VBS Reflections

Every summer, St. Timothy’s coordinates a Vacation Bible Study for the younger generations of our community, a fun-filled program meant to reach out and bring in children to teach them about the gospel. It is an opportunity for children to learn more about God and His Word through engaging and interactive activities. VBS has also been a great learning opportunity for the volunteers and paid interns. Through serving the children, these leaders have gained invaluable experience and insight on what it means to be a faith community as one body in Christ. 

Following the end of the 2019 VBS, the interns were given time to reflect upon their experiences with the kids and the many lessons learned over the past two weeks. 

1. What were my thoughts and expectations coming into VBS? 

Coming into VBS, I was genuinely excited because I had good memories from my past VBS experiences and I missed participating last year. I remember getting close to a lot of the younger kids that I didn’t see regularly at church so I was thankful for another opportunity to get close to a new bunch of kids. I was also looking forward to the job because I knew I would have a lot of time to talk to the other people in Hi-C, and even if we weren’t doing anything, we would be able to have a good time together so I knew there wouldn’t really be a boring moment at VBS. I think being put in charge of the crafts station added onto my positive expectations because I’d get to run something that I really enjoy, and the actual crafts already prepared, so I just had to make sure to help all the kids do them on the day of. I don’t really think I had any fears or worries coming into VBS, just a lot of excitement.

~ Kaitlin Lee

 

2. What were some of the greatest challenges I faced during VBS? 

Some of the greatest challenges I faced throughout VBS was maintaining a high energy environment in the Music Station and keeping the children’s enthusiasm and attention at a high level.

The reason why this was such a difficult thing to accomplish is that every child is unique and trying to have a program that enticed all their different personalities and interests was a struggle. I also struggled with asserting my authority over the children.

By nature, I am not a very intimidating person and do not enjoy being overly dominant and having to treat people as my subordinates. I would much rather lead people in a positive manner and utilizing incentive, excitement and passion to motivate people to do what I want. Unfortunately, this did not really work with the children because they were very fixated on the present and were often unable to look at the bigger picture and become excited about a future goal or reward. They instead did whatever would grant them instant gratification even if it came with future consequences. 

~ Emily Kim

3. How did I deal with those challenges?

I realized that it is nearly impossible to make the kids sing and dance for the entire length of the music station. There needed to be an incentive or something to look forward to. To deal with this, Emily and I compromised with the kids. We would ask them to do a few of the songs, and if we felt like they did well and everyone participated, we would allow them to choose a game that they would like to do. For the younger groups, we played music games such as musical chairs and freeze dance. Group C was not interested in these games so we allowed them to pick a game of their choice and we would play praise songs in the background. We hoped that this would subliminally engrain the songs in their minds. One of the members of Group C said that the songs were stuck in her head, which is what we hoped would happen.

To deal with the children who were harder to manage, we learned that we needed to be strict at times while also being encouraging. I realized that even though the kids may say they do not want to do something, in reality, they just want the attention and to get a response out of you.

It was apparent that some of the kids needed a little push for them to excel.

~Jason Jang

4. In hindsight, how might I have better dealt with these challenges?

I should have been more open to suggestions, advice, and help from fellow colleagues to deal with these situations.

I should also have been more engaging and put more effort into finding a common interest with the kid. As well as starting better conversations rather than just asking how their day was or week was. If I was more firm with the children, it would have been a better experience for everybody.

~ Joel Kim

In hindsight, I could’ve better handled my situation by identifying the problem quicker. While I was present for my group’s arguments, I was oblivious to the effect it had on those in my group, especially when I thought they were just joking.

I should have been more attentive to the effect of actions on those in my group.

~Jonathan Choe

 

5. What have I learned about children and their part in a faith community?

I’ve learned that children are the future of a faith community and are just as important if not more as any member of our community. Children need a safe and loving environment in order to grow and learn and I think the community has a responsibility to ensure that the kids are able to be nurtured in an enriching environment. That’s why I think VBS is such a great and special place, and as leaders, we have an important responsibility to help create that loving environment. As they represent our future, we must really love and support them as they will be the leaders for the next generation to come and to ensure that this loving cycle will continue.

