Doughnuts help The Salvation Army tell the gospel story in Danville, Kentucky

By: Lieutenant Lindsey Galabeas

"Sprinkle Kindness," based on Ephesians 4:32, was the theme for our vacation Bible school this year for the Danville, Kentucky, Corps. However, ours wasn't the typical VBS.

Ours was mobile, meaning we hit the road, reaching children in the community who may never set foot inside our Salvation Army corps building. And, we made doughnuts.

We wanted a program that would take minimal leaders but have a high impact. The doughnut program was a free tool we already had in our back pocket – Bible verse, lesson and so forth ready to go and accessible – as a brigade project at Evangeline Booth College.

The curriculum originally was for a four-week Sunday school preliminary program (graphics, created by Lieutenant Lindsey, are available on Ministry Toolkit). We adapted it for our VBS using one week's program.

Doughnuts were chosen also because we had a small waffle iron Lieutenant Roger had purchased at a thrift store in Atlanta. It makes seven small doughnuts at a time out of regular waffle mix. With mix donated to the Danville Corps, we made up hundreds of fresh doughnuts on site through the week.

We took our VBS to Salvation Army Family Stores in the Danville area, reaching out to children who came in to shop with Mom and Dad or Grandma and Grandpa, and to area apartment complexes.

We offered doughnut coloring sheets and an opportunity to decorate the pastries. As children decorated doughnuts with sprinkles, we told them the story of the paralyzed man and his four friends who showed him kindness as they worked to get him to see Jesus (Luke 5:17–26).

Then we brainstormed ways with the children that we could "sprinkle kindness" in our everyday lives. All ages were welcome. While we focused on children of any age (truly), adults were able to participate as well. In all, 127 participated through the week.

The following Sunday, we hosted a "Sprinkle Kindness" VBS Sunday/Back to School bash at the Danville Corps. We also told the story of the paralyzed man and his kind friends and decorated doughnuts again, even hosting a doughnut-decorating contest in which children could win Angel Tree toys remaining from last year's distribution. Fifty-six people attended the event.

Lieutenants Lindsey and Roger Galabeas are corps officers in Danville, Kentucky.