Our best VBS was the year someone's brother or son was home from the army and got "involuntarily volunteered" to be one of the class leads. He had no idea what to do, but told us that since David led an army he was going to teach us battlefield triage. We spent an hour learning how to make dressings, splint bones, and tie tourniquets. Literally the only VBS lesson I remember in detail.
Just volunteered for our VBS and got asked if I wanted to help at the archery station, the knife throwing station, or the shooting station. We might need those triage skills 😂
Bahahaha ! I get it ! I house /pet-sit for a friend who frequently entertains her three nieces & I'd usually find glitter on the pets & then wore most of it home on me ! 🤣
I was raised a Chicago Roman Catholic but my parents let me go to Presbyterian Vacation Bible School with the next door neighbor kids. Years later, as an adult, I am living in the south. At a party I mentioned how we used to play in an inflatable tunnel at VBS after studying the story of Jonah in the Whale. Immediately five different parents from five different VBSs said "I'm going to use that idea this summer!" The Lord moves in mysterious ways.
I was raised Roman Catholic too. We had no such fun thing as Bible School! When we moved to Alabama, I was invited to Bible School by a neighbor who went to The Church of Christ. That is one of the sweet memories of my childhood. Not only did I learn a new way of worship-I learned “This little light of mine” and tasted Sun Drop for the first time. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I’m 71 now, and will be forever grateful to the family that invited me. In fact, it made such a great impact, that I was director of Bible School in different churches as an adult. I made sure that all of my own children had the Bible School experience AND the privilege of going to a church camp in the summer!😊❤️✝️
The inflated tunnel is that a bunch of box fans with a bunch of garbage bags taped on top to make it the whale cuz that's what they did when you're at my vacation Bible School.
Okay the GASP I just released since that's what we did whenever I was volunteering with the "skit" part of Catholic VBS... many years ago since I needed volunteer hours to graduate Catholic high school AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAY WE DID FOR JONAH AND THE WHALE BECAUSE IT WAS MENTIONED IN THE MATERIALS... Lifeway(?) SENT OVER We were bougie and used someone's tent instead of trashbags tho, lol
The adults who volunteer to teach VBS are awarded a special "adult" room in Heaven where there are coolers filled with ice cold drinks and tables loaded with casseroles from the Senior-Women's Sunday School Class. Seriously - the VBS Volunteers have a unique crown to wear in Heaven. Especially those adults who have the same happy attitude on Friday (Parents) Night as Monday morning, and double blessings for the adults with their own children in the same classroom they are teaching. "Suffer the little children......"
YOU GUYS HAD ACTUAL ADULTS?! WHO VOLUNTEERED?! Not fair, I want all the years post-age 12 back. I definitely never volunteered. And I was definitely in charge of my class.Sucked so bad.
I went to a VBS ran by a nondenom evangelical church in the 2000s. I also was Catholic. Years later my Catholic church did a VBS but we tried to make it more Catholic by talking about "The Saint of the Day" during lunch.
@キャロラインCaroline GAH! Like catechism from September to the middle of May wasn't bad enough. Who willing signs up for that? Us Idol Worshippers got the summers off.
We Catholics now have our own VBS, and I have either volunteered or run them for at least two decades. When you see the statue of St. Francis or Assisi made of popsicle sticks and painted with temperas, yep, my idea. 😂😂
@@godisgracious6098 it’s why I’m happy to volunteer, myself. One summer, I was helping with a VBS out in Idaho in a depressed area. We ran out of drink mix because kids were sneaking in and _eating it._ Poor things! We locked up the powder and got the church ladies to make extra cookies for the snacks. Word must’ve gotten around, because by Friday we had a lot of kids attending. 😄
Growing up in churches of Christ congregations, we had materials from 21st-century Christian, or maybe Gospel Advocate if you were out in a rural area like my grandparents' congregation.
The combination of Matt Mitchell, Vacation Bible School, church basement decorating -- just conjures up smells and tastes of cold, moldy basements, arts & crafts, koolaid and Little Debbie Swiss Rolls in my head!
LOL... love the covering of ears to prevent a song from being stuck in your head for all eternity. My daughter is 29 and I still have this song... "I have the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart! Where? Down in my heart. If the devil doesn't like it he can sit on a tack. OUCH! Sit on a tack. Ouch!" Stucketh in my headeth. LOL 🤣🤣🤣
@@bigscarysteve That's an old children's Sunday school song. I guess someone didn't want to pay for the Lifeway materials and just reused the existing materials for Sunday school for VBS to cut costs. The old standbys still work just fine to bring people to Jesus.
i've got the wonderful love of my blessed redeemer way down in the depths of my heart where? down in the depths of my heart where? down in the depths of my heart
Whenever this happened, we wouldn't see my grandma for like 2 weeks because she was so busy. I made the mistake of showing up there to see if she needed help. I lost like 3 days of my life and it is still a blur decades later.
