Greetings from Rocky Railway!
It’s here! VBS week has arrived and we’re in the thick of it! We’re overrun with kids from infants through sixth-graders, plus tons of youth helpers and adult volunteers who help make this one of the best weeks of the year.
If you haven’t been here, I hope you’ve caught a bit of things online – we’re posting our morning skits on Youtube, and I expect we’ll be broadcasting live on Friday night as well. It’ll certainly be a packed house as we hear from our 200 kids all about how Jesus’ Power has pulled them through. Just yesterday we started to hear some “God sightings” from the kids, which is always precious. It’s kind of a big deal when a little kid is willing to stand up in front of their peers and share something like that, even if it’s really short and simple. It takes courage!
I’ve mentioned many times before though, how many, many, many people this week takes to make happen. It’s quite amazing to be a small part of it. My job is really, really, really small – just a drop in the bucket. Yes, I get a little bit of spotlight and airtime, but it’s so wonderful to share it with others.
Ten years ago, my very first VBS at CUPC was… SonTreasure Island, I believe. I got to share the stage with Dick and Laurie and Christine and we carried that on the next year with the same crew for Sonspark Labs. But then something happened, the skits that were coming out became little 2-person deals. I don’t know if the feedback from other churches was that it was hard to find 4 people to fill out a roster or not, but I missed the ensemble cast we used to have. So… I pitched Hero Central and a set of scripts I’d written years ago in Ohio. It was so much fun to introduce new characters each day and include more actors in the skits. We all had fun together!
Fast forward a few years, and we’ve got our biggest cast yet with 6 characters and 7 actors (did you catch that yesterday?) And next year… who knows?
Honestly, it’s just so much more fun when we share the stage, when we share our gifts and talents, when we share ourselves. It can become easy to think that certain people, or certain gifts, are the ones that are important. But we need them all – we need all of us, working together! We need teachers in classrooms and we need leaders for rec. We need musicians and singers to teach the kids songs and we need people to serve snacks. We need people to teach crafts and take care of babies and answer phones in the office. We need people to create scenery, put up sets, run the sound booth and run around like a silly person for fifteen minutes too. We need all of us. And when we’re all sharing our time and our talents – our gifts, all of the sudden, we’re living out the Kingdom of God for these moments in this place, and it’s absolutely beautiful!
Thank you, to each and every person who’s done that, who’s doing that this week, and to those who couldn’t be here, but helped get us to today. My heart is full, and so are the hearts of 200 children and their families and I really hope you take some time to see it this week – online or in-person! If you can find room in the parking lot, our opening program starts at 9a and our closing is at noon. Friday night, we’ll have a wonderful celebration at 6:45 PM too! Join us – in-person or on Youtube!
Welcoming You… ALL OF YOU, to Grow in Jesus,
Pastor Don
