Guest Post: "It Takes An Army"

Saturday morning at 4:00, I was wide awake. In three hours, fifteen or so people were supposed to come and carry a bed, two desks, a dresser, a cabinet, a washer and a dryer, three bedside tables and well over one-hundred bags and boxes down a flight of stairs, drive them a mile down the road and up another flight. (These people, in my opinion, were either the most loyal of friends… or the craziest.) My mind wouldn’t turn off. Would they come? Would I have enough coffee and Munchkins for them? Would it rain? Would it be sweltering? Would someone get heat exhaustion, stung by a wasp, or trip going up (or heaven forbid, down) the stairs? Would someone decide I just wasn’t worth it and go home? Would I fall back asleep and miss all the excitement (unlikely). Would my cats hate me by the end of the day and scratch me to death? (Um…that kind of did happen.)

It was a lot of people coming together just to perform a service for someone who really didn’t deserve it. I found it humbling and was reminded that service is what we are called to do, and to do it joyfully. Although some friends were in a hurry to finish and get on with the day, I don’t recall anyone who wasn’t understandingly happy to help.

Mine was a small operation, but because I am so brilliant (note the sarcasm), two days after the move, this past Monday, we began Vacation Bible School here at Sardis, a slightly bigger event that requires the services of many. In between the running around (literally), emergency runs to the store, trying to be creative with supplies when quantities were off or projects didn’t work right, finding an extra “something” for “someone”, (when that something could have been located in the Fellowship Hall, Preschool or Sardis House but more likely in the closed-off Education Hall), and attempting to stay away from the sour cream ranch dip in the snack room, I noticed that it takes an army to make this week of teaching children about God run as smoothly as possible, AND be all for God’s glory.

VBS is about children… kind of. If you don’t have any (neither do I, actually), or yours are long out of preschool or elementary school, don’t tune out just yet, because in some ways, VBS isn’t about children. Those children will become youth, young adults and adults one day. They will be the Christians to carry on the global church. So what they learn today is what we’ll have tomorrow. There are many inheritances we can leave our children. How important should our faith be one of them? That’s the obvious way it’s “kind of” about children.

Beyond that, and more the point, VBS is also about people who are called to spread the word of God. As I sit here towards the end of Day 2, I realize that everyone here today and who will volunteer this week, has taken up that call. These are people you know, no matter who you are here at Sardis. Some are the parents of our 3-11 year olds. Some have well retired and have *never* had children. Some have just recently married and as yet have none. Some are grandparents of children. Some are youth who have recently passed beyond Elementary school. Some are members of Sardis. Some are not. Some are best friends who took their summer vacation to come help out (take a wild guess). There are people who are spread across all ages and stations in life.

But all… ALL have taken up the command given by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus didn’t leave us with a suggestion. It was an exhortation that we DO THIS: GO THEREFORE AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS. It takes an army… one much bigger than the small one that helped me move… to lead our church’s and the community’s children through childhood as they learn and grow in our faith in hopes that someday, they will do the same as they “go and tell all nations”. From the bottom of my heart, I thank all who were part of God’s army this week for VBS. 

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Heather Eddy is the Assistant Director of Christian Education. She is a guest post crowd favorite, and we look forward to hearing more from her. Heather is spending her summer recuperating from taking Sardis children through the wilderness of Vacation Bible School, continuing to take her college students through the wilderness of Pre-Nursing Anatomy and Physiology, and hoping that her legs recover from climbing the Statue of Liberty and moving to a new home a few days later.