VBS Camp Courage from the Sunday School Store

📅 Coming Soon — October 1

All-Access Pass members: Camp Courage is included in your Pass. It lands in your Coming Soon Exclusives folder in the Pass Drive library on Monday, September 14, and from October 1 you can check it out here at $0 with your church's code.

A complete five-day VBS your church can actually run. Nine leader manuals, eight original songs, print-ready decorations, and a Director's Guide that walks a first-time director through the whole week — for elementary kids (ages 6–12) and a full PreK track (ages 3–5). One price. Nothing else to buy. Built so a church of any size, on any budget, can run a real VBS.

Jump to: The week · Is it right for you? · What's in the download · What's different · Schedules · Volunteers · Cost · Music · All-Access Pass · Questions

Five days. Five badges. One big idea.

💡 Big Idea: Courage doesn't mean you're never scared — it means trusting God enough to take the next step, because the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

📖 Memory Verse (Elementary): "Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9, BSB)

📖 Memory Verse (PreK): "When I am afraid, I put my trust in You." (Psalm 56:3, BSB)

Every day at camp has a Bible story, a badge, and a line kids can say out loud. Badges are handed out at the craft table, one per day, and go home on the certificate at the end of the week.

• Day 1 — SPEAK UP: Esther Speaks Up for Her People (Esther 4:10–17; 5:1–3; 7:1–6; 8:15–17). God makes my voice brave!
• Day 2 — STEP OUT: David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17:20–50). God guides my next step!
• Day 3 — STAND FIRM: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace (Daniel 3:1–30). God helps me stand firm!
• Day 4 — HELP OUT: Jesus, the Greatest Rescue (Luke 23:32–47; 24:1–8). God's love sent Jesus to rescue me!
• Day 5 — GO FORWARD: Joshua and the Walls of Jericho (Joshua 1:1–9; 6:1–20). God goes with me wherever I go!

✝️ Gospel Connection: Every day points to Jesus, and Day 4 goes deepest — the cross and the empty tomb, told as love, with a quiet, no-pressure response: "We could not rescue ourselves, so God's love sent Jesus to rescue us — and now He goes with us wherever we go." A one-page gospel explanation for families, "The Greatest Rescue," ships in the download, and the Bible Story, PreK, Opening Assembly, and Craft manuals each carry a "When a Camper Responds" page so any volunteer knows what to say — and what not to say. The week ends with a Campfire Ceremony built for families to attend.

Is Camp Courage right for your church?

This is for you if:

• You're running VBS with a small team — it runs on six volunteers, and small numbers are a feature (every game carries a 4-kid line).
• You've never directed a VBS before — the Director's Guide walks the whole week, from an 8-week countdown to the evaluation form.
• You need a real preschool track, not a bolt-on — PreK (ages 3–5) has its own complete guide, its own room plan, and its own memory verse.
• Your week doesn't look like five weekday mornings — evenings, three days, four sessions, one night, one night a week, or a lock-in all work.
• Your budget is tight — crafts and snacks are designed to average $2 per kid per day or less, and there is nothing else to buy from us.
• You have a lot of kids — a 100-camper week runs the same manuals with four rotation groups and a staffing chart to match.

This might not be for you if:

• You want a boxed kit with per-child workbooks and T-shirts shipped to you — everything here is a download you print yourself (the art files are included if you want a local shop to make shirts or banners).
• You need an all-day, meals-included camp — Camp Courage is a two-to-two-and-a-half-hour program each day.
• You want a filmed video curriculum — the Bible stories are told live by your leaders with teaching visuals, not played on a screen.

What's in the download

Nine leader manuals, a print pack, and the music — everything as PDF, with editable Word files where you'd want to type in your church's name.

