September 2017 The M essenger. Special Edition. St. Matthew s Episcopal Church

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1 September 2017 The M essenger St. Matthew s Episcopal Church Special Edition This year for the first time in nineteen years, St. Matthews, along with Blue Ridge Trinity, held vacation bible school. We had a total of thirteen children attend, with ten on any given evening. Our theme, provided by a handy "kit" that we purchased, was Maker Fun Factory, Created by God, Built for a Purpose. It was an enormous undertaking, but in usual St. Matthew's fashion, everyone came together to make it happen. Thanks go out to the many members of both St. Matthews and Blue Ridge Trinity that made VBS happen! St. Matthews was in charge of decorations, Bible Discovery, and Games, while members from Blue Ridge were in charge of the Snack Factory and Imagination Station. Father Orin and Ron Stockington made up the music team. Both groups helped set up and take down decorations. It was truly a team effort! A big thank you goes out to everyone who pitched in to decorate, especially Linda Gerding, who painted ten or more big boxes in primary colors that were stacked and used as a backdrop for the music program, and Linda Batson, who stacked, glued and decorated those boxes until they looked pretty spectacular. Thanks to 1

2 Linda Gerding for also supplying additional decorations to spiff up the backdrop and her BIG coup in obtaining Maker Fun Factory decorations from St. Margaret's of Scotland Catholic Church and Saint Robert Bellermine's Catholic Church. They generously allowed St. Matt's to use their big Maker Fun Factory "curtains" that you all saw hanging downstairs in the hall, and numerous boxes, "robots", jumbo crayon and nail boxes, posters, gears and other items that REALLY saved us some money and helped make the place look great for the kids. Another big thank you goes out to the food team, headed by Pat Whitmore. The food team fed all of the children and volunteers dinner each night before the program. Pat had the assistance of Judy Roberts, who supplied bottled water and snack bags of chips; Jeanne Miller who supplied hot dog buns; and Linda Batson, Brenda Laney, Mary Cease and Jane Matson who supplied fruit and veggies. Jane also supplied the pizzas on Friday night! Pat supplied all of the entrees, which included hot dogs, pasta, chicken tenders, and sandwiches. Pat also had assistance in the food line and during clean up from Virginia Sembower, Linda Batson, Brenda Laney and Linda Hokenson (BRT). Thank you, ladies!! After dinner, the kids filed up to the nave, where they entered through a "tunnel" made of PVC pipe and painters cloth that housed a preview of the days lesson, and then took their places in the pews near the piano. Father Orin taught songs each evening and Ron accompanied the group on the piano. Kids were singing and performing hand movements to go with the songs. Music is the highlight of every vacation bible school, and ours was no exception. Thank you Ron and Fr. Orin for a fantastic job! 2

3 Immediately following the music, we launched into Bible Discovery, taught by Zella Forsythe and Judy Taylor. Day one taught the lesson "God made you" and was accompanied by a Psalm in which David praised God for making him. The children made "people" out styrofoam balls, supplied by Pat Whitmore, and a variety of craft items such as pipe cleaners, google eyes, fabric and popsicle sticks. Zella helped the children explore their lungs by blowing up balloons, their heart by squishing a squishy ball, and their fingerprints by making an impression of their thumb on a big foam-board heart. The "God made you" lesson was capped by each child holding a "God made you. You are one of a kind!" frame up to their heads. Thanks to Virginia Sembower for wielding the exacto knife and lettering to create this fantastic little frame. Each child was photographed behind the frame, and a 5 x 7 photo was presented to them on Friday as part of their "graduation" from VBS. Thank you Zella, Virginia and Pat! On day two, the children entered the tunnel where they previewed the day's lesson by viewing a model of the wall of Jericho and Rahab's home atop the wall. They also walked through bundles of "flax" that was hanging and "drying" from Rahab's roof (the tunnel wall). The lesson, taught by Judy, told the children about how Joshua's men sought the help of Rahab when they went to spy on Jericho. We talked about spies, and whether they were good or bad (depends on their mission) and took a visit to Rahab's roof (the choir loft) where the children hid from the King's soldiers under a "blanket" of flax which Rahab was drying on her roof. (Thank you Beth Cook for the tancolored sheet which made great flax!) The mood was set by keeping the choir loft dark, illuminated only by a few flicker candles. The children climbed off the roof with the aid of a red rope, just like in the Bible. Day three covered the story of Gideon's army. The children entered the tunnel and saw a display of numerous gray soldiers (the Midianites) surrounded by a small handful of Gideon's soldiers. The children learned how God pared down Gideon's army from 20,000 to 300, by letting some of them go home voluntarily and choosing the remaining 300 by how they chose 3

