VBC: Day 2

Howdy, partners!  "Farmer" Trista here!

Welcome back to another day of Vacation Bible Camp where we Taste and See that God is good!  Today we learned how we share with others, even when they are strangers.

Beginning our time together with gigantic voices declaring that "This is the Day that the Lord has Made", we brought several dozen pounds of food to the altar and danced our way back into our seats.  Lifting our hands way over our heads to form a banner, we sang that Jesus' "Banner Over me is Love".  Brian directed our eyes to the breadbasket chart that several of our youth made, and we celebrated the clear visual representation of our gifts of food.  After a prayer of invocation led by "Farmer" Trista, Rev. Karen blessed us and sent us out towards our rotation stations.

For arts and crafts, we encountered fruits and vegetables cut in half and stuck with a fork.  These were sitting in paints of all kinds of different colors.  We were very excited!  White canvas bags with our names already on them were neatly laid out on the table and our craft helpers were delighted to show us what we were to do.  Grabbing one of the forked veggies, we stamped onto our canvas bags and danced around when we saw the lovely prints they made.  Onions, apples, bell peppers and beets all make such different impressions!  What fun!

In recreation time, we divided into two teams - fruits and  vegetables. We held playground balls between our knees and made our way across the field, trying not to drop our precious cargo of "fruits" and "vegetables" while racing against the other team.  It was quite a challenge, but we really enjoyed it!  We also played a game called "grab the loaf".  A squishy ball representing a loaf of bread was in the middle of the field and we were lined up on either side.  When a particular number was called, the person from either team who had received that number raced towards the "loaf" and tried to bring it back to their team before the other team's person tagged them.  We sure do love running games!!!

After some stretching and vocal warm ups in music time, we continued to work on our "Call of Love" for Sunday's Mass on the Grass.  We're learning how to sing it in a round with the help of dear Jessica.  We can't wait to show you what we've learned!  We also sang a song that has become a favorite at St Thomas VBC over the years: Wendeyaho.  Translated it says, "I am of the Great Spirit, it is so".  Truly we are all born from one Creator God and all connected to the rest of creation by God's Breath, the Holy Spirit, who enters us anew each day, helping us to grow in Jesus' name!

Our story time today was about Elijah and the Widow of Zerepath.  Our fantastic teens acted out the story for us.  We were amazed by the way God provided for the widow and her son when she offered the very little that she had to live on!  When the little sack of flour and the jar of oil were suddenly found to be filled when they had been nearly empty before, we gasped in wonder and surprise.  Elijah had promised that the widow and her son would not go hungry because they had given so generously out of their poverty.  The man of God really spoke the truth!

In service and outreach time, we remembered our connection to the children, women and men all around us who do not have the food, clothing and shelter that we all have access to.  After Tami led us in discussion and reflection about what it might be like for the children in our communities who struggle to find food each day, we talked about what kinds of food we might be able to share with them.   

Filling the bags that we created yesterday in craft time was our task during the service rotation.  Each group had a different task.  Some made sandwiches, others packed grapes or cheese slices, and others put in water bottles and decorated cards.  At the end of the day we had many, many lunches to give to the Salvation Army kids camp.  We certainly do share what we have with others, even when they are strangers!  Today's focus became very tangible in these activities.

In chapel time, "Baker" Rev. Karen showed us pictures from a book called What the World Eats.  This book is filled with pictures of what a typical family looks like in different countries throughout the world.  We noticed all kinds of things in the picture, from the size of the family to the kinds of food they have on their tables to the amounts of food that they each had.   

We wondered together about what we eat in a given week and if our food looks like the fresh fruits and vegetables in India, the rice and beans and grains of Mali, or the pre-packaged supermarket food of England.   We consider what we have and who we can share with, and we were all very moved by the pictures in this book and the questions it raises for us and for our families.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..."  How might your light shine today?  Who might you share with, and what might you choose to share?  We invite you to consider these things as we prepare for another new day together.

We also extend a warm invitation to you.  Please join us tomorrow for the Great Feast of the Eucharist at 10:00 a.m. in the nave.  This will be a wonderful service!  All are welcome!