I’ve always been impressed by Vacation Bible School.  I can remember several important events in VBS from the time when I was a kid.  I remember a story about a POW.  Only a few students knew what a POW was.  We learned a valuable lesson that day about depending on God and knowing that God would never forsake you.

Since I have been involved in VBS most of my life, it’s hard to be impressed with VBS.  With that being said, the VBS at FBC, Covington, impressed me.

It wasn’t the 20 something kids who made the initial step to ask God into their life that impressed me.  It was a wonderful number of kids to accept Christ, but each year we are blessed to see children saved.  Each year VBS is the premier evangelistic tool of our church.  It’s the same with most churches.  In fact, if you ask people in a church service to raise their hand when they were saved, VBS will probably get more votes than any other.

It wasn’t the 400 plus volunteers that impressed me, but I can tell you I have never seen so many volunteers.  They were an impressive group from a numbers point of view and from an attitude point of view.  They were a hard working, get it done, whatever is necessary bunch.

It wasn’t the numbers of children that impressed me, though we have never had anything close to this number of attendees at VBS.   Over 1100 children and volunteers attended every day–makes you want to add more education space to the building.

It wasn’t the amount of offering that the children gave that impressed me, but they gave almost $6,000 to a local ministry and a church in New York.  That is a lot of money for kids to give.

It wasn’t the terrific planning that went into VBS that impressed me.  We have seen that before.  In fact, we see it every year.  As I have said before, the people who run VBS at FBC could run small countries.

What impressed me about VBS was the teenagers who volunteered and saw their work as a ministry to please God.  Our teens connected with their students and presented an example of how godly young people live, act, work, and serve.  Our teens were polite and considerate.  They exuded the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives (Galatians 5:22-23).  I watched as our guests brought their children.  They noticed it too.  It is the exact fulfillment of 1 Timothy 4:12:  “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”  In Paul’s mind, no one could look down on a person who lived a godly life and set a godly example.

God further instructed Timothy to build up the faith in the worst of times by continuing  “in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3: 14-15).  What impressed me were young people who are wise for salvation. 

What impressed you about VBS?