My church was rather large, so we usually rented out a Putt-Putt or Bogey’s or some kinda games/golf/laser tag combo place. Mostly what I remember is that by the time I was a Junior & Senior in high-school, I was over staying up all night and would end up feeling really sick by the time they were done. And I’m a night owl! 😂
@@bigscarysteve You get a bunch of kids or teens together and have an overnight sleepover, with plenty of activities and adult supervision. At my church, they were always in the gym (technically a "Family life center"). The name comes from the idea that you get dropped off a X time, and are "locked in" and can't leave until the official end time. And, traditionally you're supposed to try to stay up all night, but the kiddie ones I went to never did that. They would sneakily do things to get the kids tired out and fall asleep. If you want more information, try Googling for "lock-in party," which is what they are technically called.
Oh church lockins....went to some at a roller skating rink and some at our church. We had an older girl from a bigger metro area about an hour away show up. She dressed in only black with chains and goth flair. Next lockin she shows up with her BF, they would sneak off to the nursery. Rumor has it they got caught doing the dirty in there. Could have all been gossip.
Awww, I remember it well. In the 60’s we were seriously into crafts with popsicle sticks and paper plates. This was so accurately hilarious. Thanks for the memories.
I remember making something with a dish soap squeeze bottle. How long would they have to save soap bottles to give every kid one for a craft project?!?!
I remember in 9th grade I signed up to help with a small VBS and the parents who were supposed to watch the 1st graders never showed up so it was me and two 9th grade girls left to watch 15 1st graders for a week. We actually did a really good job I think and the kids had fun. It was quite a week for us though.
Lifeway, oriental Trading, Amazon Outfitters, Artic Edge, and staying up late at the church for a week decorating ... I 😂got some serious flashbacks. When I was a teen, I had to volunteer at 5-6 VBS each summer. You would see the same kids , parents just trying to keep their kids busy 😂 VBS was a lifesaver to many
I WAS LOOKING FOR THIS COMMENT.... IT'S SO TRUE THOUGH!!! In 2007, it was Game Day Central, in 2018, it was Game on. The only theme they have not reused has been a space theme. Unless I'm wrong--
I volunteer at my parents church VBS in the kitchen we fix dinner every evening for kids and workers. Lot of kids in the area don't get to meals like they should so we make sure they do. This year theme Christmas in July.
My mom ran VBS a few summers. Before oriental trading co we had to collect so many popsicle sticks, toilet paper rolls, paper plates, pipe cleaners and beads. If we got real fancy we do something with plaster of Paris. So many crafts
As soon as he made the comment about the VBS song getting stuck in his head, one jumped into mine from over a decade ago, and it won't leave! "Son Valley River! That's the place I want to be! Son Valley River! God is here with me! God is here with me!" Over and over again on repeat.
Try this one: Hip hip hip hippopotamus, hip hip hooray God made all of us! Hip hip hip hippopotamus, hip hip hooray God maaaade usss." Sang in a loop for hours on end. That's the VBS song forever ingrained in my brain. 😂
I started to be interested in Veggie Tales, but when I realized the songs were blasting on repeat in my ADD brain I had to abandon ship... which is a shame. They looked good.
This is brilliant 😂 I just started volunteering 3 years ago. The last two years I was just in the sound booth controlling music, but this year some momentary lapse in sanity led me to volunteer for arts and crafts…. Yea, the “This is more stressful than my actually job!” bit got me… and I’m a vet tech so that says something 😂
My local First Baptist Church (on Bayshore) had that "Twists and Turns" theme this week, while my local Methodist church, Crosspoint, had the "Ready! Set! Move!" theme also this week. My little sister went to both because one was in the morning, and the other one was at night. My little sister enjoyed both. I remember when I did VBSs when I was younger. They were great, and I had some good memories from them. I remembered that my twin sister and I did 3 or 4 VBSs every summer. I've also helped with a VBS before and felt happy that the kids were enjoying the VBS.
100% The only things I'd add is the volunteers having to wear the same shirt 5 nights in a row. You can always tell who takes the time to wash them each night and who doesn't 😂 And I always lost about 10 lbs VBS week from all the running I had to do especially up and down the stairs and that was just for the daily prep before the kids showed up.
No not uniforms. There was always a logo that went along with the theme and we would all have to buy the same color shirt, usually white, and they would give us an iron on decal thing. So essentially we all made our own VBS shirts. It made it more exciting, all of us matching, and allowed for the kids to spot a teacher or volunteer easier. Our church was in a low income area, 99% of our VBS kids came from the neighborhood and didn't attend our church so it helped them know who they could go to. On a full Sunday our church had 40 people, adults and kids combined. During VBS week we would have nights were there was over 100 kids, it was amazing...and crazy.
