As VBS comes to a close, this one will go down as one of my favorites.
I know I have been talking about Vacation Bible School a lot this past week, but honestly, it has consumed the vast majority of my physical and emotional energy. I’m exhausted, but my heart has been touched in so many ways. If you read this blog very often, then you know how strongly I feel about community and there’s nothing that brings a church community together like VBS.
It takes a village to minister to sixty kids for a week and our church didn’t disappoint. I got to talk to some of my favorite senior church ladies that I rarely get to see. They always feed the children with such enthusiasm. We had a family that hurried back from Germany in order to participate this year. I haven’t seen them in two years. It’s good to have them back. We had grandparents and teenagers all pitching in together like community does.
It’s been a beautiful sight to behold. We have had twenty-one youth helpers this year and they have been amazing. In past years we have had issues with texting or the youth interacting with each other and not the children. We have had youth that simply had no interest in being there.
But this year, well this year was a shining moment for our youth program. It didn’t look like it was going to turn out this way. Up to the week before we started, we only had thirty-five children signed up and very few volunteers. Now, God has always used Vacation Bible School to give me a small taste of His spectacular abilities. It’s always been a fish and loaves story for me. There never looks like we will have enough. Sometimes it’s supplies. Sometimes it’s volunteers. This year it was children and volunteers. He usually waits til the last minute, because that grows faith, but He always delivers in a unique way that changes every year.
This year, He has allowed me to see Him working through our youth. I remember when most of them came through our VBS program, when we hatched the idea of graduating them in fifth grade to the youth group, when we created staff shirts for them. We’ve been working on that idea for over six years now, waiting on God’s timing and praying for results.
This week, we hit pay dirt. We have a young youth minister now and she rolls up her sleeves and jumps right into VBS and our youth have followed her. They have been real leaders this week. They arrive everyday with a smile. They play with the kids. They take pictures with them. They are respectful. They are leaders and mentors. They have made the little ones want to be like them.
The fact that I have had a tiny part in planting the seeds that have produced this awesome fruit humbles me and makes me burst with pride at the same time. A few of us listened to a quiet voice that said, “Let’s build this program” and we tried to comply and this week we have been rewarded with beautiful results.
As I often tell my own children, God is good and Jesus loves Vacation Bible School. Can I get an amen?!
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