This week, The Church at Avenue South hosted its inaugural Vacation Bible School. Previously, due to the limits of our previous property (and us not owning but leasing it), we’d held multiple backyard Bible gatherings. But this year, we had all the kids in one place for the first time ever.

I was privileged to be a part of the very first service of the very first day, volunteering to do graphics. Plus, I ran the video for the songs the kids were learning that day. I now get why VBS volunteers end up with the songs stuck in their heads for a while.

I got a kick out of watching the various ages trying to learn the choreography for the songs. The younger they got, the less inclined they were to actually follow the teacher but do their own moves (which mainly involved a lot of random jumping around and waving of arms).

I love that this is an outlet for these kids to hear the gospel. My own salvation story began at a Backyard Bible Club, so these are near and dear to my heart. Even if these kids don’t pray to receive Christ, at least the seed was planted that will hopefully grow into faith one day.

I just hope they avoid serving the kids any red kool-aid. I have memories from a VBS I served at during a mission trip in college where someone thought it was a grand idea to give the kids kool-aid with that particular red dye in it. They went from mostly calm in the morning to berserk in the afternoon. I think the rest of the day was like trying to herd cats.

God willing, this is the first of many more to come. I think we can do nothing better than point our children to Jesus. Many parents are determined to have their children get into the right schools or to have them excel in sports or music, but far fewer are as concerned about their eternal destinies. If we as American families teach our kids everything but the way of Jesus, we have failed.

So I’m praying for this 2024 VBS. I hope the next two days will be just as fun and exciting and the first three. Above all, I hope God does a mighty work in the lives of these kids (and their parents). I can’t wait to see what happens next.