Church in the Windshield

Church in the Windshield

Brookville United Methodist Church

VBS Program July 22, 2018

Pastor Bill Gies

Its 9:00 a.m. when Sheron and I leave for the Brookville United Methodist Church located about forty miles from us.  We arrive early in Brookville and see a beautiful well-kept white wooden church located across the street from the city park.  There is one lone small blue car parked in front of the church.  We assume that it might be the pastor’s car but we are not sure. 

 

There is an attached building on the right side of the church and we assume that it is the fellowship hall and maybe some classrooms. It also is a white well-kept wooden structure. 

Our eyes move slowly to the right and we see eight interesting cement block pillars. Four of the pillars are on one side of an estimated one hundred foot square and four pillars on the other side of the square. There are two or three heavy gauge wires tied across each two pillars. Sheron and I wonder about the purpose of the pillars.  Perhaps the pillars and wires were to support a grape vineyard, we speculate.  Maybe it was a part of the old abandoned Brookville Restaurant located just on the other side of the plot. We ponder that for a while in silence.

Suddenly, the silence is broken by the sound of a motor scooter approaching the vineyard.  A young lad dressed in a blue shirt, and wearing a baseball cap hid his scooter behind a bush.  The bush located in front of the vineyard gave perfect cover and security to the motor scooter.

Cars and pickups began to arrive and averted our attention back to the church. A couple of people came to greet us and invite us to come inside for cookies.  One person dressed in a blue shirt turned out to be the pastor, Rev. Bill Gies.  

We entered the ground level sanctuary and were greeted with a surprise.  The front of the sanctuary was decorated with camping gear and bushes.  There was a puppet stage to the left center of the sanctuary and a blue tarp representing water taped to the main isle.  This was Vacation Bible School Sunday.

 

A cheery voice said, “Come on in to the fellowship hall; have a cookie and a glass of water.”

We obliged and entered the fellowship hall to be greeted by a whole room full of young people; all dressed in blue shirts.  The youth enthusiastically served cookies and water to all who entered.  What a special treat? These youth were so excited about Vacation Bible School that it gave us a lift just to be there.  

I wondered around the fellowship hall for a while and looked at some of the church’s pictures and plaques.  Then I saw it uniquely hanging so stately on the wall; a swinging photo album of years gone by. The obvious mission of this church was kids and Vacation Bible School. The swinging album proudly displayed pictures of Vacation Bible School each year back to 2002.  WOW! Needless to say, I was impressed.

Here is a church that looked out of its window; saw the city park across the street. It looked at its structure and said, we have a large room and an updated facility. We have modern technology and people with skills: let’s do a ministry for kids!

Soon the church service started; youth and children enthusiastically sang praise songs embellished with lively actions.  Some swayed with the music and some just swayed; some sang and some just waved. But all of God’s children were accepted, encouraged and applauded.

Isn’t that what church is all about . . . accepting . . . encouraging . . . and applauding? Perhaps, we adults ought to be more like the children.

Until next time, keep on encouraging and applauding. 

See you in the windshield!

Ron & Sheron, the Drivers behind the Windshield