IT’S VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL TIME!!!

 I did not grow up in a Christian home.  As a matter of fact, we didn’t begin even going to church until I was in my pre-teens so, apart from what my mom learned from her Christian grandmother that got passed along, spiritual things were not really a priority. 

I have some very early memories of church though.   

When I was in kindergarten and first grade I had a favorite aunt and uncle on my dad’s side, Aunt Elsie and Uncle Jim.  The highlight of my week was going to stay with them on a weekend.  On Friday afternoon my mom would put me on a bus outside my house with instructions to the driver to let me off at my aunt’s street about 20 blocks away (Who would do this today with a child so young??  In that day, in the early 50s, it was perfectly safe.)

My cousin Marianne would meet me at the corner of their street and we’d make a stop first at a tiny town library so I could get books to read while I was with them, before making the long walk down the hill to their house. 

 In the summers we went to their bungalow in Keansburg, NJ. Before we left, we had a supper of pastina!  (I’ve loved pastina to this day!)  On the way down we always stopped at what today we would call a flea market, but in that day I knew it as “the auction”.  

 

In the winter when I stayed with them they would sometimes take me to church.  I remember sitting at Aunt Elsie’s feet while she wrapped my hair in rags to curl it for church.  I thought I looked so beautiful in those spiral curls!  

The memory I have of going to church was from a Sunday before Christmas when I was staying with Aunt Elsie.  That day they were giving out a small box of hard candies to each child who came to Sunday school and they didn’t have one for me.  And why would they, when they didn’t know I’d be there, but I was hugely disappointed.  Not the best memory of church, but hey, it didn’t make me swear off church from that point on – praise the Lord.

The other memory I have of church occurred a few years later.  I was now probably seven or eight.  We lived down the street from a tiny Baptist church.  Mom and Dad sent my brother and I there for Sunday school, and I was a Pioneer Girl in that church, but as far as I remember, my parents never went.  

My best memory of that church was their Vacation Bible School.  I had never been to this now very popular ministry before and had no idea what to expect.  I don’t remember if I even went with a friend or with my brother or by myself.  What I do remember was that the teacher told stories using a flannel graph.  

If you don’t know the delights of flannel graphs, you don’t know what you’re missing.  The teacher had a large square board covered in felt on which she placed background scenes of mountains, lakes, deserts – whatever suited the Bible story  Then as she told the Bible story she added very artistically done characters, men, women, children, animals, also in felt.  I was fascinated, although to this day I do not remember what stories from the Bible were taught.  I just remember loving having them told with flannel board figures.  I think that memory, more than any other, is one of the reasons I am so drawn to the ministry of Vacation Bible School (VBS) today.  

At our church in New Jersey I participated in VBS for many of the years we were there.  I was a group leader, a registrar, and for the last several years one of the coordinators of service projects.  The last year there, with all the work that went into getting our house ready to sell, and then moving, I declined to serve and I knew that was a good decision for that time.

Now we are in Florida and have finally settled on a church home.  Jim and I have long believed we were saved by the Lord so that we might serve the Lord, and while there are many things we might do outside the church, we believe our primary responsibility is to our home church.  So this week was my week to jump into ministry with both feet!

Beginning Sunday, I’m going to be team teaching second through fifth graders with another woman twice a month.  I can’t tell you how motivated and energized I feel just getting my teaching materials and beginning to think of how to best teach the lesson to this group of kids.

And then yesterday, I met with the woman who is coordinating snacks this year at VBS.  Jim and I are going to help with that for the VBS in July.  Just hearing all about the snacks we’ll be preparing, each one designed to reinforce some truth from the Bible lesson makes my adrenaline soar!

The ministry of VBS, since that day long ago when I was just seven, has been my favorite of all the ministries of the church, for a number of reasons.  

First, it is the first time many kids will hear about Jesus, who really, really loves them!  Little kids are so responsive to Him, so tender hearted, so loving.  What a blessing to introduce them to Him.  Many times a child’s reaction to the message he/she hears at VBS will prompt a family to begin thinking about the spiritual needs of their family so that they begin coming to church.

Second, I love the energy of VBS.  Need a lift?  Get in a room with 80-100 excited kids, hear them sing, do the motions to the songs, shout, laugh. . . . it’s contagious and will lift you right out of the doldrums!  And anybody can handle that much energy for just 5 half days, right?

Third, the VBS ministry, all by itself, taps into the widest variety of gifts assembled in the church.  There are those who lead kid worship, those who prepare snacks, those who teach, those who park cars, those who register families, greeters, those who design set backgrounds, those who teach crafts, those who plan active games – plus a ton of people with administrative gifts who work behind the scenes putting it all together.  Before VBS even gets off the ground on the first day, a program is selected, decorations are being worked on, songs being learned, crafts put together, planning, planning, planning – months in advance.  

One of my favorite things to do during the week of VBS is to just stand by and observe everyone doing what they’ve been assigned, what they’re good at.  I love watching adults and teens relate to kids and love on them.  It’s the body of Christ at work and it’s awesome!

Fourth, this year in particular, the Lord is using the ministry of VBS to answer my prayers for friends and in this setting, especially church friends. I’m so grateful for that!  And so grateful the Lord sped up the process!  

So, what are you doing this summer in YOUR church?  May I suggest Vacation Bible School?