HE SAID/ SHE SAID:
We survived VBS
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___ It seemed like a good idea at the time. June was a long way from March, school would be out, the boys would be going anyway. Of course I could help out with Vacation Bible School this year.
___Now I need a bumper sticker that says, "I survived VBS."
___Don't get me wrong. Fun was had by all, as well as a good experience. But it has taken me two weeks to recover from it.
___I was the official storyteller for grades one through five as we trekked through the Bible on an Amazon adventure. That means that every half hour, a different grade came to me and my cohorts for the Bible story of the day. A challenge to be sure, but one I felt I could do with the materials we had.
___Then came the first day.
___The third graders were the first to arrive, and we whipped through the opening activity and Bible story in 15 minutes flat. Uh oh. Fifteen minutes to go and I was already dipping into my emergency filler material. Not good. We immediately revised for the rest of the groups and were able to fill the time.
___Then came the second graders. At the end of the morning. The last group. A smart group. Our story was about creation, using Genesis 1. First, one of the girls wanted to know why it said God created "man," and I explained to her that that really meant humankind or people, both boys and girls. Then one of the boys piped up that God created boys first, because Eve came after Adam out of his rib. Oh boy. I said that yes, we learn that later in Genesis, but that the story today says God created them male and female and that he created them in his image. Then I quickly pointed out that we are all special and that it was "very good."
___I knew this was going to be an interesting week. We basically had to move most of the materials up a grade level to challenge our smart kids. And they continued to challenge me the whole week.
___Teachers are amazing creatures. After teaching for just three hours, I would go home and collapse every day. I can't imagine seven hours a day, for a whole school year.
___Despite the challenge and exhaustion, I do have to say it was worth it to have a chance to meet all those kids and see God at work in their lives, including my own two.
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___After the Thursday Bible story time, I joked that we needed to start calling Alison by a new name: Alison the Evangelizer.
___She and her coworkers, with the aid and encouragement of our children's minister, made a clear and compelling presentation of the gospel and asked each child how they felt God wanted them to respond.
___As a result, a number of children professed faith in Jesus Christ as Savior
and several others agreed it was time to make their private professions of faith known to the church.
___That was the case with our boys, Luke and Garrett. Two years ago, we had the privilege at home of leading them to pray to become Christians. Their decisions had been sparked by participation in Upward Basketball at another church. Using the prayer printed in the Upward Basketball New Testament they had been given, both boys committed their lives to God through faith in Jesus.
___ But timidity kept them from making their decisions known publicly and from being baptized. Because of their young age, we decided not to push but to allow God to guide them at the right time.
___As with so many other children, VBS turned out to be the right time. Even so, they were the last of the herd of children down the aisle the next Sunday morning. But once they got there, they were glad they went.
___It turned out to be a bittersweet day of emotion, though. It was Father's Day, and Luke and Garrett's decision was the best Father's Day present I ever could have received.
___What they don't fully understand, however, is that they also gave their Grandpa Jack the best Father's Day present he could receive. Just a few hours after our Sunday morning service, I boarded a plane for Albuquerque to be with my Dad, who is battling a vicious form of lung cancer. I was happy to carry the happy news of the day in the midst of an otherwise difficult situation.
___As we walked through the parking lot after church, the emotion of the day overwhelmed me and I cried the hardest I have since we learned about Dad's cancer. They were tears of both extreme joy and extreme pain.
___This was to be a Father's Day our family won't forget.
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PREVIOUS HE SAID/ SHE SAID COLUMNS:
2001: 1/1, 1/8, 1/22, 2/5, 2/12, 3/5, 4_19, 4/2, 4/23, 5/14 6/11, 6/25, 7/9, 7/23, 8/13, 9/3, 9/17, 10/9, 11/26, 12/3, 12/17
2002: 1/14, 2/4, 3/11, 4/8, 5/20
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