Come along with me for a day of life on the summer Vacation Bible School committee. Bible school in Goltry, Oklahoma, has been going on for 62 years. There are some grandmothers who come pick up children that attended Bible School themselves. What a tremendous responsibility we have to share the Bible stories and portray a Christian lifestyle to these innocent children.

Would you like to come be a teacher? Endless hugs from the smaller children, participation in class from the older ones, and the opportunity to meet new friends. Every morning at 8:30, the teachers, committee, and helpers meet in the entryway at church for prayer. There are usually children rolling in by then. Bible school begins at 9:00. Everyone lines up under the carport outside, and all 110-120+ children file in singing. There is a short devotions, and then everyone sings several songs. We try to keep the classes small here. It seems like one teacher can do a very good job with five or six children. But then Tuesday and Wednesday come and new children come every morning! So some teachers end up with a few more. There are helpers running around if anyone needs assistance. During class time, maybe you’ll get a chance to explain to a 5-year-old boy why he really does want to go to heaven. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll have to charge into the men’s restroom to stop a four-year-old boy from brandishing a toilet brush. Teachers have been bitten by their students. And even though sometimes the days are long, the week flies by.

Maybe teaching doesn’t seem like your thing. You could come do arts and crafts. Every class does crafts, and some of the younger ones do a different craft every day! It’s a lot to keep straight, but some thrive at this job. The craft table is laden with bird seed, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, jelly beans, flower pots, twine, and a multitude of other things. Sometimes the craft person will help a particularly big class during devotions and singing.

Speaking of singing – you could come lead the singing! There is nothing quite like leading over 100 children in singing an action song. Here at Goltry, the songleader leads the walk-in song and all the singing. The songleader can sometimes be caught in the benches, reading a Bible story to an unruly child. Our songleader also often helps throughout the day with all the little things that need to be done. During Bible school, 101 little things pop up every day that no one has ever thought of doing. Having someone available to run and grab things or deliver things is a huge benefit. The parents of the Bible school children tell of how their children sing those songs all year long.

The kitchen ladies don’t get enough credit. There are three couples on the VBS food committee, and those ladies are at church every day. Making pans upon pans of Jell-O, enough hot dogs to feed a small army, and gallons of Kool aid keeps them busy. There are ladies from the congregation who bring cookies every day. It takes a lot of cookies to feed over one hundred kids!

The most important part of Bible school is to make the children feel loved. When teaching the Bible story in the lesson, it sometimes seems like the younger children are never listening and always out of

their chairs. But this is not babysitting or a day-care. The children do remember the stories! If those of us involved can somehow give them a glimpse of light in a darkening world, the ripples of one week of Bible school could last a lifetime.

Chris Nace