VBS - Upward Bound!

We survived  enjoyed another week of VBS! Our theme was a hiking/camping one. On dress-up night Jeremiah was a bird watcher and Nathaniel was an explorer. Obviously....

Every year about 2 weeks before VBS is scheduled to start I question my sanity in volunteering to direct such an undertaking. I feel like there are so many details swirling in my head that I can't remember a single thing. I feel exhausted. I feel frustrated with the work of trying to get people to volunteer, and then actually do what they volunteered to do. In short, I feel completely overwhelmed.

Then, on the Saturday before VBS we transform our church into the theme for the year and I start to get really excited. This year a cave leads into the sanctuary. Real trees everywhere invoke a forest, a (fake) camp fire is set up in the middle, and a huge mountain looms from the stage.

The scene is set.

On Sunday morning we worship in the transformed sanctuary. The adults are slightly uncomfortable with the unconventional seating and decor. The kids are entranced. Their eyes sparkle and the excitement builds.

All week long I feel a bit frantic and very very tired. But it is so worth it! The kids are having a blast! They are memorizing large portions of scripture. They are entertained by the funny skits and entranced by the Bible story tellers. I mean, Simon of Cyrene comes in bearing a cross... The music is on their lips and has them dancing in their places. Most of all, they are feeling loved! They are feeling the love of God made manifest through His people. It is a beautiful thing.

Our church is not large. We don't have a lot of money. We are always struggling with organization (or lack thereof). I know that in planning and executing VBS week I make many mistakes. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when the kids come to VBS they experience love. And without that even the most organized, expensive VBS would be nothing.

Here is the main verse that all the kids memorized:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 –Philippians 2:5-11