Capri sun and Jesus.

I love the summer in New England. After the insanely snowy winter we just had, it's a joy to feel the heat and humidity as we walk out the door. And as the kids grow, there's some emerging certainties about our summers;

1. All previous consumption regulations about juice in a foil container become null and void.
2. We'll discover at least 2 new Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors.
3. We'll lose 3 towels, 2 water bottles, one swimsuit and 3 flip flops at camps, even though they were labeled.
4. We'll spend the GDP of a small African country on beach parking fees.
5. The kids will attend at least 2 VBS weeks.

VBS (Vacation Bible School for our non-US readers) is something I've encountered in the last couple of years as my kids reach school age. Its name rolls awkwardly off the tongue and raises every anti-Christianeze hair on the back of my neck. I initially imagined rows of bright shiny faces dressed in their Sunday best on a weekday (!) and playing endless rounds of  'Find the bible verses' as they collected spiritual stickers on the backs of their bibles to take home to show their beaming parents.

How wrong I have been.

The VBS machine is huge. There are several large Christian publishing companies designing curriculum that a church can literally take as is and put together a week of activities based on a bible theme, character, or story. There are ready-made craft kits. The music, lyric, and stories are on dvd and cd, often purpose-written to tie in with the theme and pretty good. You can buy scenery, costumes, scripts, and just about everything. And it can all be adapted to your church size, your budget, and your target audience. (Some large churches get 300-400  kids!). There's always a water day, there's a fair consumption of snacks, and the kids get to do a 'show' at the end of the week for parents and friends. And I know this because last year I entered in to the world of running a VBS-style week at our church. Exhausting. Fun. And a real awakening into the vision and value of what a week like this means to a kid and ultimately their family.

As parents who consider themselves followers of Jesus, our goal is to point our children in that faith direction. We're firm believers that it's our responsibility as parents to spiritually lead our kids. Sunday kids programing, VBS, and kid's clubs can't do that on their own. Yet, they do have an important place in the lives of our kids and our family.

I have friends who don't consider themselves to persue a Christian faith but send their kids to VBS. Their thought is 'It's free/cheap, they are kept busy and having fun with other kids, and it's not teaching them to be morally corrupt'. Totally true. But I know that in amongst the games, crafts, and singing, my kids are thinking differently. They've realized that they have peers wanting to pursue a faith journey in the same direction. They see love-in-action as volunteers willingly spend their free time with them. And when they've forgotten the more cheesy-sounding songs, and the crafts have been 'recycled', they will still remember the stories and conversations that they heard as they explored faith together. And I like that. Very much.

I'm the eye-mom, and I'm a VBS groupie.