By Lexi Brown
VBS has come to college! I grew up where VBS was a “suggested opportunity” for me every summer, and even though the activities were always bordering on being way too cheesy, I ended up with good memories to look back on every time. SPOT this year was just as memorable and had the same goofy playfulness that I miss from childhood. Veggie Tales was always a family favorite for car rides, and as the band, Archibalding, played during SPOT, I definitely found forgotten lyrics springing to mind at the start of a simple riff. Hearing an audience full of college students scream the lyrics to We are the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything was certainly not what I expected from my college experience, but I didn‘t know it was missing until I heard everyone singing all around me. I also found myself making some serious eye contact with Bob, Larry, and Junior Asparagus, who were all wonderfully painted and decorating the stage.
A couple of key musical moments: Archibalding was not the only band to rock out to some fan favorites this SPOT. They also were not the only ones balding! The “Dad Band” took the stage and played a couple classic 80s hits, and I definitely wouldn’t be surprised to see an animated meme of Dean Jordan jumping making its way around campus. I had never heard our a cappella club sing before, but quite enjoyed their rendition of Pentatonix’ Hallelujah, and look forward to seeing more performances from them. Bunnies (with an honorable mention to Shua’s fluffy companion) also invaded the chapel in a very suave and mysterious way and played songs that had the audience singing and laughing along with them. They really did come dressed to impress. Also impressive, Nuri returned with a violin accompaniment this year and sang about the preciousness of a mother’s love.
From parodies on the popular Netflix series Cunk on Earth to Blair Witch-esque footage from Paine to the emotional trauma of class evaluations, the short films submitted were all funny, well done, and relatable, even though I’m sure no one has broken any of the Houghton PDA standards. Keep those 11 bibles on hand! I’ll also be sure to keep my eye out for little German cows from now on.
The hosts, Julianna and Anna, led some classic VBS activities, such as sword drills to see who’s the best at finding a Bible verse, and a cowboy-themed chair-wrangling competition complete with on-theme cowboy hats. They also sat around a campfire as Caleb See told a scary story, and they challenged faculty in a Bible trivia game that, as far as I could tell, was extremely fair and definitely not rigged. Thank you to both of them for creating this memorable SPOT!
The show closed out with the announcement from a wildly expressive puppet Luckey that Roth was this year’s winner of Hall Brawl. John announced his retirement with an unexpected villain redemption arc that left us wondering who could ever take his place? See ya at SPOT next year for more memories and to discover who’s to walk in his footsteps! ★