Children by the hundreds make Vacation Bible School the place to be

Not everyone knows that the nation's first Vacation Bible School was held in a beer parlor in New York. Eliza Hawes, wife of a doctor and director of the children's department at Epiphany Baptist Church, started an "Everyday Bible School" for slum children on New York's East Side.

The idea -- for the class, not the beer parlor -- caught on as Hawes' pastor talked about the idea to other pastors. By the 1920s, the program was dubbed Vacation Bible School and had spread across the country.

Societal changes have led to changes in the program, which originally ran for four weeks and now most often is held for five days. In the 1990s, with more women in the work force and fewer moms available to help with a morning program, some churches moved their classes to evenings.

Many churches in the Modesto area offer VBS programs, which tend to have a nondenominational curriculum. Most have a couple of hours of songs, skits, games, crafts, a Bible story, snacks and offerings of pennies or other loose change, which churches often donate to worldwide organizations that help needy children.

Modesto Covenant Church offers perhaps the granddaddy of area VBS programs. Running over two weeks instead of one, the program that began Monday already has drawn more than 500 children, up by more than 10 percent over last year. Additional children register every day; the program continues Monday through Thursday next week. This year's theme is "SonWorld Adventure Park."

It nearly takes a village to put on a program for that many children.

"On a daily basis, we have over 200 staff members," said Rita Hearne, MCC's children ministry director, who will retire after this year's program ends. "To put on a whole VBS, we have more than 300 people -- cutting crafts, making cookies, doing things behind the scenes."

How do they find 200 daily volunteers?

"We have a very supportive congregation who thinks Vacation Bible School is one of the most important things that we do," Hearne said. Some adults even take vacation days to help. The church's youth is also instrumental, she added.

"They come up through VBS and can hardly wait until they're seventh-graders so they can work at VBS," Hearne said. "They do it all the way through college. To me, it's amazing that they make this commitment. It's all volunteer; we don't pay anyone to do this."

Besides the help, the church also provides a daily snack for the children and volunteers.

"It's a lot of food, and it's all donated," she said. "It's homemade cookies or fruit or Chex mix. On Thursday at noon, we have a "Pizza and Praise" luncheon for all the volunteers. On Thursday evening from 6:30 to 9 p.m., we do a wrap-up program and carnival for the kids and their families, with a barbecue dinner, inflatables, games, crafts. We usually have about 700 to 800 people."

The scores of volunteers, the set of a castle, a Western mine, a rocket ship and other objects at the front of the sanctuary, the abundance of food and T-shirts and other details -- it's a big event that Hearne said will cost the church about $7,000 this year, but is free to the children. Why go to that much work and expense?

For one thing, the program attracts about 350 children who don't normally attend church.

"I do it because I want to introduce children to Jesus Christ," Hearne said. "I just want them to know they're loved by the creator of the universe, and they have a friend who will never leave them or forsake them. I want them to have good values, absolute truth, for their life."

And the kids have a ton of fun. "I like missions a lot," said Grant Resendes, 11, who will enter sixth grade in the fall. "We get to learn about kids in India and other countries."

He puts his pennies every day in the offering, which this year will help destitute children in India get an education.

Grant has been coming to MCC's VBS for "about three years." He said he would tell other children who have never attended a similar program to try it -- "they'll have fun while they're learning about the Lord. It's all about fun."

Larissa Kilgore, 10, said she was attending VBS for the first time.

"I like my verses," she said. "I like the prayers they taught me." She also likes the crafts -- "I made a hamburger for my verses yesterday and I'm making a dog right now."

Pierce Rivera, 8, said, "I like some of the snacks they're giving out." He also likes the games on the lawn; they were doing gunny sack relay races Wednesday. He said he would tell other children, "If you have any time to come down here, you'll like it."

Allie Crook, also 8, said, "What I like most is probably the Bible lessons. It's a lot of fun learning about Jesus."

Bee staff writer Sue Nowicki can be reached at 578-2012 or snowicki @modbee.com.

This story was originally published June 28, 2008 at 3:50 AM with the headline "Children by the hundreds make Vacation Bible School the place to be."