• 📘 Director's Guide — staffing charts for 6, 12–15, and 20+ volunteers; three written-out schedules plus short formats; a teen-volunteer section; the 30-minute volunteer orientation script and ten role sheets; the Camp Office Pack (registration form, check-in/check-out roster, two-adult policy, missing-child plan, incident report, emergency page, Day-1 safety briefing script, disclosure protocol); supplies and print plan; the small-church section; an evaluation form; "The Greatest Rescue" gospel one-pager; and the license page.
• 📖 Bible Story Manual (Elementary) — five complete Bible story lessons with teaching visuals, a Campfire Circle discussion, a coloring page and word search for each day, and the memory verse in BSB and KJV. Younger (6–8) and older (9–12) lines are built into every lesson.
• 🧸 PreK Leaders Guide (Ages 3–5) — five complete camp days for the littlest campers: one room, one plan, no rotations — arrival play, chant, Bible story and prayer, snack, craft, activity sheet, game, and centers.
• ✂️ Craft Leaders Manual — two crafts printed for every day (run one), a photo of the finished craft, supply lists with substitutions, and Before Class prep.
• 🎪 Opening Assembly Manual — the daily Trailhead: welcome and pledges, the verse exchange, a WOW object lesson every day, a five-part skit in perform-it and read-aloud versions, and the Day 5 Campfire Ceremony run of show.
• 🏃 Games and Snacks Manual — a low-prop game and a simple snack every day; every game scales from five kids to everyone at once, with an indoor-rain backup and a seated option; every snack on the menu made without the major allergens as written, with an Under-6 rule.
• 🎵 Music Station Manual — press play, sing along: the words to every song printed, a 20-minute daily order, and codes straight to the playlist and the download folder.
• 🏕️ Decoration Guide — a one-Saturday Decorating Blitz or a week-long build, both from cardboard, butcher paper, and borrowed camping gear, plus a prop-loan list for your congregation.
• ✉️ Family Communications — a welcome email, five Parent Take-Home Pages, five parent emails, five volunteer emails, and a follow-up letter — PDF and editable Word.
• 🖨️ Print pack — 73 print-ready files in three folders: Print at Home (letter and tabloid), Send to Your Printer (press files with bleed), and Editable (Word). Station signs, Bible verse posters (Joshua 1:9 and Psalm 56:3, each in BSB and KJV), five daily badges (cut sheets and Avery sticker layouts), a badge-row banner, pennants, trail markers, a fillable certificate and save-the-date, and the title art.
• 🎶 Eight original Camp Courage teaching songs — MP3s and lyric videos in a download folder (no Google account needed), plus a YouTube playlist. Free to use in your ministry.
• ⬇️ Instant download. Files never expire. Print as many copies as your ministry needs.

The resource page linked from your manuals adds craft demonstration videos and the WOW object lessons on video as they are posted.

What's different about Camp Courage

• One price, nothing else to buy. No per-child workbooks, no add-on packs, no music sold separately. We don't sell craft kits — the crafts run on construction paper, glue, felt, and household items on purpose.
• Built for the church that's short on volunteers. The six-volunteer floor is a real plan, not a footnote: a director, a story leader, an activity leader, a snack lead, and the PreK pair — with a desk parent as the seventh set of hands. Music folds into the opening assembly. The Bible story station never folds.
• PreK is a co-equal track. Preschoolers get their own guide, their own room plan, their own memory verse, and every badge.
• Music you can actually use. Eight original songs made for this VBS, with lyric videos — yours to download, play, project, and share in your ministry. No license that runs out next summer.
• Cut whole days, never compress. Three days? Four sessions? One night? The Director's Guide says exactly which days to keep and how every station folds down.
• The safety layer is written for you. Registration form with allergy and media-release lines, check-out procedure, two-adult policy, missing-child plan, emergency page, and a Day-1 briefing script — templates and principles that defer to your church's own policies.
• Please copy and share. Print every page as many times as your VBS needs, for every volunteer, every classroom, every campus. Partner churches running VBS with you are welcome to use it too.

Pick your schedule

Three schedules are written out hour by hour in the Director's Guide, and the same content runs shorter formats without squeezing:

• Classic morning, 9:00–11:30 — opening assembly, four 30-minute rotations (Bible story, crafts, games and snacks, music), closing gather. PreK runs its own room for about two hours.
• Evening camp, 5:30–8:00 — check-in with a simple supper option, assembly with singing, three rotations, close.
• Compact morning, 9:00–11:00 — a longer assembly with the music folded in, three rotations — nothing cut from Bible story time.
• Three days, four sessions, one night — cut whole days, keep Day 4 (the day that goes deepest) and Day 5 (the ceremony), and run each day you keep at full strength. One night = Day 4, with the ceremony's verse exchange and commissioning as the send-off.
• Two evenings, one night a week for a month, a Friday-to-Saturday lock-in, a family-night close — churches run this material all of these ways, and the Director's Guide says how.
• A 45-minute slot — Bible story and Campfire Circle plus at most one activity; every activity is built to be lifted without breaking the lesson.

