My Week at VBS

So a few weeks ago was Vacation Bible School (VBS) week at my church. I had volunteered to teach a kindergarten class, because I used to teach a Sunday School class of kindergartners and remember it being challenging, but fun. However, on the first morning of VBS, I was dreading it. My husband, 1-yr old, and I had just been away visiting friends for the weekend and had returned that Sunday night after an 8-hour car ride (including stops for food and diaper changes). I had not had time to unpack, and felt completely unprepared for camp. I also found out that about 30 kids were signed up for my class, and although I was assigned 4 helpers, I still found that number very daunting! I also found out that some parents seemed to have snuck their Pre-K students into the class, so there were kids ranging from 4-6 years old (and if anyone thinks there is no difference between a child entering Pre-K and one entering Kindergarten...believe me, there is!). Suffice it to say, I entered the day feeling very negative. And at the end of the morning I felt like I was justified in my feelings because it had been a very difficult, tiring morning. I felt like I had failed in maintaining control of the kids and trying to pass on any lessons about Christ and His love.

That night, I decided that my attitude needed to change. I prayed about the rest of camp, asking God for advice on how the class should be structured. I spent a lot of time planning the next day, and I felt a lot better going into the second day of camp. Each day, my attitude became more and more positive, and each day seemed to be better than the last. Although I still had issues with keeping the children's attention and keeping things organized, I was comforted by some very positive things. Like seeing the boy who screamed (for a substantial amount of time) when his mother left the first day, walking happily into camp and giving me a big hug the third day, or seeing some children who weren't listening the first day paying attention and raising their hand in response to the Bible story later in the week. These moments were very encouraging, but I still worried about whether or not I had been able to pass on some knowledge of Christ to these children. Then, on the last morning, some of the parents dropping off their kids came up to me and said that their child can't stop talking about "The Lord" and how much "God loves them"; that every story time they have, they just want to read the Bible, and they are asking to come to church on Sunday (a lot of children who attend VBS are from the community and don't actively attend church). To hear this response was amazing. I was filled with such joy in knowing that God could use me to reach the students, even through my initial bad attitude, and even though I felt incapable of doing so. It was an incredible moment, to actually witness God planting seeds in the lives of those children.