Summer VBS

Ah, VBS season is upon us!



Our church’s is next week and we’d originally had a conflict, so to “make it up” I sent my kids to the First Baptist VBS this week. Their theme has been The Big Apple and my kids have had a high time! In fact, they were so pumped about bible school that they decided to forego our conflicting activity and attend our VBS instead.


And I’m kind of glad.


They are also sad that today is the last day of the Baptist VBS. They’ll have two whole days before they start their Lutheran round! They can hardly stand the wait.


I too was quite the VBS connoisseur as a child. My Nanna babysat me and two other kids and I’m sure the summer would have been a lot longer had there not been the respite of VBS for her. We used to hit the Baptist church where the other two kids attended Sunday School. It was right down the street from their house, so sometimes we would walk.


I remember thinking it odd that they called their pastor “Brother Ted”.


Then we would hit my church’s VBS, where my Pastor would wear his plaid shorts every year.


Then, as a great finale, we would attend the Southern Baptist church’s VBS that was way across town past the fairgrounds. Sometimes we would get to ride the school bus that would pick us up at a location I don’t remember. I remember bouncing around in the backseat on the way to VBS.


The Southern Baptists also had the largest church I’d ever been in and the best crafts. One year we painted concrete statuary. I did a sheep dog with a red tongue and it turned out awesome. The next year I did a rabbit. We had those garden ornaments for years. We also got to make a rope every year. A man came with his rope winding machine and we would turn the crank. Then he would fire up the hand torch and singe off all the excess fibers and give the rope a smoky aroma which it never quite got over.


Now I don’t know if it is too early to proclaim my children VBS hoppers or not since this was our first out-of-church experience, but the other day I mentioned I’d seen that the First Presbyterian Church was having their VBS and their response was, “Can we go??”


I hope you all have fond memories of summer and VBS and red Kool-aid mustaches. I hope you get to do arts and crafts this summer and learn about Jesus. And in the words of the song I learned at Baptist parent night on Wednesday, I hope you…


“Say yeh-yeh-yeh-yeh-YES to vuh-vuh-vuh-VBS!”