MARYSVILLE – For many children, Vacation Bible School is the first chance they get to learn about Jesus.

They understand that at the Word of Life Church in Marysville so they make VBS fun. The church is decorated with scenes from Jesus’ time with a village, marketplace and his mother Mary’s house.

About 70 kids are there this week from 9 a.m. to noon. The majority are from the community, rather than the congregation itself.

“It’s a good mix. We canvassed the area. Some are from daycares to give them a break,” but we don’t care, Pastor Jay Price said. “It’s a win-win.”

Amy Change has been the children’s ministry director for three years there, and each year the VBS has become “more and more elaborate,” Price said.

This week’s theme is Hometown Nazareth, with the curriculum based on when Jesus was a boy. The kids from age 3 to fifth grade are sectioned off in tribes and go to different areas around the church. One spot is outside, where they play capture the flag with boys against the girls.

“Be honest,” one helper said.

At Mary’s house, Jesus’ mom talked about what it was like raising him. The group Tuesday was twice as big as Monday’s turnout.

Cost of the VBS is free. Participants get a lunch before going home.

Price said he was pleased with the turnout, but added the youth groups at the church also are popular with kids who often don’t go to church on Sundays.

Of VBS, he said, “It’s centered around Jesus and what he’s done for us.”

Change said she’s received an amazing amount of help from family, friends and church members. Husband Nick, kids Joe and Paige and youth pastor Michael Titterness spent hours just on the styrofoam brick structure that is onstage in the sanctuary.

The children seemed to have the most fun in the market. There were booths called a carpentry shop, bead bazaar, synagogue school, rock shop, clay shop and more. The bible does say a lot about Jesus as a child, so “they get to imagine what he might have done,” Change said.