Last night was the final night of our church’s week of Vacation Bible School (VBS, or PBS, according to Romilly, even after over a week of correction), and I fear that if I don’t take a few moments to reflect now, some precious memories from this week might just slip away.
This year I have been “teaching” the kindergarteners and first graders. The main teaching is done as a large mixed-age group, so my “teacher” role is mainly a shepherding one, apart from a few nights of teaching the memory verse. We began the first night with 15 in our class, and were up to over 20 by the end, with very few absences. These things alone are incredible answers to prayer: I taught the same age group last year and I believe we had about 8 to 10 children. This year’s turn-out has been amazing – praise the Lord!
On my first night, I just wasn’t prepared. I had planned out how I was going to teach the verse, but I hadn’t practiced enough or accounted for the fact that 25 minutes to teach a verse that’s only ten words long is a very long time. It was fine, though crowd control was a little rough, and I’m sure none of the other teachers there thought it was a huge of a failure as it seemed to me, but I lost sleep that night for feeling that I had done these kids a disservice.
VBS kids are a very mixed bag. Some of these kids are from our church. Some of them are from other churches but are so clearly well-churched that they are not only raising their hands to answer *every* question, but they are also sometimes raising their hands to expound on the teacher’s lesson! Then there are the kids who were invited by a friend, or maybe whose parents just saw the sign outside the church and thought it might be something fun to do. Some of these kids are hearing the good news of Christ for the very first time. Maybe some of them… for the only time. What a responsibility!
There is one girl, S, in my class, who began coming out on the second night. On the third night she brought me a little present in the form of a perfectly colored (both sides) page from a mermaid coloring book, labelled “for Beybale Skool”. That same night, S’s mother shared with one of the other leaders that she had grown up in the Catholic church but has become very disillusioned with it. She plans to start coming to our church now with her family. Praise the Lord!
Another little girl, J, is a ball of feisty energy and a bit of a handful whom I instantly remembered from my class last year. I do not know what her story is, whether our VBS week each year is the only Bible teaching she ever gets or not. On Thursday, after three nights of feeling like she was not listening to a word I was saying, I heard her quote Psalm 37:3a *perfectly* including the reference. Praise the Lord!
On our final night, as we were singing Sovereign One (you *must* follow the link and click on Sovereign One to listen – it’s worth your time even just for an excerpt) by Sovereign Grace Kids, I was looking around at our kids and reflecting on all these little moments. Reflecting on who these kids are and who they’ll become, and wondering what impact the gospel may have made on their lives this week. Thinking about all this while singing this song (lyrics below), I was barely holding it together. I don’t know what the future will hold for these precious little ones, but this I know for certain:
…so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11
Praise the Lord.
Sovereign One
When I’m all alone and afraid
I will trust in You
For You watch over my ways
When things in my life don’t make sense
I will trust in You
For You are good, You are good
Sovereign One
You work all things to Your plan
Sovereign One
You hold all things in Your hands
When I don’t get to have my own way
I will trust in You
For You know what is best
When tears begin to roll down my face
I will trust in You
For You are good, You are good
Perfect in power, You control all things
Perfect in wisdom, You know everything
Perfect in goodness
Jesus, You’re so good to me
So good to me
I’ll leave you with my two VBS attendees singing two of their favorite VBS (Sovereign Grace) songs. The titles are Jesus Came to Earth and Mighty Mighty Savior, in case you want to click back through (click here) and listen to the proper versions or check out the lyrics. I was absolutely thrilled to receive a copy of the entire CD as a gift to the girls at the end of the week. Just in time, since I’m pretty sure we’ve almost worn a hole in the copy of the four VBS songs that we were given to practice along with.