28 March, 2024

VBS Changes Lives

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by | 10 January, 2010 | 0 comments

By Joni Sullivan Bakerr

Read about “Hero HeadQuarters,” Standard Publishing’s all-new VBS program for 2010




You”d think they”d tire of cleaning cookie crumbs and glitter from every imaginable surface of their churches. Tire of the smell of small sweaty bodies and the stickiness of spilled juice.

But anytime you get a handful of VBS warriors together to talk about what they do with VBS at their church, you start hearing stories.

Seems like everyone”s got at least one. After listening to them for a while, sharing tender laughter and sometimes a surreptitious tear, you realize what it is about VBS that so powerfully draws these adults back every year.

VBS changes lives.

Here are some of those stories. I”m sure you know some too.

A Family Restored

Missouri””Last week his mom told me he”s narrowed down the choices and has in mind the school where he hopes to pursue his doctoral work in theology. Currently in his second year of seminary on a full academic scholarship, he sees God leading him to a ministry of teaching at a Christian college.

He grew up just blocks away from a great community church, but he didn”t know it. His parents had been raised in another tradition, but the family didn”t attend church anywhere.

As he and his sister wound their way through the final grades of elementary school, trouble was brewing at home and his parents were considering divorce. When summer came that year, one of his sister”s friends invited her to VBS. That was OK with the parents, and the church turned out to be the nearby one they saw every day when they turned the corner by the stoplight.

So he came to VBS too.

Neither he nor his sister remembers many details from that week of VBS, but they do remember how exciting it was and how the message of God”s love was irresistible. By the time the week was over they knew they wanted to keep attending that church.

The tensions at home were continuing, however, and one day his mom finally confided in a neighbor that she was considering leaving her husband. The neighbor suggested she talk to a minister she knew from a nearby church. In desperation, the mom did.

It was that same church the family had been introduced to through VBS.

That was more than 15 years ago. All four members of the family have become Christians, and the parents have stayed married. Both daughter and son have a strong Christian witness, and the son is now ordained into ministry and well on his way toward teaching.

A powerful touch on everyone in a family, and it all started with life-changing VBS.

Just One Day

Texas””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 him 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.

At the close of that day, she left with eyes shining and carrying a rainbow wind chime and papers.

The teacher must have hoped she”d be back, but they never saw her again.

The teacher”s name is long lost, and she can”t sing any of the songs now, but she remembers that day. She remembers how much she liked the music, how fun it was, and that she heard and believed that day that Jesus really is the Son of God. That one day ignited a spark and burned into her heart a hunger for God and the truth of his love.

Much later, as a young adult, she was invited to church.

Her friends were surprised when she not only agreed to attend, but quickly made a commitment to Christ as though this was something she had been waiting to do. Now active in a church in the Pacific Northwest, her eyes still light up when she talks about that one day in VBS.

Because she knows even when it”s only for one day, VBS can change a life.

Washing Their Hands

Indiana””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.

Changed and Changing

Ohio””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.

Each year she emphasizes to the VBS staff that their job is to love the kids, and she and the other directors will take care of the rest. You don”t know what that day will mean to a kid you meet, she says with a quiet authority.

And she gets especially animated when talking about the crafts. To her, crafts are vital. They are the only tangible thing you really can hold onto after VBS is over, she explains. And she says that a bit softly, almost wistfully, as though remembering something.

Her passion and commitment for VBS go back a long way. She is one of those kids who didn”t get to go to church, but whose parents allowed her to go to VBS. VBS is how she learned about God.

She knows VBS changes lives because it changed hers. And she now works to spread that life-changing love to all the kids who attend VBS at her church, a church that this year stepped out to test a new VBS program for Standard Publishing (see sidebar on the Ross Christian Church field test).

As a teacher, as a director, as a church””or even a publishing company””many of us take VBS seriously because it has proven over and over again to successfully introduce families in our community to Jesus Christ.

VBS still changes lives.




Joni Sullivan Baker is the managing director of Buoyancy Public Relations in Loveland, Ohio.

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