Though summer doesn’t officially end until September 23rd, for our family and community, school is just a few days away.
It’s been a fruitful summer. One filled with many exciting family events. I took a sabbatical from the obsessive editing and rewriting I did during the spring on my third and upcoming novel, Make it right; Make it Matter. I hired a couple of beta reviewers who did a phenomenal job of identifying some loopholes which I will fix when my girls go back to school.
For the last three years, my girls have attended Vacation Bible School at our church. It’s one week at the end of June where kids ages 4-12 participate in various stations that teach about Jesus and scriptures from the bible using games, songs, and crafts. Every year is a different theme.
My children love going to Vacation Bible School. They know a lot of the volunteers, do a ton of activities for a few hours, and I get some “me time”.
However, God had a plan for me and for a while I ignored it. Let me elaborate…
In the spring there were a number of emails that came across my inbox from our Children’s Ministry Director asking for help on certain stations that are part of the Vacation Bible School curriculum. One of them was Bible Drama in which an adult volunteer works with kids from our Youth Ministry to put on skits related to each day’s scripture. It requires set design, costume design, facilitating the script—speaking about each scripture as it relates to our lives, assigning roles from the scripts, and making sure my youth volunteers are present each day for the week.
I deleted a number of emails related to the pleas. I registered my kids and I was good. This year’s theme was Shipwrecked: Rescued By Jesus. I found the website, listened to the music, and talked to my daughters about attending. They were excited. Then, one night, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned for hours. I felt this tug to take over Bible Drama. In the morning, I shrugged it off until I saw an email sent directly to me from the Director. It was May and she was pleading for my participation.
“Crap. I can’t.” I thought.
My background is instructional design and for a number of years I also did stand up training. Even so, being an author, sometimes you are asked to speak publicly about your books and experiences to reader groups. I’ll be honest; public speaking often gives me anxiety. I’d rather be sitting at a desk where I can type words on a blank screen, and use the backspace key to erase something that doesn’t always sound right. It’s my comfort zone.
God responded with “Yes, you will.”
Guilt and fear consumed me. I didn’t want to disobey God or turn my back on the church, even if I was really scared to do it. I slept on it that night and I didn’t toss and turn. Instead, a calm peace came over me, and when I awoke, I had a plan of how to accomplish this role. If this is what God wanted me to do, I had to take a chance.
So, I set out to work with the Director. I read through the scripts, modified and enhanced content where I could, researched scripture, communicated with my new recruits and made copies of the materials needed to make this one special week—super special. Most of all, I prayed to God to give me the wisdom to impact all the children attending the session, as well as my six “tween-aged” kids who were going to help me.
For each day, we had a scripture bible point and a story or two to help the children understand the message. This is what I learned:
Day 1: When you’re lonely…Jesus rescues!
Bible Story: Jesus tells parables about lost things. (Luke 15)
Parable of the Lost Coin
Parable of the Lost Sheep
Parable of the Prodigal Son
Day 2: When you worry…Jesus rescues!
Bible Story: Martha worries and complains. (Luke 10:38-42)
Day 3: When you struggle…Jesus rescues!
Bible Story: Jesus’ friends try to rescue him in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Luke 22:39-54, Mathew 26: 36-56)
Day 4: When you do wrong…Jesus rescues!
Bible Story: Jesus welcomes a criminal before dying and coming back to life. (Luke 23:26, 24:12)
Day 5: When you’re powerless…Jesus rescues!
Bible Story: Peter and John heal a lame man in Jesus’ name. (Acts 3:1-26)
It was a jammed packed week and I went home exhausted every day. Most of all, I came away filled with happy emotion, energized for God’s Word, and the kids: the participants and my helpers gave me purpose. God knew as He always does that this is where I was supposed to be.
With school starting very, very, soon, and anxiety and nervousness running high in our home, God has tapped me again. To send my kids off with this powerful reminder that no matter what…Jesus Rescues!
