Every year, three local churches work together to host vacation bible school for children.

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, First United Methodist Church of Andalusia and First Presbyterian — the three local churches — have been holding vacation bible school every Thursday this month.

The theme this year is water, and its importance in the Bible.

On Thursday, the vacation bible school was held at Blue Lake Methodist Camp, where participants enjoyed a bible study led by the Rev. Cindy Howard on being fishers of men, swimming in the lake, arts and crafts and a meal.

“It’s going really well so far,” St. Mary’s representative Chrissie Duffy said. “I don’t know if we’re going to do it like this in the future. We are doing it differently this year.”

In years past, the churches have usually done a week-long program at a different church each year.

“We put our heads together and came up with a theme,” Duffy said. “We’ve kept it really simple and on a level they can understand.

“Instead of spending so much time and energy buying a bunch of stuff to stick on the walls, we’re spending all of our time and energy with the children and putting our creative minds to work,” she said.

Every story taught at the vacation bible school has revolved around water, Duffy said.

“We did Noah and the flood last week, and next week we’re doing Jesus walking on the water,” she said. “This week was about the commandment, last week was about the promise and next week will be about hope.”

VBS participant Sydney Ward said she’s had a great experience.

“It’s been really fun,” she said. “We learned about Peter and Simon (in Bible study) and we learned new songs.”