Different Approaches to Vacation Bible School

I was reading past blog posts, and I realized that during most summers, in late June, I'd be involved in Vacation Bible School as the Arts and Crafts director.  It was stressful, it was fun, and it was rewarding.

I will be involved in VBS in a different way this year.  Our church is trying something different:  we will have camp counselors from Luther Springs come to do a week-long day camp at our church.

My grandmother's church did something similar.  She was still involved, as she helped with lunch.  Unlike my grandmother, I have to work, and I have no accrued vacation time that I can use until November, so I won't be volunteering this year.

We will help in other ways.  We have a vacant cottage, so some of the camp counselors will stay with us.  I imagine that we may need to help with feeding them and perhaps transport.  Still, it won't be the same.

I feel oddly sad about my inability to participate this year.  But I'm a grown up--VBS is not about me.  Our VBS serves neighborhood kids, who aren't church members for the most part.  We have about 8 children from the church who have participated in past summers--and that's all the church kids who were the target age who were in town.  The other 50-60 kids are from the surrounding neighborhoods, and VBS is likely to be one of few spiritual experiences they will have throughout the year.

I am hopeful that the camp counselors can make the experience even richer for the kids--or richer in a different way.  It's worth a try--just as our church doesn't have many young kids, we also don't have many adults who can commit to VBS the way our grandmothers did it.