Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Volun"Told" at VBS

I won't lie. Mostly because I can't and partly because I shouldn't... I was not excited to find out that our church was departing from the usual Lifeway VBS curriculum. Not excited is my polite term. I love Lifeway, it is a huge part of being Southern Baptist, and I am Southern Baptist first, church member second. Instead we would be using Group Publishing's curriculum. I am familiar with Group,the post uses it for their VBS. It has it's pros (and of course, it's cons) but I was still really disappointed. However, since I had already agreed to help on post and was familiar with the theme I tried to put on my "big girl panties" and rise to the occassion, my own opinions aside.

Then I found out that Group produces two VBS tracks. Our church, of course, was doing the other one! And not only that (this gets really complicated so try to follow along) but it was the "Family" version. The program was written for entire families to participate-mixed ages of children and adults- but our church would be following the traditional VBS format-groups of same-age children, no adults-and changing the curriculum accordingly. I knew that would be a considerable amount of work and I just didn't want to do it. I felt like I had already agreed to lead on post and my position there was fairly considerable. I would just help at church, show up and follow someone else's directions. Easy, right?

I couldn't make it to any of the meetings (except one that had to be cancelled after I had gotten there), and unfortunately our very competent regular director had some health issues and had to be replaced last minute,so I was pretty out of the loop when I arrived at church yesterday. I thought I was in the first grade class. I checked in there and found two teenage girls slapping posters on the walls and furiously trying to make the room look decorated. Okay...where was the teacher? I found the director, she said the teacher was coming. Then we realized: there had been a miscommunication and the teacher wasn't coming-she wasn't even working in VBS. Yup, that's right: there was no first grade teacher. Okay....well, the director better find one! It was like a bad movie. I'm looking around the room and everyone is looking at...me. As the only adult in the class I was selected as the teacher. What?! I was NOT gracious about it. I would love to say that I sweetly replied with, "I can do all things through Christ", or "God works all things together for the good", but I think it was basically something like,"NOOOOOO!". Nice, huh? Big girl panties were no where to be found. But realizing it was between me or a teenager who had only helped, not served as a lead teacher, I figured I may as well put my 12 years of VBS experience to good use. We scrambled to find a book and I had 15 minutes to prepare. Okay, I can do this!

Well, I came up with a game plan, the rest of the staff prayed over me and I began to feel strangely confident. This was no one's fault, it was just a simple, plain accident. A comedy of errors. I was waiting in the sanctuary to gather my class when someone said that the teacher was coming. A different person, who had materials and a lesson plan. Yay! I was off the hook! Hallelujah! Then she arrived. She hadn't been sure she was the teacher, she thought it was someone else. She didn't have a lesson planned and wouldn't even be there two of the nights. She wanted me to teach! "Are you sure you don't want to teach? I am fine with that, I will be happy to help. Are you sure?". I think I was whining at this point, I'm not sure where all my bravado had gone. Nope, she thought I would do a great job, and since she was missing two nights it would be better this way anyway.

So, okay Lord, I get it. This is what happens when You ask me to do something and I say, "No". I get to do it anyway, sans preparation! So, the Lord DOES discipline those He loves! I wasn't feeling real loved at this point but realization was beginning to dawn. I had allowed my own opinions to get in the way and I had missed the Lord's leading. Whoops! I feel bad for everyone who had to suffer too, just so the Lord could teach me a lesson, but I am just praying that I will be wiser (and maybe a little less full of myself) the next time. Praise the Lord, because He is the only One who could have done this, class went swimmingly. It was a little tricky because the lessons are only planned in two 15 minute increments and we have a 20 minute block and 50 minute one (the last one will be kind of interesting) but the kids seemed to have a good time and I have a what seems like a ton of time to prepare for this evening after what happened last night! So, I better go hit the books but I do know that obviously the Lord just needs my willingness and He will make it all work!

5 comments:

  1. You are being grown and stretched in every direction. Praise to the Lord for your willingness to be used of Him to enrich the lives of others for now and perhaps even for all of eternity. I am so proud of all you do. I like the title of your post! Interesting term, must be an Army term.

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  2. Only you Clare!! I am sure that you will blow the kids in VBS away with your "winging it". And if all else fails bring them candy;)

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  3. Isn't it amazing how the Lord can use us if we're willing to become supple clay? He can form us into anything He wants for His purposes if we allow ourselves to be molded. Clay that is still and unyielding cannot be formed into a useful vessel.

    What a blessing you received by being supple and allowing yourself to be used for His will! That's awesome!

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  4. oops...should read 'stiff', clay that is STIFF and not 'still' :)

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  5. I miss VBS this year, but am enjoying my much needed break. Glad it's going well and that you are having fun!!

    ~ Jen

    P.S. I'll let you know later why we picked Group instead of LifeWay. It truly was sad. =(

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