4 to drink from the stream. The children got to choose too, courtesy of our "stream" made by filling two long plastic containers with water. All of the children would have made the cut and been in Gideon's army because they all chose to drink water from their cupped hands instead of lapping it from the stream like dogs! The kids also stomped idols by stomping on up-ended red plastic beer cups supplied by Brenda Laney. Thank you to Zella for teaching, to Pat Whitmore and Beth Cook for bringing the colored sheets that made up the stream's edge and gave color to our stream, and to Brenda for supplying the "idols"! Day four taught the story of Jesus' last days, taught by Judy. The children did not enter through the tunnel this day, as the tunnel was closed off and became Jesus' tomb! The lesson started at the last supper, where the children stood around a small table and Jesus (played by Fr. Orin) explained to his disciples how he wanted to be remembered each time they ate bread and drank the wine. The children each took a chunk of bread (thank you Pat for cutting it up!) and had a small cup of wine (grape juice) and ate and drank as Jesus told them to. This not only taught them about the last supper but taught them where the ritual of communion came from. The children moved next to the garden at Gethsemane, represented by construction paper tiles and a few garden plants. Here they learned the story of Jesus' betrayal, and how Jesus could have changed things by working a miracle, but how he chose instead to do God's will as foretold in the Bible. We next moved to Jesus' cross, where Zella taught the children about sin. Each child wrote one of their own sins on a small, red, paper heart, then brought their sins to Jesus by placing their sin/heart on the cross, made easier by strips of tape wrapped around the Lenten cross. (When we were taking the cross down a few days later, we took a sneak peek at the children's "sins". What do you think the number one sin was? Lying!) The last station on day four was a visit to Jesus' tomb. The angel (Judy) rolled away the stone, to reveal an empty tomb, populated only by an empty slab (thank you Kay and Dave Chullino for the cot!) with a rumpled sheet (thank you Pat!), at which the children shouted "Jesus is risen!!" (Thank you to Linda Gerding who laid on the cot, then threw back the sheet so the slab looked appropriatedly "slept" on.) Thank you Zella, Fr. Orin, Pat, Brenda and Judy for making day four a success! 4

5 Day five's lesson was the story of Nabal and Abigail. David sent his men to ask Nabal to feed his men as thanks for the men tending to and protecting Nabal's flocks of sheep and goats. The children got a feel for the hard and important work that shepherds do when they tend the flocks. (Zella brought dozens of tennis balls that were laid around in front of the piano like wandering sheep. Some of the children guarded the "sheep" and others were the wild animals trying to snatch the sheep!) When David requested Nabals help with food, Nabal refused, incurring David's wrath! Abigail saved the day (and Nabal's life) by bringing food and drink to David on donkeys, played by the children who were each saddled with a towel (thank you everyone who brought in towels) and laden with a basket of fruits and vegetables that they took (on their knees like donkeys) to David. Thank you Zella for teaching this great lesson and to all of you who brought "saddles" for the donkeys! The lessons were not the only learning part of VBS because the lessons continued with other reinforcing activities. Carolyn Tyler (BRT) headed the Imagination Station with the assistance of Samantha Cummings, Kathy Nevan and Linda Hokenson (all from BRT). During Imagination Station, the kids made G.U.T.S.Y bears out of felt, googly eyes and other materials. What is a G.U.T.S.Y. bear? It's a little felt bear made to reinforce the idea that each child is God's Unique Talented Special You. 5

6 They used "connecter" shapes to make fun structures and animals, "whirley gigs" that they blew around with their own air and with straws, and GoBots (little wind up motors) to remind the kids that, although the GoBot will eventually stop, God's love for you never stops." The kids LOVED these crafts! The kids also played games each day, thanks to the Games team, headed by Marci and Carl Turlin with the assistance of Darrell and Beth Cook, Beci Bosley and Yael Abouhalkah. In one game, the children broke out into two teams, and tied themselves together with crepe paper streamers. They then had to make it from one end of the yard to the other and back again without breaking the crepe paper. If the paper broke, they had to stop, fix it and start again. It was a great lesson in working as a team. Thank you Beci Bosley, Darrell Cook and Beth cook for teaching this great lesson through a fun game! Carl, Marci and Yael monitored the children on day four (the only chilly day) as they took turns on the Slip-N-Slide. The kids had a great time each day, and when asked during the closing session, "games" was probably the most frequently cited "favorite" activity of the night (along with snacks)! Thank you Carl, Marci, Beci, Darrell, Beth and Yael! 6

7 Last, but certainly not least, was the evening Snack Station, headed by Samantha Cummings and Nancy Nevans. The kids made Maker Mix, built forts out of marshmallows and pretzels, made Mozza-Roll-Ups, and created S'more of God's Love out of graham crackers, marshmallow fluff and chocolate chips. Yum! Thank you Samantha, Kathy and Linda Hokenson! Each day, the activities were photographed by St. Matthew's excellent photographers Linda Gerding and "Foto Jane" Jane Matson. Thank you ladies for documenting all the kids and all of our efforts!! Thank you also to everyone who came on the Sunday before to set things up (including Samantha Cummings, Kathy Nevan, Linda Hokenson, Beci Bosley, Linda Batson, Zella Forsythe and Judy Taylor) and all those who stuck around afterwards to help clean up (including Fr. Orin, Samantha, Samuel and Nathanael Cummings, Beci Bosley and Yael Abouhalkah, Marcy and Carl Turlin, and Judy T.) Thank you also to those of you who donated cash to fund the many supplies that we needed. I don't have permission to name these people publicly, but you know who you are and your generosity is greatly appreciated. THANK YOU!! Finally, if I left anyone out, please forgive me and let me know so I can thank you individually. The kids had a great time and will, God willing, remember this vacation Bible school and all the Bible lessons for years to come. THANK YOU EVERYONE for all of your help creating this terrific event for the kids!! 7

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