We Love VBS

The following was this evening’s debrief of VBS. (VBS stands for Vacation Bible School, which is a weeklong, 3-hour per night camp, where kids sing songs, do crafts, and learn Bible stories.)

Nafisa: I love VBS.

Tara: Me too.

Ezra:  Oh yeah.  I love VBS.  VBS is soooo much better than school.  School is boring.  You have to do math and writing and blah blah blah.  Like you have to do 2 times 3, and blah blah times blah blah, and blah times blah times blah times blah.  And so on.  And it just goes on and on and on and on.  And VBS is fun and exciting and there is no writing and math and blah blah.

One of the pastors in our neighborhood works with many gang members, some of whom are now in jail.  He didn’t start out to do prison ministry, but many of his former VBS students grew up and got themselves into a heap of trouble.  So now his church has two thriving ministries – VBS and gang/prison work.

Where am I going with all of this?  Not sure yet; I’m putting it together as I write.

I guess I’m thinking how awesome it is that kids love to hear God’s story and jump around and sing and eat fish sticks, all in a safe environment.  I’m thinking how awesome it is that one kid told me that she saw God in the park today, which must be why there were no scary strangers there, and another, a four-year-old, told me that God  “woked me up this morning.”  I’m thinking that I love five-year-old A., who yesterday cried after I reprimanded him for giving a teacher the finger and today threw his arms around me and told me he loves me.  I’m thinking how awesome it is that if you pour yourself out for kids, when those kids get older, even when they do horrible, stupid stuff, they might still let you be a part of your life.

I’m also thinking, though, that fun is not enough.  That hearing that God made you and loves you is not always enough.  That if you come to VBS hungry because you didn’t eat all day before that, then a few meatballs are most certainly not enough.  That no matter how much we love kids, those with whom we live and those we live near, sometimes it’s not enough.

But the story doesn’t end tonight.  Not for my kids.  Not for the other kids there tonight. Not even for those kids who grew up and landed themselves in jail.

Ezra might love VBS because it’s exciting, but I love it because it’s just the start.