Bible School

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor T here were a lot of things that got canceled last summer, but one thing I think I’m happiest to see make its return this year is Vacation Bible School. Yes, in case you’ve missed it, churches around the community have brought back VBS for the kiddos this summer. First Baptist in West Memphis had theirs last week and this week the crew at FBC Marion are in full swing.

In fact, I had to pause in the middle of putting this newspaper together to drive over to the church and pick my daughter up when they let out for the day at noon. No, she’s too old togo to VBS, but she’s old enough to be a VBS worker. And that’s one of the cool things about Vacation Bible School … you want to get plugged in, they’ll plug you in. You can help with snacks, you can help with games, you can help with arts and crafts, you can help with Bible study, and if nothing else, you can practice your kid-wrangling skills, because there’s always kids that need wrangling at VBS.

Nowadays, most churches use those handy-dandy pre-packaged VBS kits from Lifeway or some other purveyor of Jesus-related wares. In fact, both of the churches I mentioned above used the same VBS curriculum, with the snazzy title of “Destination Dig,” wherein the youngsters were taken on an archaeology-themed adventure to unearth the true power of Jesus, or something along those lines. I don’t know exactly what all it involved, but I did see a fellow decked out in a very Crocodile Hunter-looking costume when I dropped my daughter off Monday morning, so I assume it was pretty awesome.

She’s helping out with the second grade class this year, which is a little above the kindergarten class she usually helps with, so I told her I would say a little prayer for her because those kids are crazy. I don’t care how good your little angel is at home or at school, once they get VBS fever, they get full of wiggles and it’s like herding cats keeping 7 and 8 year-olds in line. It probably doesn’t help that they get a dose of cupcakes and Kool-Aid about 10 a.m. either. That’s probably why they spend at least part of the time doing some kind of physical activity… and probably why most of them go into a sugar-crash coma around 1 or 2 p.m. … you’re welcome, parents.

But even if your church of choice doesn’t use one of the pre-packaged VBS kits, you can still have a great Vacation Bible School. In fact, I prefer a do-it-yourself approach to VBS. There’s nothing wrong with the kits, but the non-homogenized VBS approach just reminds me of my own VBS adventures when I was a kid. I had several cousins around my age, so we basically made a VBS tour, going to different churches in different weeks and doing whatever it was the folks in charge had come up with for us to do. Sure, we’d always get a healthy dose of the Holy Spirit, but we’d play kickball or basketball, we’d paint and make clay sculptures and paper mache. I won a goldfish one year, although I can’t even come close to remembering what I did to earn my prize.

My favorite thing about my church’s VBS back then is that it was almost always the week before Father’s Day and they always had some kind of craft where you could make something cool for Dad. I have very clear memories of stitching together a wallet for my own Dad, with the rawhide leather straps like you’d see on a baseball glove. Oh, and one year, we made belts, and you might not believe this, but they let us use a small branding iron to sear our Dad’s name or whatever into the leather belt. If you tried that with a bunch of 10 year-olds these days, someone would faint (or at least ask to speak to the manager). It was a different time. I also made my Dad an ashtray out of clay one year, to give you another example of how life was back in the mid-80s.

If any of our local churches still have VBS plans for this summer, be sure to send something in for me to put in the paper. I know some churches are still having concerns about COVID-19, so you might be doing something more small-scale for this year, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe we can bring back Backyard Bible Club! Anyone else remember that? … I’m so old.

Anyway, if your kids are looking for something fun to do this summer (or if you’re working from home and they’re driving you a little nuts and you need a break) find out when one of our local churches is hosting their VBS. There are usually some that take place in the mornings and some that are at night. Either way you can’t go wrong.

You might even end up with one of those cool handprint things with the little poem!