I remember the room. I can recall where I sat. The excitement of hearing the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for the first time has not faded. I can still taste the sugar cookies and cherry Kool-Aid we had at break. Others may have long forgotten Mildred Stutzman’s VBS class that summer, but I haven’t.
Other teachers taught my VBS classes in previous years, and they poured their lives into their material and those students. They loved, and they cared. But I remember Mildred’s class for one basic reason.
Most of the kids in the class went to church regularly. I didn’t. Most of those children were reared in Christian homes. I wasn’t. Most of the others had their own Sunday school class. Not me. I don’t remember being different. But I do know why I remember Mildred’s class.
She invited me to church.
Even though I had attended VBS for several years, no one ever helped me to make the transition from summer VBS to regular Bible school. Mildred asked. I came. She taught. I listened.
She asked me over to the farm where she and her husband, Guy, lived. I went. She encouraged me to go to Christian camp. I signed up. She asked me to stay for services after Bible class. I stayed.
Like any other church outreach, VBS only works as well as the people in it. VBS, Friend Day, Christmas Potluck, or a host of other church activities all excel when Christians ask.
It wasn’t the great study material. It wasn’t the cookies and Kool-Aid. That little country church didn’t have a gym or modern facilities. Nobody had paved the parking lot or carpeted the floor. But one good Christian woman asked a little boy to come back.
I’m glad she asked.