Vacation Bible School

Mt six-year-old daughter is going off to VBS this week at our parish. She has been there two previous summers, from 8:30 to 12:30 every day for a week, and has always enjoyed it.

But Catholics always have a problem with VBS. They never can quite get into the swing of it.

Our parish used to use a canned curriculum by a solid, Catholic educational company. It was all very reverent, serious, informative, and boring.

Kids were returning home with red marks on their foreheads where they would fall asleep and bang their heads on the classroom tables. And what were they doing at tables in the first place? This was supposed to be an educational day camp, not a CCD supplement.

So our people tried to adapt materials from other programs to make an ad-hoc VBS. Most of the material was adapted from our annual Advent Fair, held every fall on the second Sunday after Thanksgiving. But they didn't adapt the materials very much. Last year, my kid brought home an advent wreath made out of bottle caps and a paper plate in June.

So this year, our director of religious education took a big breath and purchased a canned, Evangelical program.

Let's face it, the Evangelical Christians really know how to do VBS right.

I'm wondering which day this week my daughter will come home and ask me if I've accepted Jesus as my own, personal Lord and Savior?