Day 5 ends with the Campfire Ceremony (about 30 minutes) — plan the last day about 20 minutes longer, or invite families back that evening.

How many volunteers do you need?

Staffing starts with one rule: minimum one key adult per station or group, and the PreK room always has two adults. From there the Director's Guide gives three charts:

• Six volunteers (a small camp, two or three stations): director · Bible story leader · activity leader (crafts and games, alternating) · snack lead and helper · the PreK pair — plus a desk parent from your sign-up list as the seventh set of hands.
• 12–15 volunteers: one leader per station, two in PreK, a group guide for every 8–10 campers, a check-in desk adult, and the director floating free.
• 20+ volunteers: station teams of two, PreK ratios, a group guide for every 8, a camp office adult, and a photographer under your media-release rules.

Teens get real jobs — game demonstrators, motion leaders, craft and snack helpers, junior guides, PreK crew leaders — always alongside adults, never instead of them, and never counted toward the two-adult rule. Age-graded rotation or mixed-age crews: the lessons work either way, and the guide tells you how to teach a mixed room.

What it costs to run

Crafts and snacks are designed to average $2.00 per kid per day or less, averaged across stations — a design target we wrote to, not a guess. A typical 20-camper week prints roughly 350–450 pages, about 13 per camper (2–3 of them color: the badge sheets and the certificate). Decorating builds from things churches already have — cardboard, butcher paper, borrowed camping gear — plus the print pack. Volunteer T-shirts, sticker-roll badges, printed banners, and craft kits are named as optional upgrade paths you can source locally; none of it is required. The download is complete without spending another dollar. That is the design.

The music

Eight teaching songs written for Camp Courage: the Theme Song, the Memory Verse Song (in two versions), one new song for each day, and a bonus song — every song under four minutes, most about three. Each has a lyric video with the words on screen, and the words are printed in the Music Station Manual. Download the MP3s and videos from the folder (no Google account needed) or play the YouTube playlist. You don't need to read music, play an instrument, or sing well — press play, sing along, and bring the energy. Motions are optional; three simple motions are suggested for the memory verse.

These are not a band you will find on Spotify — they were made for this VBS by our team using the Suno music generator, not by a studio. You're free to use them however you like in your ministry — no copyright restrictions. Scripture in the songs is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).

Who's behind Camp Courage

We're the same team behind the free VBS programs at Ministry-to-Children.com that churches have run for more than a decade — and this is the first summer we've published a complete paid VBS. It was written and edited under founder Tony Kummer (ten years a children's pastor, M.A. in Christian Education), with craft and object-lesson demonstrations from curriculum writer Kristin Highley (master's degrees in teaching and theology), and our statement of faith is public. If something here is unclear, missing, or just wrong for your church, email Tony directly at tony@sundayschool.store — he reads every note himself.

Included in the All-Access Pass

Camp Courage is $97 on its own. It's also inside the All-Access Pass — every curriculum on the Sunday School Store, both age tracks, every future release, forever, for one payment: $297 until October 1, $397 after. Pass members get Camp Courage in their Coming Soon Exclusives Drive folder on Monday, September 14, and check out here at $0 from October 1. Already own the Pass? It's yours — nothing to do.

See everything in the All-Access Pass →

Questions churches ask

What ages is it for? Elementary, ages 6–12, in one Bible Story Manual with younger (6–8) and older (9–12) lines in every lesson; and PreK, ages 3–5, in its own complete guide. Teens serve as volunteers with real jobs.

We're tiny — six kids, maybe ten. Will it work? Yes. Small numbers are a feature: every game carries a 4-kid line, the verse exchange works with six campers as well as sixty, and badges, ceremony, and certificates run at any size. A small church doesn't run a smaller Camp Courage — it runs the same camp with fewer walls.

Can we put everyone in one room, ages 3 to 12? Yes. Teach the elementary lesson at the younger band and swap in the PreK craft and chant; the Director's Guide says exactly how. There's no separate combined-room manual on purpose — the adapt line is the manual.

Mixed-age crews or age groups? Either. Nothing in any lesson assumes one; if your groups mix ages, teach at the younger band by default.

