Conversation Point

In This Moment

Summertime

Summer is very evident outside my door: eighty degrees and a clear redefinition of humidity. Thank you, God, for fans, air conditioners and cold drinks to sustain the body and refresh the soul.

Summer is manifesting itself in other ways too. Children are freed from the routine structures of their classrooms. Vacations welcome us to rest and revitalize. Visitors from across the country, and across the street, reconnect over new adventures and renewed acquaintances with familiar summer rituals. Vacation Bible School comes to mind as one of those summer rituals, an annual event during my Wisconsin childhood. One week in particular stands out among them, more in retrospective than in the living of the events. The legacy is what has stayed with me forty years later.

Our church was perfect for hosting these programs. A huge Christian Education building, directly linked to the sanctuary, surrounded by plenty of grass and trees, and the parking lot across the street all played their supporting roles. There was enough space for all of us to be and to grow. The facility offered a generous framework for the rich minds and spirits of our leaders to work. This particular year offered an interesting new opportunity: rather than meeting in the morning or early afternoon, we would gather from late afternoon to early evening for our summer study time.

And so, Monday through Friday of that week, we came together as the Vacation Bible School community. We worshipped, prayed, sand songs, studied scripture, played games together, and created art projects to share with our families. We shared snacks and brown bag meal times with one another, and closed our time together each evening with a vesper service before scrambling out the front doors of the church to be greeted by our parents, who would walk us home, asking us what we had learned that day.

The simplicity and grace of that week is still so clear because it occurred to me several years ago that that week encompassed a whole theology of life, passed on to my generation from a group of people who were role models of faith in action in the real world. The beauty and truth of those days are lasting because I saw the theology they embodied throughout the year, not just during that week. The Vacation Bible School teachers worshipped, prayed and sang songs with us in all seasons. They talked about how scriptures had impacted their lives, and how they saw God at work in the world. We all participated in the Advent workshop candle trimming and ornament crafting. The Women's Fellowship annual bazaar rivaled any mini-mall/cafe combo within a hundred mile radius for abundance and creativity. We shared many meals together over the years, and more than a few vesper services with sunsets over the lake as the evening meditation.

Blessed by their generous gift, I am twice more blessed by the memory, and my own desire to embody this legacy in the hope of passing it on to the next generation.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 10:58 PM