I want to say VBS is worth it! This past Sunday our church kicked off recruiting for volunteers for our summer VBS. Yes it was Easter Sunday, but it was a great time to announce the dates and start the recruiting with many visitors attending. As I sat at the table and had people sign up, I had a young man in his 20′s come up and asked if I remembered him. I laughed and said that at my age if I can remember how to get home I am doing good. We laughed and he started to tell me about coming to our church about 10 years ago. He remembered that I and another lady were his classroom leaders at VBS. He told me that his Mom only let him come with his next door neighbor friend who attended our church and only for VBS. He told me of how they had moved away and how his Mom raised him and his sister and how he always remembered our church. He is now married and has a child of his own. He and his wife were visiting trying to find a church in the area since they were moving back to the area for a job. What was so great about this? He told me his Mom had become depressed and had many boy friends in and out of the house. He had no idea (at that young age) where his dad was. Continue reading ‘VBS is worth it!’
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A Sand pan story makes a difference
Published March 29, 2010 Stories 2 CommentsTags: church, kids, VBS
My earliest memory of church is being in the nursery at Vacation Bible School. However, VBS changed my life when I was in the 6th grade. We had just started attending church again that year and my mother was going to be teaching VBS for the first time. The first story that year was Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. It was to be told using a sand pan and paper figures. My mother practiced and practiced it, by the time came to go to VBS I couldn’t wait to go. Not only did I want to see the story, it created a stir within me that made me want to be able to teach a lesson using a creative method like that. Well it has been 40+ years and I still love Vacation Bible School. I have been an assistant, teacher, craft leader and the director many times. I can’t wait for Hero Headquarters this year. What a great theme!!!
John K.
As a preacher’s kid I’ve been to more VBS’s than I can remember. I loved going to VBS- the crafts, the stories, and the songs. But it wasn’t until I was a senior in high school that I understood the power of VBS. That week I was asked to play a leading character much like the ones in Hero Headquarters. I got to interact with the kids and be part of the skits at the opening and closing each day. On the last day at the closing ceremony I had the opportunity to offer an invitation to the older students to talk to someone more seriously about what it means to become a Christian. Continue reading ‘A Jewel in Our Crown’
As a vocational children’s pastor, part of what I do is assess our current ministries. If they aren’t fulfilling the intended purpose, they get scrapped. If there is something new that we can do to better facilitate our purpose, it’s time for change. Recently I was evaluating our summer ministries, specifically, Vacation Bible School. We do VBS each summer to fulfill the Great Commission (reach kids with the Gospel and make disciples) and to engage our community. I looked at other summer programming options—there are lots of new programs we could start to help us reach these goals. When I stopped to ask which new program would be best, it dawned on me: I already have a program that does what I’m after. Why should we start several new programs to do the work Vacation Bible School was designed to do? I left that evaluation session with a renewed passion to make Vacation Bible School the biggest thing of the summer. Continue reading ‘The business of reaching children for Jesus!’
I did not grow up with VBS as a kid. It was not until I was 28 years old that I even understood what VBS was all about. Our church was recruiting volunteers for this thing called VBS and they needed some people to help with the game time. Me being the avid sports guy thought it would be fun to spend my evenings planning and doing games with kids. I signed up and received the material and was all set to have fun. Wow was I blown away at how extensive VBS really was. I came my first night and sat through the opening session and watched at how the kids learned many new songs and learned about the message for the night. When it came time for games, I followed the talk exactly how it was written and we played the games each night. At the end of the week I realized how working with those kids had impacted ME! Continue reading ‘Reached at an older age’
VBS is one of the best times of year for our church! The whole church family gets together and transform our church and grounds into the theme for that summer. A wonderful group of volunteers gets the sites ready and then the big day comes around. The kids pour in for a week of fun and learning about Jesus. One thing I have to say is that we can personally attest to the fact that kids lives are changed through VBS. We can count all the families who have come to church and/or come to Christ because of VBS. We will never give VBS up! It is a great way to reach people for Christ!
James-Springfield
I want to say that at my church snacks are one of the most important time for a lot of the volunteers. We have had the same group of ladies creating and making our snacks for at least the last 25 years. Many of us grew up with those same ladies making the snacks. Their creativity even before the days of “themed” snacks and their heart for kids has made our VBS each year a place that kids learn. These ladies not only take the time to make the snacks and make sure they are ready for each group of kids, but they pray over each of the kids during that time. Continue reading ‘Snacks’
She is the calm in the midst of the storm, smiling and outwardly serene but her eyes are everywhere making sure her volunteers have what they need, that each child who comes in the door has a name tag and finds his or her group leader.
At her church, she’s the VBS director and she explains she’s been doing this job for more than 15 years.
VBS is important because it is a chance to plant the seed, she explains. Though we may never see the results, we know it’s there.
As he found himself slowing down a bit in his early 80s, it wasn’t that easy to find jobs he could do in his church. His energy, hearing and sight weren’t what they used to be.
He loved serving God, and he loved the freshness and excitement of the kids at VBS. He tearfully told the VBS director he thought he’d need to retire from working at VBS.
But the wise VBS director instead asked him to come every day and supervise one important part of the day: hand washing.
After the recreation time and crafts and before snack time, each child was to wash his or her hands.
Although willing, he was at first hesitant and not sure he’d really be contributing. But then he realized he was the only volunteer who got to speak to every child each day. As he encouraged them to use a little more soap and take a little more time, he got to greet them, learn their names, and provide one more bit of Christ’s love to each student. They call him Grandpa and he touched the lives of every one of those children, as well as some of their parents.
He’s now in his upper 80s but still an integral part of VBS at his church. He provides hugs and stability and whispers of Jesus’ love and the children give back with affirmation of being needed and still making a vital contribution.
It seems VBS changes lives for people of all ages.
Everybody loves it when kids invite their friends to VBS. That’s how it’s supposed to work. Teachers encourage the friends to come back the next day to give us the maximum amount of time we can have with them to pour God’s love into their lives. When you have just five days, you don’t want to miss a minute.
So as a teacher you feel a bit like you’ve failed somehow when a student comes one day and you never see them again. Disappointed, you conclude you must not have made much of an impression on those one-day-only kids.
But don’t be too sure.
Her mom wouldn’t let her go to church. When one of the neighbors invited her to attend VBS one day, her mom grudgingly agreed she could go.
But just for one day. Continue reading ‘VBS Can Change a Life’
