The name Vacation Bible School is deceiving. It's not a vacation by any means. It's work for a lot people that run the show. By the time everyone gets home from Vacation Bible School, they are tired and spent. I completely understand, that was me last year when I was the leader of Kid Video. So....totally not a vacation by any means. The bible part is easy because the message is delivered so that every child can understand how God works. The "school" part is a hard sell, because no one wants to go to school in the summer, but yet, every summer, 80 or so kids show up on the church's doorstep looking for fun and some bible adventure. And the moms that drop their kids off, are the same as the moms that dropped their kids off 40 odd years ago. Frazzled moms looking for their kids to be occupied and out of their hair for a few hours. I get this, because my mom was one of those moms, 40 or so years ago and I am one of those moms today.
I grew up going to Vacation Bible School in my one horse town. It had classes from kindergarten to Grade 8. When I was a VBSer, it was a two week long program, run like a school, minus the math. We had work books, and we were told to spell things properly, and be neat, just like regular school. We had recess, where we played tag and Red Rover. We had snack time, we ate homemade cookies and drank glasses filled with Kool Aid and Tang. We had music, we sang and all of our songs were written on paper, placed on easel. We had a nice lady play the piano so we could sing our hearts out. "We come to magnify the Lord. We come to magnify the Lord!" We studied the bible stories, and learned to incorporate our own little lives into the lessons. We had arts and crafts as well. We made wooden bowls out of fancy popsicle sticks. We burnt the tips of matches and glued them onto a cardboard cross. We made string art using nails and a hammer, and mobiles out of a clothes hanger we brought from home. We worked out of a classroom and had the same teacher for the full morning. We stayed in that classroom only be let out for recess and for the final singing at the end of the morning.
Oh, I failed to mention, I went to Mennonite Bible School. I am not a Mennonite. But when the closest town is only 5 minutes away and mother wants us all out of the house for the morning for two weeks, you go to Mennonite Vacation Bible School whether you want to or not. I think all the mothers on the 6th line wanted their kids out, so whoever was doing the morning pick up to get all of us kids to VBS, had us crammed into the car like sardines on a hot summers day. Who cared about seat belts? Who cared if there were seats in the vehicle? If the mothers could, they would have grabbed a tractor and a hay wagon and loaded it up with kids just steal a morning without their children hanging off their legs. Back in that day, my mother was a smoker. I pictured her sitting at the kitchen table with a coffee and cigarette with the radio tuned to "Swingin' Wingham" relishing her quiet and mulling over in her mind what to start first while we were all away.
Now I can only speak for myself about my experiences at VBS, but while my mother was washing up the breakfast dishes, and getting a load ready for the spin washing machine, I was happily lining up outside the little Mennonite Church waiting to go and begin the day with singing. I had friends at school, I knew people, so bible school was a fine place to be. I always wanted to get to bible school early, if you were one of the first kids in line, you got the coveted job of holding the collection plate for the money we kids brought in to save other kids from behind that mysterious iron curtain. We prayed for those kids behind the iron curtain, we raised money for the kids behind the iron curtain, that iron curtain baffled me. Why didn't those kids just move the iron curtain and step in front of it. Everyday I came with money for the children behind the iron curtain and it must have helped, because I know now, that the iron curtain is no more. The Vacation Bible School kids made a difference!
There were only a few times that I didn't give all of my money to the iron curtain kids. Confession time!!!!
A few times, when my car load of kids arrived early to VBS, my friend and I would walk the block to the local grocery store and buy nickel gum. Not even good gum, it wasn't even Double Bubble gum, it was the knock off Double Bubble gum, but still candy is candy. I was easily swayed to go, it wasn't even my idea, it was my friend's idea.She was a year older than me, so of course she was wiser, and I liked the idea of going to get gum. My mom gave me a quarter everyday to give to the iron curtain kids. I had perfectly good reasoning behind my decision in going with my friend to get knock off Double Bubble gum.
"I don't get ever get gum so I'm kinda like a kid stuck behind the iron curtain, I'm stuck behind the I Don't Ever Get Gum Curtain therefore I deserve gum too."
I felt justified. It wasn't my fault that the kids behind the iron curtain couldn't move the curtain. If the curtain was that heavy, why didn't their parents move the curtain so they could move out from behind it? Besides, I didn't spend all of my money, I always had a dime leftover to put into the collection plate for those kids. It was a win/win situation, I got gum and the kids got a little closer to getting out from behind that curtain. And then.....
I got caught! My mom told me that she had talked to the owner of the local grocery store. He had mentioned that he had seen me and my friend in the store by ourselves. He thought it odd that we were in the store without our mothers and with our town being so small, he knew that we belonged at Vacation Bible School. There went my gum! It was probably at this point in my life, that I knew that I wasn't meant to be a "bad girl." I did keep on trying to play that part, but those are tales for another day.
The best part of Vacation Bible School, besides all the singing that we did and crafting, was Mrs. Brownsberger. She lived beside the little Mennonite church and she was an elderly Mennonite lady. She was a soft, round lady, with steel grey hair that was scraped into a bun and she had a white mesh cap covering her hair. She had kind eyes, with deep wrinkles in her face and she made caramel covered popcorn balls for us kids every once and a while. At the end of the morning, we would stand at her back door and she would hand out popcorn balls. I always thought Mrs.Brownberger was 100 years old, but looking back and thinking about it, I'm pretty sure she was 100 years old.
The other best part of Vacation Bible School, was the finale. On the last morning, we would spend our time rehearsing for the evening finale. Our parents were invited for the big show, the dads would quickly do their milking and their evening chores, so they could drive the whole family into town, so the VBS kids could showcase their singing, what they had learned during the two weeks, and show off our crafts. After the presentation, it was time for cookies and coffee, walking around to the classrooms to pick up our workbooks, our crafts and say good bye to Vacation Bible School friends. "See you next year!" we would call out to each other. After VBS had ended, chances are, I wouldn't seem them again till the next summer. They went to a different church, a different school, they lived on different concessions and travelled in different circles. After all, they were Mennonite kids, and I was not.
Vacation Bible School has been running for years and years. This program can not run without the help of many volunteers. Back when I was at Mennonite VBS, it was stay at home Mennonite mothers that ran the program with the help of their teenage daughters. In this day in age, it takes all kinds of people to help keep this show up and running. Some of the volunteers are stay at home moms, some are part time working moms who can manage to juggle their schedule to help out. Some moms, use their week of work holidays to come out and volunteer, some moms are teachers and even though they have the summer off, it's kind of them to come in for a week and teach. Some moms have an empty nest at home, but they see the need and happily come to VBS and spread some joy! Some moms are retired but take great pride in seeing their grandchildren enjoy VBS while they help out in the kitchen preparing snacks for kids. Lots of our volunteers are community teenagers, of course getting their volunteer hours, but also taking such great care and showing such compassion when they lead their charges around to different stations. We also have a dad, that does such a fantastic job, front and centre, on stage, getting the kids energized for a fun filled morning and then recapping what the kids have learned at the end.
It takes a village to raise kids and all takes is one seed to be planted in one child heart's to know that all the work that is involved is worth it.
Cheers and thanks to everyone who has ever volunteered for any "kind" Vacation Bible School!
From the 4th line,
Arlene
