Vacation Bible School

In the days before computers, Wii, PS3, xBox, and iPod, when color television was still novel, capturing the imagination of children was less of a challenge.  My summers were spent mostly outside, because it was usually cooler than in our convection oven mobile home.  In spite of being raised in the age of image-change every three seconds, most small children still respond to stories.  A good story, told well, is still captivating.  What was true now was true when I was a boy.  I loved a good story.  Some of my most vivid story experiences happened during Vacation Bible School -- that annual ritual churches perform every summer to attract bored urchins in the hope planting a spiritual seed.  Today, Vacation Bible School has a lot to compete with.  The efforts some churches embark on to promote their particular VBS, while noble, makes me wonder about the wisdom of it all.  I have heard of families that make use of VBS as a form of summer day-care, charting the schedules of various VBS programs in their area to gain maximum benefit over the dog days of summer.  Truth be told, no one knows the 'cost-benefit' ratio of Vacation Bible School.  It is a lot of work for a lot of people, but how do you measure the value of one soul?  My first clear understanding of my spiritual need came during a Vacation Bible School.

Every VBS has similar ingredients: energetic singing, contests for who brought the most visitors, or memorized the most Bible verses, a short advertisement for the church: "We ARE here the rest of the year!".  Most important is the 'main event' intended to provide a compelling narrative of spiritual truth to the audience.  

For several summers, our little church invited Vivian Bonham for what was called a Kids Crusade.  She was a tiny, middle-aged woman.  There were a few strands of gray  in her black hair and she wore thick glasses.  But, out of that un-impressive figure came a deep, resonant voice and remarkable tales.  Vivian Bonham featured something that was uniquely hers.  Flannel and VBS have always gone together, but Mrs. Bonham Super-sized it.  She had giant easels assembled on the platform holding flannel canvasses that were at least 5 feet high and 20 feet wide.  As she told her stories, she would add characters or elements to the flannel.  Then, when one scene was complete, she would peel that canvas off to reveal the next scene.  To my knowledge, she personally painted all the scenes and characters.  The crowning moment was always at the last scene, when the story reached the height of tension.  Mrs. Bonham would have the lights in the auditorium turned off to reveal the hidden magic of her art: fluorescent paintings that came to life under the glow of black lights.  In the hush following the oohs and ah's, her quiet, lyrical voice would take the Bible narrative and personalize it for her audience.  She had a rare gift for saying 'boys and girls' and I was certain she was speaking to directly to me.  

I cannot recall the contents of a single story.  They usually featured a little boy or little girl in some adventure or dilemma, the consequence of choices they had made.  She may have written them herself.  But I remember Mrs. Bonham quietly explaining the ache and emptiness in my heart that I felt because of sin, how my wrongdoings put a wall between the Creator and His beloved creation.  Most importantly, how God wasn't willing to leave us alone and broken, but that His Son died to give me life.  A simple, old story made fresh and real by a tiny, faithful servant of God.  Someday I will say thank you.