Meet Theresa Durbin, aka "Durbie",
Vacation Bible School's Upward Bound Hiking Guide
Sitting in the back row of Parkside Church's auditorium nine years ago, Theresa Durbin was overwhelmed by her first Parkside Vacation Bible School (VBS) experience -- not by the number of children in attendance, but by the number of adults.
I was doing the music portion of VBS at my church," recalls Theresa. "But I could never get anybody to help me. We didn't have as many kids, maybe only 100, but at the end of the week, I was exhausted and spent because I was doing it all by myself. So when I brought my boys, Christopher and Joe,that first time, I was looking around and wondering 'Why are all these adults here? What's the deal?'"
Theresa decided to investigate. She was mostly curious as to who all these grown-ups wearing VBS t-shirts were and why they weren't simply dropping off their kids and leaving. Theresa took a seat in the back row of the church and was overcome by the magnitude of service these grown-ups displayed. She watched in amazement as numerous adults performed skits, sang songs, and taught smaller groups of kids.
Service Embodied in Community
As VBS continued, Theresa watched and listened.She heard Bible verses being taught and thought, "We don't do anything like that. What's going on here?" Each day, Theresa came back with her boys and took her seat in the back row, and each day she was moved to tears, realizing that this experience is what service is supposed to be all about. It was an eye-opening experience that changed the Durbin's lives. The roles and attitudes of the adults that volunteered at Parkside's VBS illustrated what service can look like within a community of people. "Service was a way of life, an expression of their faith," notes Theresa. "It wasn't the way I saw it, and you didn't have to beg people. Seeing that in action made me start questioning what I grew up with and how I lived my life. It changed our lives, changed our entire family," explains Theresa.
Theresa recalls how happy Christopher and Joe would be after attending a day at VBS. "It was totally different. Their spirit was different." Christopher and Joe are now 19 and 17, and have gone through all of the junior high and high school youth groups at Parkside. They're now both youth leaders in those groups, and both young men plan to enter the ministry. Theresa laughingly says, "No way, back when we walked through those doors that first VBS week, did we ever think that our boys would end up dedicating their lives to the ministry."
Front and Center
After her first VBS experience at Parkside, Theresa spent about four years attending the church just taking it all in. She was weary from all her work at her previous church where she worked as a youth minister and taught second grade. "I was really entrenched in it, but it wasn't for the right reasons. I was earning, earning, earning. I was so exhausted from all of that, that I just wanted to sit and absorb and not do," says Theresa. After regaining some spiritual strength, Theresa felt she could start serving again and started by teaching the four-year-olds at VBS. By presenting the Gospel to preschoolers in a simple way, Theresa felt she finally understood salvation and was propelled into a renewed sense of ministry. From sitting and crying in the church's back pew to taking center stage leading the full week's worth of skits, Theresa Durbin's VBS experience has turned 180 degrees.
Exhausted, But Not Spent
Having observed Theresa first-hand at this week's Upward Bound VBS, I knew that she must be tired. But she explains that now her exhaustion stems from the physical comedy she and Denita King write, produce and perform. "At my old church, VBS was more of an emotional, inner tiredness," says Theresa. "It was a drained feeling. Now after VBS, I just feel tired. A normal tired. The other felt like something was taken out of you that you never really got back."
What Is Success?
In looking back at this year's VBS, Theresa explains that she feels every year is a huge success as long as the kids go home happy. She credits her skit team partners as well as dedicated volunteer Elizabeth Heisey, director of VBS, and Kelly Coy, Parkside’s coordinator of children's services, whose tremendous organizational skills enabled this year's group of more than 850 children to watch original skits, sing songs, eat snacks, run and play, learn about the Gospel and make crafts -- all in three hours, for five straight days. Theresa commented that she also met quite a few kids whose families don't attend Parkside.
On the last day of this year's VBS, Theresa asked one 7-year-old attendee what she learned this week, "Well, I learned that whenever I'm in trouble or I need anything that Jesus is always there for me."
"These are 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds who can tell you something that they learned about Jesus or the Bible, not that they learned how to sing a hiking song or make a bandanna. That's huge! And even if it's only one child out of 850, then it was a success," says Theresa. But a personal mark of success for Theresa was when her two teenage sons told her at the end of the week, "Mom, we're proud of you."
