through a massive Experiencing God study that ended in June.
“It makes me wonder if this is some of the fruit from that Bible study,” Frazier said.
