Planning for VBS [and life]
This past Saturday, I had the good fun of leading a Vacation Bible School (or VBS) training for about 35 people. I’ve done these trainings all around southern California for the last 13 years and it’s one of the most fun things I get to do with my time. People from all over the surrounding areas give up three hours of their Saturday morning to go learn about this year’s VBS. And almost universally, these folks are excited to be there!
The publisher of the curriculum we use provides the script for me to use and I follow it pretty closely. We have a lot of topical ground to cover, and I want everyone to get the most out of their time at the training. But there are some moments where I can interject my own personal experience or thoughts. And, as this will be my 20th year leading VBS, you can rest assured I have some hard-won knowledge.
There are a few things I tell most of the groups I lead and as I was packing away the supplies, it occurred to me that those things are applicable in most of life.
The first thing I tell them is to plan and prepare. This is kind of obvious, I know. But if they think they’ll have 60 kids at their VBS, plan for 70 because some of those kids will have friends who decide to come at the last minute. So, I tell them to prepare for just a little more than they think because no one wants to tell a family their child can’t come to church or VBS – that’s not quite be the example of God’s love we’re trying to share.
The next thing I tell them is to be flexible. Even with all the best plans in place, there will be something that arises that is unexpected. I have had kids develop an allergy at VBS, a child throw up and need to go home, rain show up and move all of our outdoor activities inside, leaders get sick… life will inevitably intervene and something will happen that we did not expect. So, flexibility is key and God will be with us in well-planned situations as well as those that throw us curve-balls.
One of the last things I tell them is to Watch for God. This one is actually part of the curriculum, and we hand out bracelets with “Watch for God” on them during the training. Of course, the reminder is evergreen because our lives are busy (and VBS is even more so!). God is present and active in all of our daily moments. But we often miss God’s presence because we are focused on all the things to get done, which is to be expected. That doesn’t mean that God is absent – it just means we weren’t looking. So, I tell these VBS leaders to remember to actively look for God because God will be there.
The trainings are fun and the people who come to them are clearly my people (as we all love VBS and children’s ministry) but it’s only three hours together and then we depart and go on about our Saturday. However, they leave with another thing that I remind them of: new friends. They sat at tables of six people each, and most were strangers coming into the morning, but left as friends. Phone numbers were exchanged, plans for decoration sharing were made, and the seeds of new friendships were planted. Life is better with friends! And really, getting to see the beginnings of these friendships is a place that I see God in action at these trainings.
These things hold true for all of our lives. We make plans and we prepare as best we can for whatever is ahead of us. And life intervenes and flexibility is required to alter those plans we so carefully made. Friends can help us through all sorts of things – so find some good ones to journey with you for a while. But throughout it all, God is with us, walking each planned or unanticipated step, and it’s up to us to remember to look for God’s presence.
Blessings,
Emily
P.S. Huge thank you to those folks who stepped up to help with this training! Alton Bredthauer, Karyn Hamilton, Lynsey Harting, Aimee Mauss, Sue Reed, Caitlin Tufts, and Brenda Wiles were all an enormous gift to me, and to the people at the training.
