Allow me some personal reflections. 

Today is bittersweet. Today is the day that I say goodbye to something that has been part of me my entire adult life. This is my last year directing VBS (summer kids week) at Midwest Bible Church.  Technically speaking, I am not the director this year, I am transitioning the new team. Nevertheless, it is my last year in this capacity. I have been at this since the summer of 2000 when our then-pastor’s wife, Mrs. Powell, enthusiastically encouraged me to run with it. Aside from a two-year hiatus while we were in Nebraska trying our hand parenting teens and having our own baby, that makes 15 years this year. Now here I am, turning the page on that chapter and so many thoughts are rushing in, that it is kind of hard to process.

It has been a true joy and pleasure.

I have young adults who work with the ministry now who were attending as little guys my first couple of years. Because we have done this project “family-style,” my own kids have grown up with this ministry as a set part of their summer repetoir as well. My Elias was on the volunteer team for the first time this year and has been coming since he was 1. Sebastian was just an infant when he had his first VBS experience. And Isaac, well he was practically born on that stage with me! (No really, I’m not kidding!) Riaz & I have painstakingly poured our summers into making this all the Lord would have it be. But tonight…tonight is our last family night as the family who does VBS, so to speak, and then it’s done.  I know the reigns are in good and capable hands.  It’s just hard to let them go.

I think what makes this so hard is that this is the first project in my life that I have had a vision and purpose poured deep within my gut and, on nothing more than some paint and foam insulation board, fleshed it out…and seen its success.  And it was hard. It was tiring.  There were a lot of tears.  There were so many personal missteps and flat-out screw-ups.  But God was SO good.  He sustained it.  He grew it into everything He set in my heart that it could be.  And now that all the chiseling, crafting, and sloughing off of the edges has happend…for both the ministry and me…God has asked me to walk away from it into something new.  It took three years of undoing, but now it’s done.

I am so thankful for this ministry. I have seen countless children know, grow, and mature in the Lord over these years and families find a church home as result of attending VBS. I have had a front-row seat to witness how a handful of well-written songs, some zany games, and some very powerful words written centuries before have the power to impact and shape the lives of our kids as they bounce through their childhood.

It will, indeed, be hard to say goodbye. I know, however, that there are many more wonderful years to come for Midwest VBS and lives that will continue to be impacted for eternity through this amazing ministry.

So thank you Jeff Slaughter for your wicked good music and your sweet motions. Thank you spray paint and foam insulation board for being the medium to bring my crazy to life. Thank you to the hundreds of volunteers who have taken this ride with me. Thank you to the literal thousand+  kids who have brought so much joy to my summers. Thank you to my sister-in-love, Lisa, for being my steady, detailed, and organized partner for so long I can’t remember.  Thank you to my husband, the true unsung hero and master of all interpretive movement now and forever more.  You drove me to achieve more than even I thought possible. And thank you to Midwest, for your support, encouragement, and faith.  You have allowed me to follow the Lord and trust Him and grow in ways I never imagined.  So, goodbye, Midwest VBS, in the words of Glinda & Elphaba:

Because I knew you, I have been changed for good…