Hephzibah Baptist Church held their annual VBS this week, with this year’s theme being “Submerged: Finding truth below the surface.”

Attendance averaged 45 youngsters per night, with at least 20 volunteers there to help.

VBS director Janie Waller said the kids were having a good time.

“They’re having fun learning how important it is to have Jesus in their lives,” she said.

She reminded the students Wednesday night about the previous lessons they’d learned, and previewed the lesson they would learn that night.

“Monday night we learned about Zacchaeus, and last night we learned about…” she paused and chose a boy from the crowd to finish the sentence.

“The woman at the well,” he said.

“That’s right!” said Waller. “And tonight we’re going to learn about Nicodemus.”

Pastor Rick Hayes talked about how those lessons tied into the theme of finding truth below the surface.

“With Zacchaeus, he was truly small and everything else seemed truly large,” he said. “The woman at the well obviously had similar problems with broken relationships and she wasn’t viewed as someone valuable.

“Nicodemus came to Jesus concerned about the law, but Jesus told him he had to look past the law’s requirements, deeper than the law to find salvation.

“These examples show how Jesus looks past the surface and sees to the heart,” he said. “We often see value in our situation but God sees value in us.”

The kids also competed to see who could raise the most money for missions, with the winner getting to dump “whale vomit” on student pastor Michael Rader. Rader said he was excited for the event.

“Last year it was monkey poo, so this is a little bit better honestly,” he said. Rader said the “vomit” would consist of clear gelatin, yellow and green Gatorade, and Nerds to “give it some texture.”

VBS wraps up Friday night.