Vacation Bible Camp: Day Two

Welcome:  Give and Receive God’s Great Love! 
St Thomas Vacation Bible Camp, Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Greetings from Vacation Bible Camp!  We missed a blog post for our first day of camp but VBC is off to a great start!  Today was another great day at St Thomas Vacation Bible Camp!  Today the campers composed their own song and really learned their memory verse.  If you would like to memorize it with us, it’s 1 John 4:12.  Friendship bracelets were made, games were played, blueberry muffins were made for the men at Congregations for the Homeless and there was lots of connection with children happy to be back in their groups with old and new friends.  

Campers talked today about a time when they were hurt and someone helped them.  Through the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), they realized that even though they are little, they too can care for their neighbors.  When Jesus says we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, a lawyer asks him “Who is my neighbor?”  In answer to his question, Jesus tells a story about a man who is beaten and robbed on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  While we feel compassion for the injured man, the most important part of this story is not what happened to him (he IS cared for and gets well), but the reactions from the passers-by.  Two men passed the injured man, one a priest and one another respectable man from a neighboring town… and neither stopped to care for the injured man.  Then a man from an adversarial tribe saw the injured man and his heart filled with compassion.  He bound the injured man’s wounds and took him to an inn where he paid for the injured man’s stay.  Even though these men were from tribes of people who were adversaries, their very human connection was more important than their differences.  What a good and important reminder that we can all share God’s Great Love by showing compassion, and that God can use all of us – no matter how big or little we are – to help make the world a better place.  We also learned more about making the world a better place by bringing food for the Bellevue Renewal Foodbank, and bringing clothing and toiletries for the men at Congregations for the Homeless.  The campers have been incredibly generous!

We are delighted to be sharing this time with all the children… they are surely a blessing to us!  Many thanks and blessings to you and yours, Karen †