The Wonderful World of VBS

Ah yes, the wonderful world of VBS has come and gone. I must say it was for the most part quite entertaining except for the crafts because they were some what loud. I thought I would share with you about the experience of my group. I helped lead Crew #2 which consisted of mostly 6-year-olds. The most exciting time during VBS was the Bible Expedition.

In Bible Expedition the kids were brought into the Bible story through actors and some cheap props. But let me tell you, those cheap props were convincing to 6-year-olds. Sunday evening the story was about Gideon and his little army and how they defeated the Midianites. This particular evening the kids got to be Gideon's army. The church as an old puppet prop that's basically 3 pieces of wood that fold out to for something for the puppeteers to be behind and it has a hill painted on it. This was set up in the darkened room along with a campfire made of Christmas lights and tissue paper. Behind the boards a person sat with a CD player that played continual sounds of an army that the kids were told were just over the hill. Any common 8-year-old would think this to be one of the cheesiest things ever, but remember I had 6-year-olds. One of the boys continually asked throughout the entire time if the bad guys were really back there. He was worried.

On Monday we talked about Daniel and the lions den. To bring the kids into the story they were invited to sneak into Daniel's house and look around, and they were told that if they were caught they would be in big trouble. One little boy at this point refused to enter the room. And what do you know they got caught by the guard. After which several of the children began to cry as we tried to explain that it was all pretend.

Tuesday we the story was about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (This is my favorite night). The kids were greeted by a man who said he was the richest many in Babylon. He told the kids that he would show them why but it was a secret and they couldn't tell anyone. We entered the room and sat down and he said "Ok this is why I'm gonna be filthy rich." He then walks over to his closet and pulls out a golden toenail (a piece of cardboard painted gold). He told the kids that he stole it from the huge statue that the king was making everyone bow down to. Anywho he finishes telling about the three men and asks what he should do the the toenail. The kids told him that he should give it back because stealing is wrong. It seemed as though this night would be worry free, but no. Apparently the next morning Cheryl, VBS director, get a call from the mother of one of the little girls in my group. She tells Cheryl that when she asked the little girl what she had learned at Bible School she kept getting the same response. "I can't tell you." Well finally they get a little more out of her and this is what she told her parents. "A filthy rich man showed me his closet and told me not to tell." Well, needless to say the mother was a little worried about this statement. Fortunately after the phone call with Cheryl the whole thing was cleared up.

Wednesday we discussed Jesus resurrection and the actor was pretending not to know the guy who left the tomb. So one of the boys in the group decided to explain it to him. "Well, his name is Jesus and he died for our sins. And he comes back to life every Easter. I think it's on Easter 1st or 5th." We had no crying this particular evening.

Thursday the final evening was about Paul and Silas when they were in prison and the walls fell down. Well we were asked if we told people about God and when we all replied yes we were hand cuffed with orange plastic strips. They looked like they were pieces of plastic table cloth cut into strips. Anyway, while we were in prison we decided to praise God and of course the prison wall fell down. There were several children crying at this point some because they thought were in jail some because the wall was falling on them.

In conclusion I say we go with not so realistic situations for the 6-year-olds.

I have lots of comments on the Elementary Crew Leader Pocket Guide, but that's another blog.