Entry #654173, added on 06-12-09 @ 1:14 am EDT
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| Vacation Bible School | Entry #654173 |
Since I'm unemployed still, I volunteered to do VBS at my new church (I moved here 6 months ago). I'm in charge of the leather-making shop in our Roman forum. How hard can it be to do a leather wrist band kit for kids?
I've been surprised to find out what a really big deal VBS is here. It's still just half a day for 5 days. But they're decorating the whole building, wearing costumes, and setting up all kind of learning experiences. I've been to churches where they wanted lots of kids, the more the merrier. This church has a cutoff, so that they can have a quality experience. It's open to the community and not just their own kids.
It seemed like it was going to be one adult per child, but all the adults won't be there every day. Some will only be part-time or substitutes. Only we're doing an awful lot besides just planning and putting up a few simple decorations, and furnishing some snacks. The theme will be Rome: Paul and the Underground Church. In one workshop, the kids will actually build an aqueduct, so they can see how it works. In the food shop, they'll sample olives, dates, figs, and some Greek yogurt, just to have new taste experiences. They'll be given some dinarii, or Roman coins, each day and will have to budget their spending. They can rent togas, come to the leather shop as an apprentice, or go to the scribe shop and dabble in calligraphy. Of course, there will be theme songs with actions. Oh, and one of the men is building a fountain in the baptismal pool for the right atmosphere!
One of the downstairs rooms will look like a cave. One will be a jail cell for Paul, who will be in chains. It's a house jail. We'll have torches (flashlights in fake homemade torches) and no overhead lights in the hallway. The forum, where I'll be, will have canopies or tents (in our sanctuary upstairs). We have sturdy chairs, not pews, so they can be moved easily, or with some back work. We'll have urns and pottery and baskets. My work table will be about 12 inches off the floor, and the kids will kneel to work. My knees won't take that, so I'll be on a footstool. I'll not be a Roman, or a "Jesus-follower", but a Jewish shopkeeper. I'm supposed to have conversation with them while they work on their leather kits, about Rome, about leather, how in Rome the leather worker did all of it, tanning-the stinky part to the finished product. They'll have different questions to ask each day as they go around the forum. They'll also make wreaths for their heads like the heroes wore in one shop.
Our instructions say that most church members have a hard time playing a non-believer in an ad lib situation. I don't. I can play the cynic part well. But I think those who aren't sure of the answers can't play the doubter. I happen to have worked in the furniture business, and have visited a leather factory in North Carolina (furniture capital of the east). So I'm prepared to discuss the differences through the ages. I can tell them how a Jew would resent a "Jesus-follower" (no one was using that term Christian in the first century) superseding his faith system and Scriptures. I can even address the issue of "Where does leather come from?"
Tonight I painted big boxes with about 15 other people outside in the humidity and mosquitoes, and dappled them to look marbled. Somebody else gave them texture with a hammer. I have a back ache from being bent over so many hours. We'll build a wall or something with them.
I began to realize that this endeavor is as much for the adults as it is for the kids. Tonight I heard the director say this is the biggest thing all summer long for some of the kids that come. Their parents say it takes weeks for them to get off their high, but they still remember all the things they learn.
During their short Roman "family" times, I can relax in my leather shop which will have a saddle and some bridles and other items on display. But in the sanctuary there will be a little drama each day. I don't know what craft the metal worker will do each day with the kids, but on Thursday, after forum time, the metal worker converts and her shop gets shut down, so there will be no metal work on Friday.
next year the theme will be Egypt and will feature Joseph. They will recycle the materials every five years, so they feel the expense now is a good investment. There will be new kids, or the ones who've been through them all and still there will be old enough to see it differently.
I don't have a first century Jewish costume or accessories. It seems to me that despite all the decorations and costumes, the real learning will take place as the adults speak normally with the kids as though equals. Instead of lectures, we'll work it into conversation. |
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