Similar to most children who grow up in this church, I imagine, I have a lot of amazing memories from Vacation Bible School over the years. Back when I was a kid, it looked a lot different. The entire thing happened in the Family Life Center, and going to different stations was just going around the room. I don’t remember too many details (forgive me, I was, like, 8), but I remember one station was a storytime led by then-Pastor Peter Castles in one of the classrooms next door. Snack time was behind a partition on the tile part of the floor next to the kitchen. Groups met on blankets instead of pews.
Over the years, VBS certainly … expanded a bit. Rather than staying in the Family Life Center, we started traveling around the whole church, ultimately gathering in the Sanctuary. This transition happened right before I became a youth, so I only participated in this style VBS for a couple years. The last VBS that I participated in as a child was called “Shake It Up Cafe,” and the whole thing was themed around cooking. Oddly enough, my biggest memory from that year was the games station. At that time, games were outside (someone had to be out there all day — could you imagine?), and I remember my friends and I playing pretty intense kickball games in the field next to the pavilion.
As VBS expanded, so did our vision for decorations. When I was a young teen, this was facilitated by other churches. They wanted to get rid of their highly-specific themed decor, so these churches would offer it up to nearby places. Lucky for us, that meant we got a whole lot of fun new decorations for free. The highlight was the year we did “Operation Overboard,” an underwater themed adventure. Someone else had made a tunnel that fit perfectly in the long hallway behind the sanctuary. It had something like blue cellophane with fish and other underwater things. If you’ve ever wondered why the hallway seems like such a focal point for decor, you can credit that original tunnel hallway.
It’s not just the decorations that have grown over time, though. It’s also the theatrics. We generally have a skit at the beginning and ending of the day that bookends our time together with the scripture lessons, songs, and whatnot. Nowadays, we have some incredible helpers who get into character every day. The skits tend to focus on a main character and their animal sidekick as they face some challenge of the day, whether that’s collecting badges, gathering power for our spaceship, or lighting up magic lanterns. The “mascot” has existed for a long time, but in various forms. I remember that, in her very first summer with us, Rev. Tracey Beadle agreed to dress up as the bird for “Everywhere Fun Fair,” a creature that looked vaguely like Big Bird. It wasn’t until a few years later when her daughter, Michaela, took on the regular job of mascot that the children started getting really attached to these animal characters. Now, the mascot is one of their favorite parts (which makes sense, as we have a really excellent youth doing it).
When I think back on it, while VBS has changed a lot over the years, the thing that really stands out to me is the way our whole church comes together around this event. We have staff members giving up time from their work week to lead groups or stations or dress up in silly costumes. We have volunteers come in weeks or months before to start planning out their stations. We have so many volunteers during the week who make it possible to have the camp at all. People tolerate us taking up space and making a mess for a few weeks before and after, and they come in to help us set everything up and then take it down when we’re done. And they do it every single year.
From my current vantage point, it’s easy to see the amount of love and care that goes into VBS. But even when I couldn’t see it, it was always there. The volunteers that had to be outside in the heat all day, adults and youth dressing up in silly ways to play a character that the children will remember for years, volunteers putting their time and energy into transforming the church into a frozen castle or a spaceship or a forest or a beach. The children might not know everything that goes into creating VBS, but they can feel it. I know I did, and I can see that same joy reflected in their faces now, 20 years later.
~MUMC Sesquicentennial Committee
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