Vacation Bible School is currently in full swing in Mannheim. Church is not full on Sundays but, girlfriend, when those VBS posters go up and parents see them...many little ones in our 70% deployed community are church goin' kids! Vacation Bible School is the babysitter to end all babysitters...they have lessons, crafts, skits and watery kool-aid that will make you slip back into your own childhood like nothing else will. VBS = lots of sweaty kids and Jesus and parents dropping off and running like a drive thru free health clinic. Just a little side bar: VBS was about a ga-gillion times more fun when I was 7 years old....yes...a ga-gillion. When I was 7...I was a born again, bible thumpin', hymn singing maniac. At 38...at VBS...I see an ocean of kids who need the healing touch of a Savior who said, "Let the little children come to me"....and I bet He was a lot more tired than I am right now. My heart is happy and heavy at the same time.....1 week to reach 300 children and I'm pretty sure we are short volunteers! (:
After VBS (8:47pm) the kids said, "Mom, what are we going to have for dinner?" Emily said, "And DON'T SAY 'WATERMELON!!!" Emmie is not a slow girl...watermelon is all we have in the house right now (seeing as the kitchen has no cabinets or stove!) and I was just about to say, "watermelon"....that chick is a mind reader! I looked at her...she looked at me and I said, "Let me figure something out." Actually...in Germany at 8:47...your only options exsist on post (Burger King, Pizza, Taco Bell and Popeyes.....you cannot even imagine if you tried how many times we have visited each of these fine dining establishments!). And...so...I pull in to order pizza. It's normal...non-eventful...and I tell the guy that I am going to run the kids home and I will be right back to retrieve my food. Again...still uneventful and normal. I drive the kids home and turn back around to get the ordered, paid for, boring pizza and then I pull up. Lights off....doors locked....THE PIZZA PLACE IS CLOSED! Are you kidding? Does this stuff happen to other people? Am I on the new and improved "Candid Camera"? I was gone all of 4 minutes...the guy nodded when I told him I would be right back...the place was humming with people, AFN was blaring on the televisions, orders were still being taken....OH, MY GOSH!!! I'VE MISSED THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST!!! The Messiah left me behind! I am doomed to an eternity in.....................wait......................there is a girl chewing gum and slopping a mop around. I see her! She sees me.....and then she yells...."WE'RE CLOSED!". Yes...I know now let me in before I chew right through the lock and then chase you around with that big dirty sloppy mop! "I can't let you in!"....."Honey, I ordered and paid for my pizza. I just need to pick it up!" ......."Yeah...I know but we are C-L-O-S-E-D!" (That mop pusher spelled it for me!)...."LET ME IN, seriously.....please...." ..........."Hold on...I'll go ask Louis!".......Louis had better be a gigantic black man built like a linebacker for the New York Giants because I am about to use all of my pent up deployment anger to take down the only pizza place in Mannheim....and yet, I smile like a begger woman....I am such a big fat fake!
Here comes Kortnee (yes....it is spelled that way), chewing, struting and holding a key. Well, thank heaven there are still decent people. Kortnee opens the door and then looks over at a "trainee"....and says..."See Teesha...the customers don't care when we close, they keep knocking on the door until we all gone.". I took a breath and I got ready to unload on Kortnee the "gum chewing, mop pushing, fast-food working, soda sucking, no mannered stinker rat rascal"
....and then I had a flash back. All of those little faces at VBS. There they were, just praisng Jesus with all their might....and I couldn't give Kortnee a crazed tongue lashing. I just couldn't. I wanted to but I stopped. Kortnee is lucky....no....she is blessed that God stopped me. It wasn't worth it........oh, Thank you, Lord....because when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror I n
oticed that I was still sporting my VBS t-shirt.... Sweet Jesus...thank you. I can only blow my witness for YOU so many times in a day and I'm pretty sure I hit my quota before noon!
Here comes Kortnee (yes....it is spelled that way), chewing, struting and holding a key. Well, thank heaven there are still decent people. Kortnee opens the door and then looks over at a "trainee"....and says..."See Teesha...the customers don't care when we close, they keep knocking on the door until we all gone.". I took a breath and I got ready to unload on Kortnee the "gum chewing, mop pushing, fast-food working, soda sucking, no mannered stinker rat rascal"
....and then I had a flash back. All of those little faces at VBS. There they were, just praisng Jesus with all their might....and I couldn't give Kortnee a crazed tongue lashing. I just couldn't. I wanted to but I stopped. Kortnee is lucky....no....she is blessed that God stopped me. It wasn't worth it........oh, Thank you, Lord....because when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror I n
oticed that I was still sporting my VBS t-shirt.... Sweet Jesus...thank you. I can only blow my witness for YOU so many times in a day and I'm pretty sure I hit my quota before noon! 
1 comment:
We are also at the end of VBS week, and I agree it was a gazillion times more fun when we went years ago. To be fair, I'm not even volunteering--Caroline still loves it. Of course she's on the stage everyday! I love your about me column and may even copy it a little bit!
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