c. 2003 Religion News Service

MOBILE, Ala. _ They come for the Kool-Aid and the coloring, the crafts and the contests _ summer after summer after summer.

Indeed, aside from the Christmas pageant, vacation Bible school may be one of the most enduringly popular children’s programs churches have ever offered.

According to some accounts, vacation Bible school was born in a beer parlor on New York City’s East Side in the late 1800s. In 1911, the Daily Vacation Bible School Association was formed.

It’s been a summertime staple in countless congregations since then.

Tom Bevill, associate professor of marriage and family counseling and religion at the University of Mobile, said vacation Bible school’s continued success is a direct result of spending an intensive period of time in religious study. For some, he said, one week’s worth of VBS might be the equivalent of a year’s worth of Christian education.

But from a kid’s perspective, he said, what makes vacation Bible school worthwhile is that it’s just plain fun.

Bevill, 51, recalled attending VBS as a child and “enjoyed most all of it.”

Ditto for Barbara Kimes Myers, author of “Engaging in Transcendence: The Church’s Ministry and Covenant with Young Children.”

“I went with my friends,” the 62-year-old education professor at Chicago’s DePaul University recalled, adding: “The adults there genuinely liked me.”

Today’s children attend Bible school for some of those same reasons, said Howell Easterling, minister of education at First Baptist Church of Mobile.

“I think it’s an opportunity to have a concentrated period of time where caring, nurturing adults can share God’s love with children,” said Margaret Mangham, preschool director for First Baptist Church of Mobile. Bible school “nurtures them physically, emotionally and spiritually.”

A VBS veteran herself, Mangham said she remembers her time at vacation Bible School prepared her to make her profession of faith.

Carolyn Hayford, director of vacation Bible school at Northpoint Community Church in the Mobile suburb of Saraland, said often children come to vacation Bible school relaxed. Being with a large group of children also helps them to see that they aren’t the only kids interested in God.

At the Saraland church earlier this week, 10-year-old Jason Brown could hardly keep his seat as he raised his hand to answer questions about the day’s Bible story. In another classroom, Alyson Rose Brockmiller, 4, squirmed on a bright orange chair as she colored a worksheet designed to remind children of the story in the Book of Acts about Philip sharing the gospel with an Ethiopian official.

Down the hall, children gathered for snacktime recounted several secrets to vacation Bible school’s success:

“The gamesâÂ?¦,” said Brooke Blocker, 9.

“I like the songs,” said 9-year-old Royteshia Perkins.

“I like the preaching,” said 8-year-old Falayshia Earl, “and the food.”

For Haley Foley, 9, arts and crafts rule. Megan Logan, 11, said she enjoys learning about God.

While the school is in session, the children are also learning about giving.

Each day, boys and girls dropped their change in big plastic jugs; at week’s end, the money was given to Wheels for the World to help provide wheelchairs to people in need, Hayford said. Through the program, part of Joni Eareckson Tada’s Joni and Friends ministry, more than 14,000 wheelchairs have been collected, refurbished and shipped to those in need in developing nations.

At First Baptist Church on Government Street, kids are offering help a little closer to home. Many of them are painting furniture for the Sunday school rooms.

The preschoolers, meanwhile, were just learning the rhythm of vacation Bible school. Sitting in pint-sized chairs, they took turns shaking and peering into a relish jar filled with water, oil and blue food coloring combined in such a way as to resemble waves.

When asked who made the waves, children shouted back, “God!” and “Jesus!”

Minutes later, they sang grace before digging into blueberry Nutri-Grain bars and swigging cartons of juice. They stirred, restless, while their teacher read a story. Then, it was time to go outside to play.

Mangham stood by, recalling her own years as a vacation Bible school student. “I remember that time,” she said. “That was so peaceful.”

KRE END CAMPBELL