VBSing It

This week the members of the Miller Christian Church have been VBSing It (I just made up that term, but it seems to explain this week). Last year we did a day long VBS on a Saturday. This year we’ve worked up to two evenings and a Sunday morning. Next year we may be looking at a full week long program…who knows. Since being in charge of VBS, I’ve kinda treated our church like a naughty kid. Our minister got sick a couple of years ago and we had no VBS that year. Last year they wanted Jay and I to take it over, but getting help was like pulling teeth so we had to move it to a one day event. This year we decided to expand to 3 sessions – with a church dinner on Sunday. It was a test to see if the church would rise to the occasion and actually want to help. Jay and I needed proof that if we ever went to a 5 day, we’d have help. Well our church has done wonderful this year. We’ve had so many people volunteer and we have actually got some other kids attending. It’s helped that Cade’s in school because we invited several of his friends and the best part is they’re coming. If things look as good tonight as I think they will, our church will have proved to us they are ready for the full 5 day program.

Jay and I work pretty well together on VBS, he’s the brawn of the operation and I’m the brains. That means he gets to do all the physical parts and I get to think through who goes where and what do we need. This year, since it’s a County Fair theme, Jay’s physical part involves 12 bales of straw, a handful of live chickens, 10 ten pound baby pigs and a mixture of other farm related animals. I’m promising there are some good times to be had at our little church over the next few days. We have been painting and decorating like mad for the last two weeks. We have a great looking backdrop that several of us helped paint – Jay even Bob Ross’ed in some clouds. Tuesday night we met at the church to finish “decorating”. The volunteers probably think I tricked them, because we ended up doing some heavy duty cleaning…which was badly needed.

Our church was becoming somewhat stale. Nothing was happening. The same cobwebs have been in the same corner for years. I can’t decide if no one noticed or no one cared. We get into this argument with some of the older church members – it’s not the building that makes a church, it’s the members. I will agree that is very true, but first impressions mean a lot. You don’t go to a job interview wearing dirty, ratty clothing hoping the interviewer will see past the dirt at the nice person you are. The same was true of our church. A visitor would come and they see the cobwebs in the corners of a building not being taken care of very well. What do they think? They don’t know the members so you have to wonder – do they think we are as stale as the building?

So…since we had invited several of Cade’s friends I felt about the church like I do my home when people come over. I wanted it clean, so that’s what we did. In the middle of the cleaning we also found out that several other families felt the same way about the building. Another exciting thing happening is that some college volunteers from the local church camp will be doing some painting on Saturday at the church. We are on the road to making the church look more alive. Jay and I are very excited.

This post has been somewhat rambly, but I’m encouraged. For the first time in a long time Jay and I are seeing a little glimmer of life at the church….A little hope that not everyone is content to leave things the way they’ve been for a hundred years….A lot of excitement because we’re going to have a great VBS with more than the 8 kids who normally go to church there……

And a lot of sweat – Jay does have livestock to move around after all.