The Old, Old Story
Vacation Bible School has been a summer tradition for over a hundred years. Fifty years ago, we called it Bible School. Now, in this age of acronyms, it is simply referred to as VBS. When I was a child, nearly every Protestant church in town conducted its own version of Bible School, which was held every weekday morning for two weeks, or sometimes all day long for one week. It was a special treat to be able to take a sack lunch to Bible School during those all day sessions. In the past, children were divided by grade, with ten or fifteen, or even more children, grouped together in a tiny room, or perhaps crowded into a small space that was divided from the other groups with a curtain or some other form of temporary partition. The teacher, assisted by a teenage helper, taught the lesson via a workbook format, and helped the class work on their crafts. Each child was given a commercially-produced cardboard box containing everything that was needed to creat...