Sunday, May 22, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | Summer break means VBSSchool's out! That means summer break and Vacation Bible School! Churches across our community are well into VBS mode. This concentrated time of Bible study, activity, music, crafts, recreation, refreshments and fun for children and students usually is held during a week of summer vacation and is a great time of spiritual enrichment and activity. Preparation and follow-up, on the other hand, take many hours before and after the event is completed. Our workers at McDonough Road Baptist spend several weeks decorating their rooms to coordinate with this year's Rambling Road Trip theme. They spend weeks preparing their material and lesson plans. Once VBS is completed, the work continues as Sunday School teachers visit children and invite them and their parents to participate in Bible study groups on Sundays. They attempt to discover ministry opportunities. For me, VBS is not only a present blessing, but also is a pleasant childhood memory. My early years were spent at Jefferson Avenue Baptist Church in East Point. We'd have a crowd. I still remember Bible verses that I learned in those summer settings. I remember gluing popsicle sticks together to make a plaque and then gluing on macaroni letters that read, what time I am afraid I will trust in Thee, (Psalm 56:3). I remember always looking forward to refreshment time. The refreshment crew would bring peanut butter crackers and a bottle of Nehi grape or orange soda to our classrooms. After moving to Milledgeville, I remember riding in a bicycle parade to promote VBS in the neighborhood. I had just learned how to ride my bike and was pretty nervous going down those hills in the Hardwick community. VBS later played a key role in my call to ministry. As a college student, I applied to be a Baptist Student Union summer missionary. Baptist Student Union is a Baptist-supported ministry to students on campuses across the nation. Every summer hundreds of students contribute their summer to serve in various roles overseas and nationally. I was appointed to serve as a vacation Bible school worker in the Bahamas (it was a tough assignment, but someone had to do it). I was Georgia's representative on a team of 12 students. We were divided into teams and then teamed with Bahamian youth and assigned to different churches over a five-week period. Our team stayed in Nassau and worked with five different churches helping to pull off a successful VBS. I had the privilege of teaching the youth, and my two partners worked with the children and the preschoolers respectively. At the end of two weeks, my partners wanted to switch. One of them took youth, the other took children, and I ended up with the preschoolers. I didn't really picture myself as a preschool worker, but it was a time of exercising great flexibility and of realizing how God could use me in His service if I was just willing to be used. It was a time of great personal and spiritual growth. Looking back, I now see how God used that formative experience to show me He could use me as a full-time minister. Vacation Bible Schools are still going strong and are helping lots of children and young people learn more about the Bible and about how to have a stronger relationship with the Lord. Our Vacation Bible School at McDonough Road Baptist is set for June 6-10, 9 a.m.-noon, for ages 4 (as of Sept. 1, 2005) through 12th grade. Call 770-460-5423 to enroll or for more information. [Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, 352 McDonough Road, Fayetteville. The church family invites you to join them for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. each Sunday. Visit them at www.mcdonoughroad.org.] |
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