VBS (Vacation Bible School) report

This week’s main focus was the Vacation Bible School in which I have been asked to teach at, teaching the older teens class.

I had spent most of the weekend praying, thinking and preparing for the weeks lessons. We were given a rough guideline as what to teach in the lesson from ‘Youthwork Magazine’ but a lot the stuff recommended was quite out dated and required a lot of resources.

I didn’t know where to get half of the stuff that was detailed so I decided to change the exercises a little bit. Also a lot of the things suggested might not have been suitable for the age group I was teaching. I felt that they might feel a bit patronised and bored if I just got them doing a lot of craft work and just preached at them from a page.

I was also asked to play guitar during the worship sessions at the beginning of each day. So I had to be at church at 7.30am every morning to prepare for worship with Roshan. Roshan is a really passionate guy who has a great ability of engaging with the young people through worship. He asked me a lot for advice, but I think he seemed to be doing a great job already. The sound could’ve been mixed better each day but as the sound engineer was always late, there wasn’t much we could do.

The usual format for the days was:
07:30 - 08:00 Arrival at set up for worship
08:00 – 08:30 Teachers Devotion
08:30 – 09:15 Worship Time + General
09:15 – 10:45 Classes (including break)
10:45 – 11:20 Drama Workshop
11:20 – 12:15 Re-surface (General)

However, I found that these timings were very lax and never really went to plan. So, taking a class of 25ish teenagers, aged around 15 and 16 was quite a big challenge for me. I thought that covering the material given so that they could understand it and apply it to their lives was important.

I also thought building good relationships with them as individuals and also as a group was important too as I would be spending the whole week with them. Each day was given a theme and a plan of study:

Day 1: Who Am I? Exploring who they are, who other people say they are but also about what identity they can find in Christ and who God says they are.

Day 2: How should I live? Exploring how people live and what influences they come under, then looking at how God says we should live and how to run the race he has set before us.

Day 3: What help do I have? Exploring what help there is in our daily lives and who we turn to, then looking at what help is available from God and how he can help?

Day 4: Where am I heading? Looking at how to continue with the race God has set before us, looking at how we trust in our own abilities but also trusting in God primarily.

Day 5: There was no plan for day 5 so I designated this day as a total day of drama workshop, due to the drama competition to be held at the end of the session.

Day 6: The Saturday of the week was an activity day where everyone got on the buses and travelled to a resort sort of place where all the groups did different outdoor activities and had a picnic.
Day 7: On the Sunday all of kids from VBS came to the church meeting until after the worship, and then went off into their groups to practice for the evening’s presentation for the parents. The evening’s presentation included a showcase of some work that each of the group had been doing, award giving, and a short gospel message aimed at the parents. I felt like I’d just been chucked in the deep end a bit, but then I think that’s what I needed really. It helped me to not always lean on my own strength and abilities but so much more on God.

The big man upstairs created flipping everything after all and if anyone should know what these teens need and what will be most impacting to them, then he would. It makes me think, ‘Why don’t we trust in God more?’ He made us and everything, and he knows everything we’re feeling, thinking and doing. He knows our strengths and weaknesses. He knows where we need a boost and encouragement and he knows exactly how to do it!

As I said, I really felt led to build up good relationships with these teens and try and give them a sense of belonging and acceptance and freedom and respect. I followed the guidelines loosely and tried to stimulate discussion by asking questions and sharing aspects of my personal testimony, being honest and real with them. I think they really appreciated my openness and honesty. I think this definitely made them feel more comfortable about discussing their own struggles and thoughts about God and Life.

The bible studies were good times as well, letting them do a lot of the work instead of me telling them the way it is. They came to their own understandings and formed their own opinions and I just sort of shared my approach on things afterwards. The studies weren’t too intense though, because I was aware that 1/3 of my class were Hindus. This shocked me because I was under the impression that it would be only Christians that would come to a ‘Vacation Bible School’. I found myself explaining the gospel in new ways that were easier to understand and I sort of shocked myself with the capabilities that were coming out of me. I think this was a real testimony of God working through me, because I really didn’t have a clue, being scared out of my wits and feeling under-qualified.

I did a lot of team games with the group that they really enjoyed. A lot of the time I tried to link them in with the teaching and relating them to how life can be sometimes, so that they could understand why we were doing these (sometimes ridiculous) games.

A lot of games however were just to build relationship, bring people out of their shells and for good fun. The sessions were often hard work because of the heat. I often found myself exhausted after each day and having to take an afternoon nap before doing something in the evening.

The evenings then were spent focussing on preparing for the next day’s session; gathering resources, preparing exercises and praying for wisdom. At the end of the week there was a gospel message given by some bloke from another church. I personally thought his approach and delivery wasn’t that good and was quite cheesy, using picture boards and also a puppet. Then I remembered that the majority of these kids were quite young and that he was pitching it really at their level. I felt a bit sorry for some of the teens from my group because looking at their reactions they looked bored and a bit patronised. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t a message that was more directed at them. BUT...... God can work through every situation and did in this instant. At the end of the message there was an invitation for people to accept Jesus and what he’d done for them (an altar call).

There was one lad in my group who stood up straight away. When I saw this, my head felt like it was going to explode!! God really does put you in the right places at the right time. This lads name was Akshay and he had joined my group on the Tuesday. He had come to VBS on his own and I don’t think he knew anyone. I got talking to him one day about who he thought Jesus was and what he had done. After talking with him I found out that he was a Hindu and that he just thought Jesus was a good man who lived and died and had done some good works. I had a massive discussion with him about what I believed and also had a discussion about what he believed. I didn’t know much about how Hinduism worked, but I wanted to be sensitive and not go into in too deeply. Because we were doing a lot of bible study I asked him if he wanted a bible and he said yes. I thought to myself, ‘this is definitely a door of opportunity’. I said I’d get him a bible for the next day and in the mean time I gave him a funky little leaflet explaining the gospel and about Jesus. I went to the local Christian bookshop and bought him a hardback NIV and wrote a verse inside. ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 8 : 38-39 Throughout the week I just got to know him a bit more through the exercises and discussions in lessons. Even through, what I would consider as a cheesy gospel message God can touch people’s hearts and call them to him to show his love and compassion to us through accepting what Jesus has done for us on the cross. BOOM!