Operation Overboard!

What do lobster, crabs, and blow up vinyl fish have to do with feeding children?  Everything!  It’s that time again and the churches of the Concord area are diving deep under the sea to share an underwater world with upwards of 120 children this week.  Operation Overboard is this year’s theme for the community wide Vacation Bible School that will run Sunday through Thursday, July 8 through the 12 from 6 until 8:30 pm each evening at 119 S. Main Street. 

If you have never taken your kids, grandkids, or neighbor kids to this event, they are missing out!  We go all out on this one.  I am often asked “Pastor, why do you spend so much time with kid’s events like this?”  In the words of my good friends at L’Oreal: Because they’re worth it!  Every child, whether churched or yet-to-be-churched, pre-schooler or 6^th grader, brilliant or struggling student, adorable or often a snot, is worth every long day of backdrop building, late night of prop hanging, and hot week of bible teaching.  I have often wondered how my life would have been so very different at such a younger age than 30 if only someone would have thought I was worth it, as a child. 

When I say lives are changed, I’m not just talking metaphorically.  One study after another tells us that more than 80% of all people who come to know Jesus Christ as their personal savior are under 18.  All the rest combined, the young adult who comes to Christ in college, the middler who finds the Lord at a spiritual retreat, the senior who comes forward to be baptized for the first time in their life, or even the elder who accepts Jesus into their heart just before breathing their final breath here on earth, all these combined comprise less than 20% of all those who come to know God through Jesus.  So why do I deposit a good portion of my investment into children??  It’s a no brainer. 

In addition to recreation that will stir the blood of any bored kid, art projects that will help bring the lessons alive, science projects that will blow them out of the water, and snacks that will tickle their taste buds taking them to places they’ve never been, there is always the music.  I had a parent tell me once that if it were not for the little cassette (old days) we sent home with her son six months earlier at VBS, he would not have made it through the death of his grandpa.  He walked around the visitation and funeral for days with his headphones on listening to how God was with him, knew him, and loved him.  God ministered to that little broken and scared heart through VBS music.  God is like that.  Showing up in the strangest of places.

So yes, I’ve built ranches and space ships.  I’ve worn super hero costumes with 4 inch platform glitter covered shoes and I’ve dressed up like Caesar’s wife.  This year you’ll find me hanging out in a 16 foot wide yellow submarine complete with port holes, blue waters, and sea life hanging from fishing line being moved by fans.  I’ll be the one in bright orange floppy fins wearing a wet suit, an air pack on my back and some snorkel gear on my head.  Or maybe you’ll recognize me more by the smile on my face. 

This year, we are also excited to announce that Concord Schools and the Summer Food Program will be providing free dinners to all the kids under 18 at 5:30 pm each night before VBS begins.  So we’ll be feeding them before we start feeding them, you could say, as we dive deep and discover a whole new world, filled with love, grace, mercy and hope.  Load up a van of kids and bring them on down.  They’re worth it.   Just ask the United Methodists, the Presbyterians and the Catholics of Concord, as they prepare for this year’s joint VBS.  They’ll tell you all about it…