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RENDEZVOUS

Take an Ordinary Sidewalk

Add a Few Adults--Kicking and Screaming before They Arrive--It Must Be the Loving VBS Crew in Cut Bank

by George Guest, Lone Rock Bible Church

I am never doing this again! I have just spent an entire week doing VBS in, of all places, Cut Bank, Montana. I am tired; no, I was tired Wednesday. This is Friday and I am exhausted! Now I am looking at a 270-mile drive back to the Bitterroot where I will be met by an unwatered garden, an unmown lawn, and a pouting dog who thinks I should be reported to the ASPCA for excessive neglect and abandonment. Then there is the credit card bill and unearned money. No sir, I am never doing this again, not on your life!

But then I have been saying this every year for the past three years, and the whole team of faithful workers that comes from the Stevensville and Florence areas each year have similar complaints. But, if the Lord wills and the need continues, we will most likely be back again next August because of the hope we have of being used by God in the lives of these little children.

They are so precious! Oh, who am I kidding! Children are annoying, excessively noisy, messy, and they have far too much energy. But then children do have something quite special, something most grown-ups lose—the ability to completely believe what they are being told, which makes them the most fertile soil for God's work. How many times have we all heard in people's testimonies that their walk with Christ had its beginnings in a VBS, Bible camp, Sunday School, or AWANA? Even when we think they are not paying attention, we find that God's Word has, in spite of all the racket and confusion, stayed planted in their hearts. My own wife, Millie, testifies that her walk with Christ had its beginnings in a Vacation Bible School.

Pastor Ron Paull and his wife Jean (alias the Energizer Bunny) freely admit that children's ministries is Big Sky Bible Chapel's first priority. VBS is a great boost to that ministry. There are more kids each year and more kids who stay through the entire week. Ron and Jean continue this ministry with a weekly children's Bible Club through the school year. Cut Bank, as you may know, borders an Indian reservation. The true Gospel light flickers dimly there. The need is so great and need for the harvest greater still.

I will also go back for the faithfulness of my friends, my fellow workers. We encourage each other to "good works." I have seen how the Body of Christ operates in the confines of a single week. Some organize, some teach, some encourage, some have hospitality, some praise, bit all have a single purpose; they glorify God. So, whatever the cost I will go back for the hope of being a part of what God is doing there. It doesn't matter if it is great or small, the reward will last forever.