July 25, 2024
Last week was Vacation Bible School at Ardmore Baptist Church. Monday through Friday, the church building was buzzing with the noises of children laughing, dancing, and enjoying being with one another.
Let me first say that this Vacation Bible School was so well-organized and led by our Minister with Children and Families, Lee Ritchie. She gave us all of the information we needed in plenty of time, she made sure the supplies were purchased, and she even thanked us all with dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s! Lee is a gift to our church (and, as a parent of three kids, to our family).
I try to help every year with VBS if I can. Now, I will tell you that most of the time the “Senior Pastor” gets asked to do the Bible Story. And, please don’t get me wrong, I love telling stories from the Bible to anybody and everybody. But, I would be lying to you if I told you that sometimes it can get a little old.
Well, this year I was delighted when Lee told me that I would be co-leading a rotation session called “Science and Nature.” Rick Jordan was to be my co-leader and we had a blast every day. We demonstrated capillaries at work in flower stems by placing white chrysanthemums in dyed water to see the petals change colors throughout the week. We talked about how hard forgiveness can be by trying to toss popcorn kernels into a bowl from farther and farther distances. We measured our heart rates after doing 30 seconds of jumping jacks to demonstrate how our bodies were created for rhythms of work and rest. Rick was an amazing co-leader and has such a great way of speaking to the kids in our church.
Each morning I stood back and kind of marveled at the fact that we are a church that offers a Science and Nature rotation as part of our Vacation Bible School. I have to be honest with you, the church I grew up in would probably not have done that. They were goodhearted people, but science and faith were always portrayed as being at odds with one another. And yet, Rick and I were able to connect the amazing, restorative love of God with the intricacies of creation in our world.
I am grateful for all of the volunteers who made this Vacation Bible School possible. It was a wonderful week in the life of our church, friends.