~ David Kim

I have learned that children are so important in a faith community. I think that by caring for children, we can all learn a lot about serving, no matter your age. I feel that by spending time with the children and caring for them, multiple generations are united at once. Not only are we directly impacting the child’s life and helping them to grow into the people that will one day be leaders themselves, but we are creating a bond with the parents and grandparents of these children. 

~ Maddie Kim

6. How does my interaction with children shape or affect my view of God’s love? 

My interaction with children affects my view of God’s love because He is the one who takes care of all of us since we are His children. This made me realize that we are more similar to children than I had originally imagined. We are all different and we have done many bad things in life such as committing sins and disobeying Him. Even though we do all these things, God still wholeheartedly cares for us, loves us, and never disregards any of us. This shows me that God’s love is a great thing to experience and He is the only one in the world who can be patient, understanding, and forgiving even when we disobey him. He never holds a grudge against what we do and still loves us even when He sees the worst in us. When I think of my interactions with kids, I find that I am not very patient nor understanding, but when I think about God I realize that his love for us is so great that He is willing to forgive us whenever we do something wrong.

My interactions with children affected my view of God’s love by showing me that his love for us is great and He cares for each and every one of us and knows all our faults but still loves us for them.

He has the greatest amount of love that no one else could surpass. 

~ Kayla Rho

7. What have I learned about myself through this experience?

From the past two weeks, I have learned more of my own capabilities around children as a camp counsellor and obtained valuable skills. I learnt how to better take care of children and have a wholesome time with and around them.

Instead of just pushing myself to the limit mentally and physically to prioritize each of the children’s desires, it is better to find a balance between myself and the child in order to maintain a healthy relationship.

Additionally, I have learned to be flexible and adaptable to the changing situations. As things would not always go according to plan (as David and I were in charge of games), it was crucial for us to be able to read the room and switch around what we were doing for a better time. Sometimes we had to be slightly stern and push the children to do what we planned, as we could not let them walk all over us, but many times it was better for us to go with the flow and adjust activities so we could all have fun with each other.

~ Jonathan Rho

8. What am I thankful for about this experience? 

I am very thankful that I am able to work with my friends and with the community that I love. This whole opportunity is very special and I am just glad that I am able to be apart of this experience. This opportunity is very different than other “normal” jobs and I am grateful that I can be paid to reflect on my life and as well just work for the church.

Working with your friends and the people that you grew up with and love is something special and is not really common so it is just awesome to be able to do so.

I am also thankful for being able to bond, interact and just have a good time at VBS and with the kids. 

~ Peter Jang

I’m thankful for being able to interact with the younger generation and get to know them better since we tend to only talk to people around our age. I think this is important in a faith community so we don’t feel like there is a huge gap between age groups and that we hopefully feel like one big family, rather than different cliques that all go to the same church.

~ Matthew Lee

9. What are some things that could have been improved to make this a better experience for everyone? 

I think the afternoon activities could have been better organized concerning what is going on which day, who is where which leaders do we need for which activity and so on. I also think for object lesson materials from the VBS website should have been bought ahead of time. There were certain activities in the booklet given to us where we had to buy specific materials from the VBS website that would have made the lessons much more enjoyable. When we didn’t have those materials, Maddie and I ditched the booklet and came up with something similar.

But overall VBS was an amazing experience that I will remember. 

~ Megan Park

Conclusion

Although VBS held quite a few challenges for the leaders, it was a great opportunity for all of the volunteers and paid interns to share valuable lessons. Keeping up with the children’s energy levels proved to be exhausting, however, the leaders learnt to be patient, compassionate, and to problem-solve and adapt to changing situations. Through serving the children, the leaders were encouraged to overcome obstacles with the guidance of our supervisor Pastor James and in each other. Overall, this past VBS was a huge success and we are looking forward to another successful year!