VBS Post

VBS (Vacation Bible School) is in full swing this week. Ususally once or twice a year I am recruted to create a handful of sets for things like VBS or the drama club. I love doing it, but I always think it could be better.

VBS is a great idea though, bringing the children in from in an doutside the church so they can have fun for a week while the seeds are planted. They get to make crafts to take with them. They get to make friends which might stick when they leave. Those from the outside get to feel that the church isn't unapproachable or something to be wary of. Those on the inside get to see what it's like to include those on the outside while they continue their journeys. Their is always plenty to do and for the most part the VBS team is always trying to do their best to serve. It's sort of like a camp that is close to home and that you can go to for a few hours a night as apposed to the entire week day in and day out. The kids realy enjoy it.

One cool thing that I am glad to see was a bit of inter-church help in the form of perpetualy donated VBS stuffs. Their is a man at another local church who works in sets at the dutch apple theater down by Lancaster. He created large murels and a couple large animals which the churches have been passing around to use in their VBS decor. I was very impressed, and a bit down, about the quality of the stuff as well as how well the churches were cooperating. Not that they don't cooperate much just that it's nice to see. I'm a design perfectionist which means I get the set done in time and on budget but no matter what it looks like I always wish I had a bigger budget, more time, or better supplies. I want to make very realistic and appropriate sets because I can and they would be so much cooler. In reality I might not be able to build such sets in a reasonable time period, but I am confident that it is somethign I can do. Everything that I made so far in the past years has been enough to get the job done I suppose but I still get that itch to make it better when I stand there looking at it.

Aside from being a bit of a perfectionist with these things I want to make things so that imagination can rest. I mean we all know that kids have vivid imaginations and so the sets we have are enough, but I would like to have them not need it. I like the idea of creating in general as well as being creative. In this context it would be awesome to make rooms look like they should or did look. Like opening the door to the room and thinking for a second as you look in, "is this a portal to a different time/place". True that level of work is beyond me, but I still love the idea of creating a different time period or place where it was never intended to be...like in the phoenix room. Anyway, I'm not sure where I was going with this...so...I'll stop. Later.