Dispatch #5 from th' scurvy crew o' Vacation Bible Camp

What an amazing day, and what an amazing conclusion to the week! On Friday, our young pirates decided what to do with all the treasure that had flooded into St. Thomas. Each of the six groups took $100 and, guided by Jannie Best, perused the Gifts for Life catalog online. Here's what each group gave:

The Sapphires: 1 duck, 2 mosquito nets, 1 share of a chicken flock, a child’s school lunches

The Doubloons: 1 share of a chicken flock, 1 share of a pig, 3 mosquito nets, a child’s school lunches

The Emeralds: 1 goat, 1 mosquito net, a child’s school lunches

The Pearls: 1 share of a chicken flock, 2 mosquito nets, 1 duck, 1 share of a pig 

The Garnets: 3 mosquito nets, 1 duck, 1 share of a pig, a child’s school lunches

The Amethysts: 2 mosquito nets, 1 share of a chicken flock, a child’s school lunches, 1 duck

(By the way, Gifts for Life is a great place to go for birthday and Christmas presents. Don’t you think Uncle Ned would forego the extra necktie if he knew a mom and baby in Tanzania could get adequate medicine and nutrition, or that a family in Haiti could have access to clean drinking water?)

In Chapel, Father Steve told the kids the story of St. Lawrence, a deacon who helped lead the early church through a time of persecution in the 3rd century. When the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence surrender all the treasures of the church, he asked the poor to hide all the wealth where it wouldn’t be found. When the day of reckoning came, he brought the poor, crippled and blind before the prefect and announced, “Here are the treasures of the Church! The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor.”

In Godly Tales, we explored the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Never have I found a group of people so shocked and offended that anybody would walk right past a person in need. Some of the younger kids struggled to find any logical reason at all for this behavior, until 4-year-old Isla suggested, “Maybe the priest was on his way to a play date, and if he’d stopped to help, he would have missed it.” Now there’s a wise theologian for whom the Bible has become truly relevant. Would you have a better reason for not being a Good Samaritan?

On Sunday at the 10:15 service, we’ll gather as many of the crew back as we can for one final hurrah—and this time, everybody’s invited! We hope to see you there.