VBC: Day 3

Howdy, partners! "Farmer" Trista here!

Welcome back to another exciting day of Vacation Bible Camp where we Taste and See that God is good!  A significant part of our morning centered around the Lord's Table.  Our communion service this morning was truly beautiful!

Many of our weekly Wednesday family members came to join us for the service this morning, and several of the children's parents came to take part in this very special service as well.  More on that later.  Let's walk through the day from the beginning.

We began our day together with worship songs, prayer, jumping with joy and receiving a blessing from Mother Karen.  Then it was off to our stations. 

In recreation, we played tag with a twist.  As they were being chased by whoever was "it", children would suddenly crouch down, raise their hands and say, "remember me".  Eventually this morphed into a game of tag where all the children would chase after the older boys and try to tag them.  The kiddos sure love to show off their running skills, and they can move very fast!

For crafts today, we had large pieces of tag board and all kinds of decorating materials.  Our groups had each had their photos taken on Monday, so today we glued one of those pictures onto the tag board as a centerpiece and then used stickers, dot paint pens, markers, mosaic tiles, markers and crayons to create a masterpiece.  These will each be laminated and sent home on Friday to be used as placemats and a reminder of their time at VBC this week.

 

In music time, we continued working on our special songs for Sunday's presentation.  We now know the "Call to Love" so well that we can sing it in a round.  It is awesome!

The highlight of our day was the morning Eucharist!

All of the children gathered in the narthex area and could hardly contain their excitement for what was coming.  I had the great pleasure of strumming on the guitar and leading them in "This Little Light of Mine" as they all processed in towards their pews.  I have to say that 80+ children singing a song while you are leading is enough to melt anyone's heart!

After the children found their seats, Mother Karen rang the singing bowl and received everyone's attention, then welcomed us all and led us in prayer.  Sunni shared the lesson with us and led us in a psalm in child-friendly language.  Then Father Steve declared that the gospel would be proclaimed by our youth, and they acted out the Last Supper so that we could see and hear the gospel in tangible form.  The youth also asked us questions that helped us to process what we had just seen and heard, and they prepared our hearts to come to the Lord's Table.

Mother Karen invited us all to bring an offering to the altar.  The children each brought cans, jars and boxes of food for Hopelink and offered them all to the Lord before returning to their seats.  Everyone was very excited and voices echoed through the nave.  When Mother Karen and Father Steve brought the bread and wine to the altar, however, it was suddenly quiet. 

The hair on our necks stood straight up.  The presence of the Holy Spirit was palpable!  Mother Karen could have whispered and still been heard as she offered the prayers of remembrance and the words of institution.  All of the children from the youngest three year old to the eldest in the room knew that this was a holy celebration.

Surely everyone should experience the celebration of Eucharist with this many children!

I've been in Vacation Bible Schools and Camps my whole life, and I've never experienced anything quite like this.  The Spirit was moving so powerfully that tears simply flowed down my cheeks.  Tiny hands crossed and stretched open to receive the gifts of Jesus, and blessings abundant poured out upon them like rain on thirsty soil.

The hushed tones of a quiet organ gently brushed our spirits.  Then a holy laughter broke out as the joy of God filled our worship space.  Everyone knew that something special had taken place just then -- in our communion time.  We know that Jesus was there!  We know that we were all connected.  And we know that somehow we were meeting all of the people from the past who loved God.  We came to VBC to encounter Jesus, and we certainly did.

What a blessed time this was!  I cannot even express how deeply moved I was during this celebration.  This truly was a Holy Eucharist!