VBC 2011 has come and gone – and it was a fantastic week! We can’t tell you how much we enjoyed our time with the campers. They were truly a joy and brought a ton of energy to the St. Thomas community. We hope that this week has been fun and meaningful for your campers and your family. We hope that the campers learned that God loves them deeply and that St. Thomas is a place where they are always welcome.
The Harry Potter theme for this week was a lot of 
fun to work with, and our volunteers did a great job of bringing themes from Harry Potter into the life of Jesus and the Christian story. We hope that campers left St. Thomas today having learned that God is deeper and bigger than magic – that we don’t need to rely on potions and spells, because God is always in control and he will always take care of us. When the world is scary, God loves and protects us in a way that only God can. We have been marked by the love of God by his Son, Jesus Christ, and we will never be the same – a lot like Harry was marked by the love of his mother. We are all created and loved by God and our uniqueness is a gift from God and a gift to others.
Our theme for today was transfiguration – how we have been changed by the love of Christ. In the Common Room we heard the story of Harry’s mother’s sacrifice and how that made Harry who he was – as well as a Bible story of how Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross marks us and makes us God’s own. In the Department of Mysteries, Mother Karen asked all of the campers what they liked most about themselves – helping them think about what makes them unique. God loves all of us the same, even though we are all different. We continued to play “Muggle Quidditch” in the park and finished up our crafts today – along with making “Butter Beer” (cream soda, caramel sauce, and whipped cream)! We have had several requests for the Butter Beer recipe so we will try to get that posted here to the blog next week.
Throughout the week, campers learned about clean water and how many people around the world do not have access to the kind of water we have here in America. This makes life very hard for people who don’t know how they will get water to drink, cook with, or clean. The spare change that was placed in the Goblet of Fire will go to Episcopal Relief and Developments work on water access and sanitation. I just got back from Coinstar and we raised over $275! We hope that along with learning about these issues, campers have also realized that they can make a difference – which is what Christ calls us to do. Part of being a Christian is serving our neighbors, even if they live across the world. The Goblet of Fire will still be out this Sunday, so feel free to bring the last of your coins!
Thank you all for such a great week and for allowing your children to be with us! Our volunteers were incredible and they were blessed by your children’s presence. All VBC families are invited to join us for our 10:15 Holy Eucharist Service this Sunday where the campers will be singing the songs they have learned this week. We hope to see you at St. Thomas soon – know that you are always welcome here!
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