VBS

18th July 2013

OK. This blog covers the last few evenings when I’ve been involved with Vacation Bible School – VBS.

The theme was “Kingdom Rock”. And how we are encouraged to “Stand Strong”.

The material is bought in and it is very good quality. The songs (all of which were very good) were projected onto the various screens in the church (“sanctuary”) where the evenings started and finished. However, several of the teens at the church had learnt the songs and the dance moves that went with them, to help lead the children. The same four or five songs are used each evening so the children become familiar with them. But the songs are of such good quality I didn’t tire of hearing them.

Picking up on the Kingdom idea, the church and rooms had all been decorated to look like a castle. Many people in the church worked to put the sets together but the idea pretty much came from one lady and boy was it impressive. As you’ll see from the photos.

VBS started on Sunday evening. There was a time of worship when the theme was introduced though the rest of the evening was devoted to games and food. Fair View chooses to launch VBS with this family night – though some other churches usually end with the family night.

Monday – Thursday the evenings follow the same format. The children arrive around 5.30pm and have a meal then at 6pm they are taken in to church. The children are divided into groups depending on school age. My group were aged 7 – 8 and we were the yellow crew. (I had two other adults with me for a group of 13 children.)

As I was saying at 6pm all the groups go in to church for worship. This comprised of singing some songs some storytelling and some drama. Well drama is too strong a word. More like pantomime. The skits (that's the word Americans use we’d perhaps say sketch) revolved around the antics of wannabe knight Sir Wally. And typecast again I played Sir Wally.

The skits were two handers with me and the worship minister who (with his wife) led the worship excellently. We struck up a real rapport and were able to ad lib and mess around a bit with the script which made it fun. The technology at the church is such that we were able to follow our lines on a large TV screen (a bit like using an autocue I imagine.) Sir Wally became a firm favourite over the week as he struggled to become a knight. By the final evening he was a knight and this allowed us to have a bit of fun that the adults would get:

Wally says “Wait you’re knights too?” and Sir Vinny was supposed to reply “We’re not knights” but he added “Yes, Gladys Knight” which allowed me to say “OK I’m leaving on the midnight train to Georgia” Well we found it funny!

A lady in the church had made me a wonderful tabard complete with a coat of arms on it (the coat of arms of the City of London) so I hope I can keep it.

After the worship the children go into different streams (and with over 100 children this takes some organising.) But my team followed the same format. First we went to missions to hear about some mission projects the church is supporting. Then we went to Bible class. The crafts (with a snack time) and finally closing worship. By which time it was 7.45pm and the children were starting to flag.

Some nights there was a skit. (One of which was the infamous “hell” moment!) But last night the “skit” was a moving piece of drama about the crucifixion and resurrection which the children really got. Very powerful.

The evening always ended with the same song. A song from a VBS several years ago but which the kids love because it had some really fun actions to go with it.

The evening ended around8.15pm.

Over 100 children attended a good many of whom did not come to church. So it is an amazing program. And a wonderful outreach by the church. I would say that in terms of volunteers at the church each evening there must be close on fifty with the Bible class leaders, worship leaders, catering and audio visual. And that is not including all the people who worked at making the sets and putting the sets up in the week leading up to VBS. Everyone does a wonderful job.

In some respects VBS is not much different to the holiday clubs run by Stratton Methodist back home. Just on a much bigger scale. But when people asked did we have VBS in Britain I was able to tell them about the holiday club Stratton runs.

So VBS has been a great experience and it’s been a privilege to be part of it.