VBS summary

VBS went really well this year. There weren't as many specific occurrences that were outlandishly hilarious, but a few interesting moments, and many overall observations.
Here are a few things that made VBS interesting:

1. The lack of air-conditioning...not to mention it was the hottest week all summer, with temperatures of 107-112 all week. Some of the downstairs had great air conditioning while the sanctuary, where the kids started and ended the day, and the upstairs, where I did the drama in costume, were totally un-airconditioned. The first day the kids walked in to the drama room and cries of, "It's so hot!" and "WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" were the first thing out of the kids mouths. Thankfully we found a tiny air-conditioning unit in the room next to ours and put all the fans in it and faced them towards our room. That helped a little.
2. Kids are different now... Not that I was an extremely moral person when I was in 4th-5th grade (if you know me at all you understand), but kids are changing. Mostly it's there attitudes. The occurrence of the belief that "I'm too cool for this" is manifesting in younger and younger kids. With that attitude most kids don't feel like respecting authority. Although kids seem to be growing up and learning more faster than they used to it's not all bad. While some kids are incredibly cocky and profane some kids are growing deeper in God faster and have an amazing understanding of what God is like.
3. Adults now treat kids different ... As kids attitudes change adults attitudes towards them change. As adults attitudes about kids changes, kids attitudes change. It seems that the churches in our community are less excited and involved in VBS. It used to be a huge deal. Now it seems that they have to put up with the inconvenience. Last year the churches agreed to increase the budget for VBS and only 2 out of the three did. When things were getting tight we asked to take an offering for VBS and some of the Churches said no. It seems that adults are increasingly apathetic toward youth. That is incredibly sad. This is the time to really impact their lives for the better and to do that we have to show them how much we care. Youth deserve more than half-hearted attempts to be nice to them. What they need to experience is self-sacrificial love. It seems that our community has lost its vision for youth outreach and because of that we have lost the youth.

So...that's the overall review of VBS, now to the fun parts.

The first day of the drama I presented the story of the friends bringing their paralyzed friend to Jesus (Luke 5:17-26). You know, the one where they tore a hole in the roof. The scripts came with background sounds to make it seem more realistic. The sounds for that day were busy street noises complete with animals and carts and children playing. The 1st and 2nd grade group kept asking me if they could go see what was behind my walls. I told them that it was just the city streets and that there were mostly donkeys and sheep out there. About 5 minutes later a little girl screamed, "BRING OUT THE SHEEPS! BRING OUT THE DONKEYS!". I told her she might see them later. 2 days later during a drama about hiring new fishermen the same girl screamed again, "BRING OUT THE DONKEYS!"

We used the same drama room all week so by the end of the week it was getting a little messy. As my second group of the day walked in a little girl commented to her crew leader, "She needs to clean her house."

After VBS was over one of the adult leaders told me that when some of the kids were asked to draw their favorite part of the week they drew the stairs (where we made a cave entrance they had to crawl through) and the drama room. Someone was listening!