VBS Lives It Out Beyond Fun-Filled Week

Vacation Bible School makes an impact beyond the first week of June every year.

Much of that impact is made by volunteers like Paula Davis. She and her husband, Luke, joined HPUMC in 2011 and got involved right away. Then, it was teaching the With This Ring class to engaged or newlywed couples.

But last year, Paula signed up to volunteer with VBS and helped make a lasting impact.

“Last year, I worked with the second graders,” Davis said. “... The first day, the boys didn't know what to do with me, but then they found out I like sports. And so then we had something to talk about.”

Finding that common ground gave her and the kids something to bond over. The Youth volunteers, high school boys, helped out too.

“Then midweek, I got this idea. I was like, ‘What if I sent a postcard to every child?’” Davis asked herself. “Because I love getting mail, and I love postcards in particular. And so this boy named Ben Rett was in my class, and I had found out on the second day that he liked to draw. And I was like, ‘Hey, Ben Rett, would you design me a postcard that I could send to people about VBS?’ And so he came the next day, he had taken the symbol and drawn it.”

With the help of her son, Paula turned the drawing into postcards, which she sent to the kids in her class. She also reached out to the Youth volunteers and to their parents to thank them for their help during the week.

“I sent a postcard to every child just thanking them for being here for the week and telling them that I'd be praying for them for the next school year,” Davis said. “And it was so fun for me. And then I wrote to all the teenage helpers to thank them, because they could be doing 300 things, and they're here working with us. And then I wrote their parents, because I think so often we forget to tell parents when their kids are doing good.”

That wasn’t the end of it, though.

“When I see them in the church halls, they usually speak to me, and vice versa,” Paula said. “And it's just fun letting them know that people besides their parents care about them, and I think that's what the church is all about. It does take a village, and the church should be the first village after the home.”

After working with the group of second graders last year, Paula requested to have third graders this year. Three of them are in her class again, while some are in a different group. One of those in another group is Ben Rett, but he still designed the postcards she will be sending out again this year.

The third graders are part of the older group of kids that spends the week of VBS over at the Tolleson Family Activity Center. It gives them a chance to experience the space that will be theirs in a few years.

“It is an opportunity for them to come and just see that church can be all sorts of things,” Davis said. “And for the older kids who start getting like, ‘Oh, I'm so cool.’ Well, we're over in Tolleson now, then they start seeing, ‘Oh, this is where the Youth come,’ and all that.”

Paula also had a Belong Disability Ministry participant in her group. One of the highlights of the week was when another kid gave this participant a shoutout during group time.

“That just hit my heart,” Paula said. “I love that our church has that program and that they’re integrated here.”

Volunteering at VBS is a great way for all generations and people involved in various parts of the church to get together and make a difference in the kids’ lives. Retired adult volunteers, parent volunteers, and the Youth volunteers all come together to make it a special week for the kids.

“Oftentimes people our age go, ‘Oh, I'm too old. Children won't like me,’” Davis said. “That's baloney. They like anyone who's interested in them.”

Having taught engaged and newlywed couples in the With This Ring class for the last 13 years, Paula now runs into some of those same couples at VBS dropping off their kids, sometimes even in her group.

“Just building those intergenerational relationships of people that are interested in you and in your journey, it's just been very fun for us,” Davis said.

That joy extends beyond this year. Next year, Paula’s grandson will be old enough to fully participate in VBS.

“We'll be back next year, and the next year,” Davis said.