For two years now, I have had the opportunity to be a volunteer in VBS, Vacation Bible School, for my church. Last year I was in Kindergarten, which I had a blast with, but this year was a little different as I was in the 5th grade class. It's strange to see how much kids change within that time! I also wonder what it would be like to see myself at that age.
Many churches use Lifeway's VBS programs that they put out each year, including the church I went to when I was in VBS, Alpha Baptist. I always loved going to VBS and participating in all the songs, dances, games, crafts, and competitions to raise money and donation items. Sitting on the leadership side now brings back memories, and it's great to see other kids enjoying it like I did.
This year's theme is Agency D3: Discover, Decide, Defend!
This is our super-enthusiastic children's minister, Tim Thompson. He and his son and daughter always do the skits that go with the week's theme each morning to get it started. Tim does a great job keeping those kid's attention! I really admire how patient he is with an entire church full of young ones. He is also the dad of one of my best friends from church, Holly!
The girl who does Missions with the kids, Allison Young, told them all about missionaries across the world. Our church has a family whose children have gone out to Colorado to be missionaries and started a church called Summit Church in Denver. I am very fond of this family, as the mother was my beloved first grade teacher who I will never be able to find a match for! The money raised throughout the week was to buy back packs for kids there, and the items collected were to fill those backpacks as they minister to kids. Here is a picture of us on Skype with him one morning, when he told the kids personally what he does for a living and why he loves serving God.
Each day in the classroom, the kids learned a story about who Jesus really is, so they can discover more about Him and His death on the cross because He loves us and wants to save us. Then they could decide to follow Him for the rest of their lives. Finally, they heard Bible stories of people who had to defend their faith in Christ as their Savior, so they, too, could be strong in their faith.
Although VBS can get crazy, there's always good to come out of it. It teaches patience and the faith of a child to the leaders, and the kids have a great time in a safe environment learning about Christ. The kids do have a blast, but I must say, our youth pastor who also helps out teaching a class, gets more into it than any child I have ever seen. He is the reason for the title of this post because he always sings that chant!
To give you a laugh, since I am short, I got mistaken for a child in my class countless times being told to sit on the floor, get in line, counted in roll-call, and asked if I needed help with my craft.
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