VBS - Not What It Used To Be

When I was a teenager, helping with Bible school, the kids came, we had Bible school, and when it was all over, they left.

When I was organizing Bible school about 15 years ago, the same was true.

It is very, very different now.

I helped with registration tonight at our Bible school.  Every child had to have a form, with parents' names, address, phone number.  Any food allergies listed.  Permission signed that it was OK for the child to participate.

Each child then got a stick-on name tag (placed on his back so that he can't pick it off or play with it), with the name of the person who was picking him up written at the bottom.  Bus kids were identified with a "B" on the tag.  The person who dropped the child off got a card with the names of the children he would pick up at the end of the night.  Tag and card have to match at pick-up.

And if the child has any food allergies, he got a special identifying sticker on his name tag, with the specific food allergy written on it.  (I asked one little boy if there was anything he couldn't eat.  He solemnly replied, "No, I can eat anything, but I don't like brussels sprouts.")

Times have changed.