Tuesday's Top Ten - VBS Memories

Last week, I didn’t get a chance to do a top ten because I was fighting for my life. Ok, maybe not, but it seemed like it; I was engaged in the battle royale that is Vacation Bible School, or VBS. VBS is a tiring but exhilarating experience that goes from being elated to exhausted and back again. That said, it seems like so much more of a production than it used to be, with big themes, slick videos and techie apps for your three- year- old’s iPad.

Like any curmudgeon worth his grumbling, I long for the days when times were simpler. Thus, this week, I have compiled the Top Ten VBS memories:

10. Crafts that consisted of burnt matches, popsicle sticks, Elmer’s glue, or my favorite, a plaster cast of your hand, molded in an aluminum pie pan with a paper clip inserted for a hanger.

9. Marching in formation to “Onward Christian Soldiers”. (Probably too militant for the sensitive weenies, er, I mean, church members of today.)

8. Pledge to the American flag, the Christian flag and the Bible- we did it this year, and as long as I have a say, we always will.

7. Off-brand sandwich cookies, with vanilla on one side, chocolate on the other, and a paper thin layer of crème filling in the middle.

6. Orange Kool-aid made by the five gallon bucket, with just barely enough sugar to keep your lips from completely inverting on themselves in a permanent pucker.

5. No church van- just an old school bus re-painted Sears Weather Beater White with a brush.

4. If your church was too small for a bus, a ride in the back of the family pickup with five other kids.

3. Summer sleep overs to invite the friends you brought to VBS over for the night…maybe the week.

2. Those nifty VBS posters that featured a red, yellow, black and white child, just to show the love, even though you probably only had two out of four of those colors in your town.

1. Lessons that weren’t about carnivals, jungles or old west roundups- the Bible was exciting enough.