August 2006 The Megaphone Page 6
Vacation Bible School
by Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen
I've been busy working the past couple of weeks (well, actually the past couple
of months) on my church's upcoming Vacation Bible School. And as I've done so,
it's brought back a lot of memories of VBS when I was a child.
VBS was one event I ALWAYS looked forward to. My memories are from the
First Methodist church at North A and Anderson Street, but I'm sure many of you have
your own memories of what Vacation Bible School was like at your church.
The biggest change is that back then, when the term "stay at home
mom" was unknown because it was taken for granted that of course mom stayed
home to raise the children unless she was divorced (oh the scandal of it all) or
widowed (or the tragedy of it all), Vacation Bible School was held during the
day and usually went from 9 to 12. My church hasn't done that for probably 20
some years. Nobody at home to do it, everybody working.
Most churches now hold VBS in the evenings. My church has elected to hold
an all-day Saturday event. Sometimes we finish with a cookout. Occasionally
we have held VBS on Friday evening and then all day on Saturday with a
sleep-over or "lock in" at the church on Friday night. And almost
always VBS today is only a week long at the most.
Back "in the day" Vacation Bible School was from 9 to 12 am
Monday through Friday for TWO weeks. I have tremendous admiration for those
teachers who put up with us for two whole weeks. Just think -- having survived
one week of teaching at VBS, you go home for the weekend with -- you got it --
another week to look forward to. That had to be exhausting. But as a kid I loved
it, and I wish kids today could also enjoy that experience. But I'm not sure VBS
material is even made for two weeks any more.
Vacation Bible School at First Methodist had some special attributes that
I will never forget. There was something special about wearing our "summer
outdoor clothes" to the church building, for one thing. It was the one time
we could come to church without having to get all dressed up, one time when we
girls could wear shorts and sandals to church rather than skirts and fancy shoes
with lacy anklets.
Of course craft time was one of our favorites. With two weeks, we had
plenty of time to make special projects. I remember making a map of the Holy
Land out of clay with green for the coastal areas and Jordan Valley, brown for
the mountainous ridge, and blue for the Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea.
For some reason my crafts never seemed to come out quite right. Others
could take a coffee can (remember those?) and paint and decorate them into the
most exquisite items; mine always looked like a coffee can with some paint
smeared on it. Still, no matter how bad they looked, those gifts were always
received with great love and appreciation by our loved ones. I don't think that
has changed over the years.
I remember some special teachers from VBS too, not as many as I'd like,
but many. I especially remember Merl Sigler, Clara Blackburn, and Ethel Wimmer.
My mother often helped out too. I will never forget Clara Blackburn's favorite
Bible verse that she repeated to us over and over, "Be ye doers of the
Word, and not hearers only." From the King James, of course.
But the highlight of VBS was a special time of singing led by our pastor,
Rev. Boyle. I don't remember his first name. In fact, I always thought it
was "Reverend" and was so amazed that the pastor at the Baptist church
had the same first name as our pastor, "Reverend." Sometime during the
middle of the morning at our VBS, we would all gather in the basement
all-purpose room for a snack time. I think I figured out that there were
something like five different entrances into that room. We had to sit on our
chairs, which all faced the front little "stage" area, but we never
knew which entrance Rev. Boyle would come through. So we never knew who was
going to be on the front row! And EVERYONE wanted to be on the front row!
That singing was truly one of the highlights. He led us in many,
many songs. Oh there were the usual ones -- "Jesus Loves Me",
"Jesus Loves the Little Children" (he had a special version of that
where Jesus loves the cowboys and Indians and all sorts of people), "God Is
Love." But we also had some fun ones -- "Down in the Valley",
"Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree," "Around the Corner,"
"When Molly Was a Baby," etc. And of course the "Books of
the New Testament" that some traveling evangelists named the LeCouers had
taught us. (And I've taught my kids and my son has taught his kids.) We
all had our favorites and we would squeal with delight when we got to sing that
favorite.
Vacation Bible School always ended on the second Friday with a picnic at
Callaway Park. That was so much fun. My mother always made fried chicken
that was so good. There was lots to eat, Kool-Aid to drink, the park to play in,
and then the final closing where we got our certificates and could take home all
the special treasures we had made during the school.
The last time I remember going to Vacation Bible School was when I was in
Junior High. Jeanette Robbins was our teacher. She was an extremely large woman
who walked with a cane and suffered from many health problems because of her
obesity. Yet she taught us a lot about love and our faith. I think that may have
been the only year they had a class for junior high, and I think it was held
because she especially wanted to teach it. We studied different churches and
what they believed and did that made them different from Methodists. We learned
how they baptized, whether by just immersion or by immersion, sprinkling, or
pouring, whether adults only or also infants and children. We learned how
they took Communion. We learned the role of women within their church. We
learned how their denomination, if they had one, was governed. We learned
whether their pastors were "called" by the congregation or
"appointed" by a bishop. We learned whether they "spoke in
tongues" or not, what their worship service might look like, etc. Most
importantly we learned why they had these customs, why they thought their
particular methods were best for them. Actually that wasn't the most important
thing we learned; the most important thing we learned was respect for each other
and our differing beliefs all within the same religious faith.
When Vacation Bible School at our church is over Saturday afternoon, I
will slump in a chair in exhaustion and breathe a quick prayer, "Thank You,
Lord, that that's over for another year." But after some rest and iced
tea, I will also say, "Thank You, Lord, for those saints of past years who
took of their time to pass the faith on to my generation -- and thank You, also,
for the opportunity to do it again now."
Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen '59
northwest Indy
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