VBS in Detroit last week--and this coming week--and possibly the week after that.
If ever a program like Vacation Bible School was needed somewhere, it's needed in downtown Detroit. When inner-city kids aren't in school, they're on the streets, and that includes little three-year-olds.
This particular three-week-long program has been successfully run by Pastor Randy Brown and his wife Barb for fourteen years. It's a ministry I've been involved in for the past four years.
It involves a lot of volunteer work by church groups that come in to support Military Ave. Church, and it provides an opportunity for middle-class people like myself to get a small taste of inner-city life.
If you're interested in up-to-date facilities, A/C, and trendy themes, this VBS is not for you. The church proper is not air-conditioned, the sanctuary can barely fit 150 people, and we've sung the same songs every year I've been there.
Recreation consists of walking two blocks to a park the size of most church parking lots, where you can't go barefoot because of broken beer bottles, and playing the simplest of organized games--usually involving water, because the heat index is around 100 degrees this time of the year.
But the kids love it.
They come from one-parent homes, and live in an environment of poverty, drugs and illiteracy. But for three weeks they come and experience grace; supplied, like the lunches, free-of-charge. They bond with the volunteer helpers, eager for attention they've been starved of at home. They hear pure, unadulterated bible stories, and the gospel. They can sing their hearts out, play their hearts out, and know that here, at least, they will have to follow the rules set down for them. They can have the security of knowing that for three whole weeks, they don't have to be the ones in charge. Yes, it's a grass-roots type of ministry, and yes--it's exactly what these children from the inner-city need.
We supply the lunches, the games and the bible stories. God supplies the grace.
Together, we make a pretty good team.
If ever a program like Vacation Bible School was needed somewhere, it's needed in downtown Detroit. When inner-city kids aren't in school, they're on the streets, and that includes little three-year-olds.
This particular three-week-long program has been successfully run by Pastor Randy Brown and his wife Barb for fourteen years. It's a ministry I've been involved in for the past four years.
It involves a lot of volunteer work by church groups that come in to support Military Ave. Church, and it provides an opportunity for middle-class people like myself to get a small taste of inner-city life.
If you're interested in up-to-date facilities, A/C, and trendy themes, this VBS is not for you. The church proper is not air-conditioned, the sanctuary can barely fit 150 people, and we've sung the same songs every year I've been there.
Recreation consists of walking two blocks to a park the size of most church parking lots, where you can't go barefoot because of broken beer bottles, and playing the simplest of organized games--usually involving water, because the heat index is around 100 degrees this time of the year.
But the kids love it.
They come from one-parent homes, and live in an environment of poverty, drugs and illiteracy. But for three weeks they come and experience grace; supplied, like the lunches, free-of-charge. They bond with the volunteer helpers, eager for attention they've been starved of at home. They hear pure, unadulterated bible stories, and the gospel. They can sing their hearts out, play their hearts out, and know that here, at least, they will have to follow the rules set down for them. They can have the security of knowing that for three whole weeks, they don't have to be the ones in charge. Yes, it's a grass-roots type of ministry, and yes--it's exactly what these children from the inner-city need.
We supply the lunches, the games and the bible stories. God supplies the grace.
Together, we make a pretty good team.
