Peace VBS 2013

We have just completed another year of VBS.  I am not as exhausted as most years.  That might have to do with the beautiful cool weather we enjoyed this week.  Praise the Lord!

We had 75 children and 46 adults and youth healing out and one dog (acting in a skit).  There were still children in the community who didn't go to any VBS this week at Peace or at Trinity.  If anyone has ideas about how to draw children in to VBS from the community, I am all ears.

This year we went with a VBS produced by Go Fish.  I was attracted to this VBS by the great music and the promise to put the Bible back into Vacation Bible School.  The music was really good, but the Bible studies were a bit above the heads of younger kids.  Our preschool teacher said the preschool material was good.

As usual I was in charge of the drama rotation in the VBS schedule.  There was no drama material in the Go Fish VBS, but it wasn't hard to develop from the themes Go Fish used.  We made movies of Bible skits the kids developed.  Grades 1-2 did Noah.  Grades 3-4 did Jesus.  Grades 5-6 did the Prodigal Son.

One theological note:  The Go Fish Bible study said that because God is holy, God cannot be anywhere near sin. I have heard that expressed by other preachers.  Where do we get such an idea?  Our separation from our holy God is not because God can't stand sin.  Our separation from God is because we sinners can't stand holiness.  Holiness to sinners is like the brightness of the sun to our eyes.  The problem is not God's.  The problem is ours.  After all, Jesus is the holy Son of God, God in the flesh, and yet Jesus came near to sinners.  To say that God cannot tolerate sin makes it sound like our problem is that God is allergic to us.  Salvation is not taking care of God's allergy to our sin.  Salvation is God taking care of our allergy to God's holiness by purifying us.

We have used Group VBS and several others.  There is no perfect VBS, except maybe the VBS we produced on our own a few years ago.  I would probably use Go Fish again, but I would also want to do more to modify the Bible Study material for our kids.

Thanks to all the folks who helped with VBS this year.  I