I must've gone to some evil church. After teaching VBS and Sunday School myself, I found the reality to be a lot darker. Lots of families in my church with serious problems they were whitewashing. Never would've suspected it--until I worked with their kids.
As the only Catholic kid attending The Sturgis Bible Chapel VBS, my fondest memories are of a man called Uncle Duane’s exciting singing and Bible drills, I was awe struck.
You're right about teaching VBS requiring special skills. Having taught VBS and Sunday School myself, I discovered that there are a lot of troubled families out there--trouble you never would've suspected existing until you deal with their kids.
The last time we had the underwater theme, my class had shrimp for a craft....and snack. Seriously, we had about twenty 5th & 6th graders to peeling and de-veining a few pounds of those critters. Cooked and added them to the noodles I brought in the crock pot, and we all learned more about Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. 😁
Oh, Lord! This brought back memories. 😂 Practically the same theme every year for VBS. And let's not forget about the teenagers who were forced to volunteer for these VBSs. I was one of them back in the day and this is accurate.
Wow, that's a different church culture from the church I grew up in. Nobody in my church would have been allowed to teach VBS or Sunday School or anything else unless they were married. Definitely no teenagers teaching VBS.
@@bigscarysteve Well, it must be a Cen Cal thing because the church I went to not only did VBS but the youth group had to volunteer for the workshops. 😁
@@1987Arby While I live in the East, my pastor (while I was growing up) was from So Cal. The timbre of his voice and his manner of speaking made him sound exactly like Chuck Smith--but he looked nothing like Chuck Smith, and his theology was definitely nothing like Chuck Smith's. If you're compelled to volunteer, is that really volunteering? Speaking of different church cultures, every other church I've ever been in, when they would ask for the young people to volunteer, every one of them would--but none of them would actually do what they'd volunteered for. In the church I grew up in, no young people would volunteer to do anything. It may have been disappointing to the adults, but at least the teenagers were honest about it. Reminds me of Matthew 21:28-31.
@@1987Arby I'm from Texas, and our VBS (particularly the after-program care bit) relied heavily on the youth group volunteering. I don't think any teenagers were in charge of stations, but we were doing so. much. child herding
Oh son! You know somebody at ever' VBS around is gonna find a way to work this in & they all gon' be saying which person in their church is each of your characters!! You absolutely know your stuff!! The timing on the Marines bit is fantastic! I git so tickled I nearly choked!!
Yeah been to a few VBS over the years and this is accurate, funny and a little sad. Great job Matt and you are right that is where i learned what a Hydrox cookie was.
The song still stuck in my head after nearly 30 years is 🎶 Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego three faithful boys who wanted to know how to grow in the love of the lord 🎶
One of my co-workers mom had all the vacation bible school marked on the calendar so she could take her to a different one every week for the totality of summer vacation
There were several years that my church did its own VBS themes that were based on the children's church skits throughout the church year and then kicked off the next year's children's church theme. After about three years of that we did another LifeWay VBS theme and we just about didn't know what to do with everything. Those kits are extensive when you haven't bought one in a long time.
My mama always taught me to never pray for patience, bc patience wouldn’t be given to you, it would only be tested. It’s a sick, disturbing thought, and yet it still enters my mind at the WORST moments!
As someone who taught his own class for VBS for nearly 8 years I felt all of that. Some of those kids are absolute angels and make your heart melt but you've also got the hellions that seem to make it their life's purpose to give you a heart attack in twelve different ways each day. That being said I still love all my kids and I'm proud of them for growing into *relatively" mature adults with progeny of their own.
"Artic edge where adventure meets courage..." 2006, lol! Thanks, Matt, now I will be singing this for the next week!! Edit: Except now my daughter is singing "Game day central, where heroes are made" from 2007, lol! Sis is 25 and has Williams Syndrome; she functions between 7 and 10 developmentally. WS people are very musically gifted, and Sis can remember almost ever song she has ever heard. She WILL be singing these songs all week! Seriously, these are sweet memories that turn our eyes toward Jesus. ❤
I'm autistic and can remember songs from many years ago too! I don't know if your church did Group Publishing VBS but I remember the ""we will stand strong" one and the song that went "all around the world, something's going on about Jesus's love-it's amazing!"
YESSSSS I was 5 going on 6 when I attended Journey Off The Map. Since 2021, my church has officially stopped using Life way for VBS, and started using Answers in Genesis. This company is by far better than Life way... Better decor, better materials, better songs. And its all shaped around Genesis to allow children to understand Why God does what he does.
