If you have read my blogs in years past then you know how I feel
about Vacation Bible School (VBS).
Yesterday was our last day of this week’s VBS, and once again I come
away thinking the same thing: I
absolutely LOVE VBS!
Each year, the very first week of summer vacation, Montvale
Evangelical Free Church hosts it’s VBS. And
it is spectacular! You can ask any of
the children and their parents, most of whom come, not from our church, but
from the neighboring community. This week
I heard parents say things like: “The
singing at the opening is so professional!”, and “This is the BEST VBS in the area!”
When viewing the spectacular “Babylon marketplace” downstairs, one
of them asked: “How long did it take you to do this?”
As with any really good ministry, VBS began months in
advance, in January actually, when our two directors attended a VBS workshop
and decided on the program we’d use this summer. This year’s theme was “Babylon Marketplace”. The
Bible stories which were taught focused on the Old Testament person of Daniel
and events in his life during the exile of the people of Israel in Babylon;
like his experience interpreting Nebudchadnezzar’s dream, and the Lord’s
protection of him in the lion’s den.
Probably the most challenging next step, after choosing a
program, is finding adult staff members to coordinate big picture things, like games, crafts,
service projects, snack and worship. Many
of the VBS volunteers are women, but a number of men actually take a week off
work to participate as well. Once that part
of the staff is complete, other staff members and their assistants are secured
to lead groups of 8-10 children through each day’s activities, worship team
members learn the songs with their accompanying motions, and
other supporting members for crafts, service, games, skits and snacks are
found.
All the while, creative minds are churning, and prayers for
creativity are being lifted. The Lord’s
help is being sought for answers to questions like: How will we get children to move smoothly
from one activity to another? What kinds
of crafts, service projects, snacks, and games will we have this year that will
“fit” with a Babylon theme? How can we
make a large room like fellowship hall look like a Bible time’s marketplace? How can we most effectively communicate God’s
love to the children? By the time the
next to last week in June arrives, most of these questions have been
answered.
Beginning at least a month beforehand, requests go out to
our church body to help with supplies, including items like dried apricots and
figs; fleece; rugs; large tents; gaudy fabric for decorating; Bible character
costumes; artificial flowers; bottled water and a host of other things. Although preparations for crafts and service
projects go on for some time before, this year we held only one work day to
prepare the site – the Saturday before the Monday start – to turn our large
fellowship hall into a marketplace.
Volunteers arrived to set up eight large tents, and tent floors were
laid with loaned oriental rugs. Tents
were creatively draped with fabric and artificial flowers until, voila, we had
a VBS Babylon marketplace that would rival a REAL ancient one!
But that wasn’t all!
Some time earlier in the week I entered the church sanctuary to see the
handiwork of our church family artisans!
They had transformed the stage into a scene from Bible times! I thought I was IN Babylon!
Even after months of preparation, it’s not until the first
day of VBS that the true transformation happens! Staff members, dressed in biblical costume
and encouraged to remain “in character”, engage the 150 children who moved
through the program each day. They were
so convincing that a few of the children had to be reminded that they weren’t
actually in Babylon!
I hope you can feel the excitement and enthusiasm VBS
engenders in me every single summer. I
love it for the “feel” of really living in biblical times, even if for only one
week, but that isn’t the only reason I love it.
I love it because for one concentrated week we have an opportunity to encourage
children to know and walk with Jesus.
And I also love it because of the glimpse it gives us of the Body of
Christ, the Church, at work.
Lots of adults of all ages are involved in VBS. Their hard work and enthusiasm is a labor of
love that flows from a desire to make Jesus known and bring glory to God. For most Christian adults service is a "given", an
expression of gratitude to the Lord for all He did to make our salvation possible. What really excites me however, is the
participation of so many pre-teens and teens. They are everywhere!
They help with crafts and games, assist children’s leaders, and almost singlehandedly
lead worship. And, they get up early every single day of the very first week of summer
vacation to do it! That part is the MOST
amazing!
They could choose to think only of themselves and the hard
year they’ve had at school and seize the opportunity that first week off affords to sleep in, but they don't. And we are SO thankful for that, because VBS
could not succeed without them!
When I think of VBS I’m reminded of many Bible passages that
apply to the Lord’s people doing the Lord’s work:
There is Exodus 35:30-31 where Moses is giving instructions
for the building of the tabernacle. He
says to the people:
“See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri. . . of the tribe of
Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and
knowledge in all kinds of crafts. . . .”
Where would VBS be without those whom the Lord has chosen
and gifted with the ability to organize, administrate and create? Where would it be without the big picture
people, and the detail people? Without the
artists, musicians, singers, teachers, craft supply hoarders, former Girl Scout
leaders, tent owners, gym teachers, game organizers, decorators, muscle men,
etc.?
In the Old Testament book of Nehemiah we see the exiles who returned to Jerusalem
working side by side to repair the city wall.
In chapter 6:15 we read:
“So the wall was completed . . . in 52 days. . . .all the surrounding nations
were afraid and lost their self confidence, because they realized that this
work had been done with the help of our God.”
Where would VBS be without those volunteers, skilled or not, who came
to simply be an extra pair of hands: to
pitch tents and take them down? Who
volunteered for clean up at the end of the week? Who cut watermelon and scooped ice cream for
hoards of kids and adults at the last day picnic? Where would VBS be without the help of our God to provide all we need?
In the New Testament book of Acts 2:42; 44-45, we read:
“(The believers in Christ) devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching
and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. . . All the
believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they
gave to anyone as he had need.”
Where would VBS be without those who, moved by the Lord, donated water, flip
flops, paper towels, cereal, baked goods for the staff, pens, baskets, time and
a host of other things to meet our VBS needs?
In Acts 4:32-35:
“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions
was his own, but they shared everything they had. . . . There were no needy
persons among them.”
VBS is a picture of one of the unique and wonderful things
about the Body of Christ. We work
together with everyone contributing something.
We use the gifts God has given us to bless Him and others. All of us work – from the pre-teen helpers to
the senior saints. We work joyfully because
even our work is a form of worship. We worship
joyfully because we belong to Jesus. Worship
is an affirmation of our unity. Working
in God’s kingdom is our way of saying thanks to Him.
The vision statement of Montvale Evangelical Free Church is
this. We are:
“A
Christ-centered community of good neighbors”.
During the week of VBS, we ARE that vision statement!
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