Can we run three days? Four nights? One night? Wednesdays? Yes — cut whole days, never compress, and keep Day 4 and Day 5. The guide covers a 3-day, a four-session, a one-night, a two-evening, a one-night-a-week, a lock-in, a family-night close, and a 45-minute-slot version.

Does music come with it? Yes — eight original songs as MP3s and lyric videos, free to use in your ministry. Prefer your own worship set? The Music Station plan works with your church's songs too.

Are there videos? Lyric videos for every song. Craft demonstrations and the WOW object lessons on video are posted on the resource page linked from your manuals. The Bible stories are told live by your leaders with teaching visuals — there is no filmed story video. Slides are not included.

What about decorations? The print pack has station signs, verse posters, badges, pennants, trail markers, a banner, and title art; the Decoration Guide builds the rest from cardboard, butcher paper, and borrowed camping gear.

Do you include registration and safety forms? Yes — the Camp Office Pack in the Director's Guide: registration form (allergies, medications, authorized pickup, photo/media release), check-in/check-out roster, two-adult and bathroom policy, missing-child plan, incident report, emergency response page, Day-1 volunteer safety briefing script, and a disclosure-response protocol. These are templates and principles that defer to your church's own policies, not a substitute for legal or insurance advice.

Which Bible translation? The Berean Standard Bible (BSB), an open translation every church can freely use — and the verse posters and the memory verse page also come in KJV. Edit any verse to your church's translation, or read from the Bible your classroom already uses.

Are the files editable? The Family Communications, the certificate, the save-the-date, and a blank station sign ship as editable Word files. Everything else is a print-ready PDF.

What about allergies? Every snack on the Games and Snacks menu is made without the major allergens as written (no wheat, milk, egg, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, or sesame — buy the plain kind), with an Under-6 rule for choking hazards and a food-free Courage Sticker Moment at the same table for any camper who can't eat that day's snack. The PreK room has its own in-room snack menu with swaps.

What does it cost per kid? Crafts and snacks are designed to average $2 per kid per day or less. Printing runs about 13 pages per camper for the week.

Do we need to buy anything else from you? No. We don't sell craft kits, workbooks, or add-on packs. The download is complete without spending another dollar.

Can we share it with a partner church for a combined VBS? Yes — partner churches serving alongside you may print and use these pages for that shared week.

Can we livestream or record? Yes. If kids will appear on camera, that rides on the media-release line in your registration form.

Can we make our own T-shirts and banners from the art? Yes — uploading the art to a print shop or shirt service to make your own church's materials is use, not redistribution. The title art ships in high-resolution 16×9 and 4×3 files.

What can't we do? Please don't sell or redistribute the files themselves — no reselling the download, no posting the files for public download, no passing them along as a product.

Is it evangelistic? What happens when a child responds? Every day points to Jesus, and Day 4 goes deepest. The response is quiet and pressure-free — no one has to raise a hand, stand up, or say anything out loud — and the "When a Camper Responds" page tells volunteers what to say, what not to say, and how to hand the conversation to the parent and the director the same day. We never record decision dates, and the certificate carries no decision-date line.

Is there a year on it? No. Camp Courage isn't stamped with a year — the posters, badges, certificate, and title art are evergreen, so you can run it any summer.

How is this different from the free VBS programs on Ministry-to-Children? Same team, same heart. The free programs are lesson sets; Camp Courage is a complete program — nine coordinated manuals, a Director's Guide, a PreK track, original music, a print pack, family communications, and a safety layer — built to run as one camp.

When can we get it? It goes on sale here October 1. All-Access Pass members receive it in their Coming Soon Exclusives Drive folder on Monday, September 14 — before it goes on sale to anyone else.

What if it isn't right for us? Our promise: if it isn't right for your church, we'll refund it in full within 365 days — no questions asked. Refund policy →

Three steps to camp

1. Download. Nine manuals, the print pack, and the music folder land in your account instantly — and never expire.
2. Pick your schedule. Open the Director's Guide, choose the week that fits your church, and hand each leader their manual.
3. Print and go. Every page, as many copies as your VBS needs.

Please copy and share. Your church bought this download so you could use it, and using it means printing it — one classroom or thirty, one campus or five. Partner churches serving alongside you are welcome to print and use these pages for that shared week; livestreaming your sessions is welcome too. The one thing we ask: please don't sell or redistribute the files themselves. The full plain-language license page is inside the Director's Guide.