You can learn a lot in VBS:
• Church is fun, especially with cookies and Kool-Aid.
• Bible stories are amazing – I still remember being told the stories in the small rooms of New Hope Baptist Church, with a standard issue picture the teacher would hold up – 1950’s cutting edge technology.
• Kids enjoy church more when they have a chance to be loud and burn off energy.
• My first time in front of a group of people was holding a flag during VBS. God used that experience to teach me I could be in front of people and like it.
• When I interned at my home church one summer, I was put in charge of VBS. I learned it takes a team of people working very hard to get things done. That’s why Jesus recruited a team – also known as disciples.
• The songs of VBS have stuck in my mind all the way to adulthood: “Do Lord,” “The B-I-B-L-E,” and “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” But that’s my soundtrack. My hunch is that the kids in our VBS will make their own soundtrack from the songs they sing.
• VBS always brought new folks into our church. I had to learn to get along with new people and make new friends. The great thing about being a child is you can make a best friend in about twelve minutes. By the end of VBS you like your friend better than your brother. Isn’t that a picture of what church is supposed to be?
• When I was six, I memorized Psalm 56:3: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Forty-three years later, I pull that verse up from memory when fear paralyzes me.
• As I look back, most of my teachers in VBS were older adults. Their children had already left home. They served in VBS because they loved Jesus and wanted the next generation to know him. Most of those adults are in heaven now. I hope God lets them see what good has come from their service. I hope I will get see the good that comes from my service.
• I didn’t know it at the time, but there was always a faithful group that prayed for children to come to know Jesus during VBS. God answered their prayers.
VBS begins at ADBC next Sunday. Pray. Serve. Learn. Watch God do amazing things.
