NEWS FEATURE: Vacation Bible School _ old lessons in new garb

c. 1998 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ Sitting cross-legged on a braided rug, children listen to the story of Hannah and Peninnah. Hannah, they learn, desperately wanted a child, but for a long time, didn’t have one. Peninnah, on the other hand, had lots of children, and mercilessly tormented Hannah with that fact. Then, […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

MOBILE, Ala. _ Sitting cross-legged on a braided rug, children listen to the story of Hannah and Peninnah.

Hannah, they learn, desperately wanted a child, but for a long time, didn’t have one. Peninnah, on the other hand, had lots of children, and mercilessly tormented Hannah with that fact. Then, one day, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a little boy she named Samuel. And when she did, she was thankful to God.


The moral, says teacher Ellen Jordan: “God helps us to be (pause) thankful.”

Hearing those words, a handful of children explode: “BLAST OFF!!!!” It’s the week of Vacation Bible School at Orange Beach United Methodist Church in Orange Beach, Ala. _ a ritual enacted across the nation by tens of thousands of children in ways both familiar and new.

At Orange Beach, kids learn lessons about things like kindness and thankfulness, and all week, they navigate familiar church territory as if it’s a spaceship and examine religious teachings in language that’s just this side of lunar. They do things like “space crafts” (a.k.a. arts and crafts) and complete Bible “explorations.”

By the end of the week, teachers hope the children have learned something about God and one another.

Odds are, they will. Because inside most of those who teach VBS are those who once attended VBS.

“I remember learning all the stories,” says John Zeanah, 17. “I was always in awe. Jesus had so many wonderful adventures.”

So it’s only natural, say Zeanah and other VBS grads, that they’d come back to help.

“It’s just a good time,” says the Rev. Steve Ogle, minister of childhood education at Spring Hill Baptist Church in Mobile. “We come to play and to learn and to have fun.”


Whether they’re astronauts in a space station, stranded vacationers on a Caribbean island, or pilgrims, traveling through time to Jesus’ day, children venture into new worlds as they spend their mornings or evenings at church. They play games, they do crafts, and they sing songs as they learn about God.

But this is not your father’s Vacation Bible School. This is the VBS of the next millennium.

For Southern Baptist churches, the denomination’s curriculum puts students out in space. The theme, “Star Quest: A Galactic Good News Adventure,” doesn’t really tie in with daily lessons about the last week of Jesus’ life, Ogle says, but he hopes it will get kids excited about coming to classes. With activities changing every 25 minutes, students participate in an interactive learning environment they might not get in regular academic or religious classes.

At First Baptist Church of Fairhope, Ala., students will travel through both time and space. Recreating scenes from Capernaum, Bethany, Nazareth, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, VBS teachers and directors will lead students on five days of biblical adventure. From the fishy smell in the pseudo-Jerusalem marketplace (created by the presence of real, dead fish) to games called “Camel Ride” (involving one kid carrying another, and an involved process of seeing who can suck up and spit out the most water), the VBS billed as “Passport to the Holy Land: Following Jesus Every Day” tries to stimulate children’s imaginations about the life and times of Jesus.

The curriculum is unusual, too, in that students won’t deal with one particular teacher. Instead, they’ll learn from the people in the various mock cities. In Bethany, for example, students will hear about Jesus from Mary and Martha, the sisters with whom Jesus is said to have visited during his travels through that city.

First and foremost, the teachers and directors hope the students will have fun learning about Jesus. But VBS has a secondary audience, too _ parents.


Dotty Armour, co-director of Vacation Bible School at Fulton Heights United Methodist Church in Mobile, says her congregation has about eight children who participate in church activities during the regular year. For the week of Vacation Bible School, though, more than 60 kids fill the church.

“It’s something we do for our neighborhood,” Armour says. Sunday services and Sunday school aren’t boring, she says, but the activity and interaction of VBS stimulates more interest.

“Maybe because it’s more involved,” she says. “Maybe they think their kids will get more out of it because there’s more to do. This is a splash in the face with good, cold water.”

Jim Robinson, associate pastor in childhood education at Cottage Hill Baptist Church in Mobile, agrees that VBS is a key outreach program for congregations. Through the lessons to children, churches reach out to parents as well. The songs, stories, the decorations even, in some cases, the snacks are all part of the lessons taught.

“We start planning several months in advance for that one week,” Ogle says, “and it’s always worth it.”

MJP END CAMPBELL

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