Don’t remember much from my days as a VBS student, but as they strongly encouraged the youth group to volunteer for VBS, I have quite a few memories of returning as a teaching assistant. There’s a picture of me, floating around Facebook, from when I was 13 or 14, wearing an improvised, vaguely Arabic-looking headdress and the previous year’s Youth Camp t-shirt, doing some skit in front of some VBS kids. I appear to be dancing.
We had the off-brand cookies. Either the off-brand sandwich cookies (the ones where one side is vanilla and the other chocolate or two rows of chocolate and one row of vanilla) or the butter rings. I loved the butter rings. Do they still make those cookies? I rarely buy cookies anymore. Instead of tap water, we had the fruit punch that came in a milk carton. You know, the cheap one that was off-brand and was mostly high fructose corn syrup, red dye 40, and some artificial flavoring in water. I'm not knocking it. I have fond memories of going to VBS, it was more fun than Sunday School because there were more kids and we got to march in singing "Onward Christian Soldiers." I accepted Jesus one night after VBS in my bedroom before going to bed.
Our kids went to a Lutheran Preschool, so I taught VBS at that church (not our church). When we had the prep meeting with the pastor, he started with, "This is our week to support the community and answer questions. Before we start, we are happy to have [ME] for a week. She's a Lutheran for 1 week a year, and we thank God for that. It still cracks me up!
Loved VBS when I was a kid in the late 50’s and early 60’s! It was always the first or second week after school let out! Signaled the beginning of summer!
I got sent to VBS for the first time in 1967. My last involvement with it--as a teacher--was in 1991. After that, I moved on to churches that don't do VBS.
@@bigscarysteveoh well I help out in a church near us that my grandparents went to every year for vbs and I went to vbs there as a kid and it was always so fun
@@MelB868 I always had fun at VBS--when I was _a kid._ Teaching shows you a whole different side of things you don't see when you're a student. After teaching VBS, I was dumb enough to agree to teach what I call "Sunday school on Wednesday night." That experience led me to forswear ever being a teacher again. The parents got mad at me for actually trying to teach their kids something. They just wanted me to be a free babysitter.
I'm still sweating from standing in the HOT West TN sun from 9:30 to 9:59 am so we could match into the church singing Onward Christian Soldiers. Even to date if I hear that song I start sweating
My great granny was always asking "What would Jesus do?" My cousin's husband heard this once and gave the best reply: "If you'll recall flipping tables and chasing people with a whip is *_not_* outside the realm of probability."
This brought back VBS memories for me. The warm Kool-Aid, hard dried cookies, macaroni letters to spell out’God Is Love’ and the often misshapen plaster casts of ‘Jesus Loves Me’. Then the songs, and the lessons…. All at a small clapboard white church. Cool, damp basement with that smell, sitting under the big maple tree on the hot summer days. Too bad Church today doesn’t feel the same.
I know what you mean. The one weird difference for me is that when I was a kid, my church's building was still in the middle of construction, so no weird basement smell. Our sunday school classrooms each opened out into the great outdoors rather than into a basement corridor.
After 24 years leading VBS at our church, this is on point!!! One time I walked past a room with an overworked teacher and a little girl was on a chair yelling, “ROCK AND ROLLLLLL”…after we got back in control we LAUGHED so hard!! That little girl came back every year and we got to see her grow up in Jesus…love VBS!!!
Wow--talk about different church cultures. In the church I grew up in, if a kid had yelled "Rock and Roll!", it would have been viewed as tantamount to yelling "Abuse drugs!" or "Engage in prostitution!" or "Worship Satan!" A kid yelling "Rock and Roll!" would've been severely reprimanded in my church.
My youth pastor is actually the one that got me into helping with VBS when I was entering my sophomore year of high school. 10 years later, and I'm STILL helping with it. Before, though, I was more involved with the decorating part, but not as much the past several years. This year, I'm taking the role of the snack station leader, but we're watching a video each day and I'm asking the kids questions.
Holy Cow! I was just thinking about VBS today🤯 It was the highlight of a country kid's summer...unless they were serving Wyler's and generic two-color Oreos. But I did have a fine collection of Popsicle stick frames and paperclip necklaces😁Thanks, Matt🤣🤣❤️
As someone who once managed to twist both ankles in the process of hanging vbs posters, I feel this way too close to home. Missing the demon-eyed Group mascots, the constant battle with fire ants wherever any outdoor activity could take place, and "oh god who decided the preschool craft rotation should paint" (my mom. my mom every year. though tbf she was also leading that rotation)
I just finished as a crew leader in VBS in June. I have got to say. It is one of the most fun and rewarding things I have ever done. I loved every moment of it working with those kids. Altogether we had 4 crews with seven kids to each crew.
