I understand a lot of planning goes into Advent’s VBS and Lisa works hard to plan and account for a lot of situations, but inevitably, VBS happens and you have to “ADAPT”. Adaptability is the ingredient that makes VBS work:
- The family that comes to register a child for classes that is already “quite full”
- The child who has a strawberry allergy and needs to eat the day’s snack separately
- The rainy night that means the scheduled outside activities will need to be adapted and moved inside
- The teacher who needs to stay home to attend to a family situation
- The lesson that doesn’t work as described or takes half of the time planned.
Yes, despite plans…we have to adapt. Like that Samaritan we learned about who adapted his travel plans.
Just for this reason, Lisa assembles an “A-Team” of teachers and helpers —young and old — who are able to adapt, to assist one another and make VBS work.
This summer we learned about the gifts of the Spirit, one each day: love, joy, peace, patience and kindness. We had the materials, decorations, signs and Bible lessons, but we had our A-Team — our adapting — crew who showed these gifts of the Spirit are really present and can show in our lives.
I guess the VBS lesson is this: when you plan, be sure to have Plan A — Plan Adaptability!