Vacation Bible School

Splash Canyon
God's Promises on Life's Wild Ride

With the hot weather holding on through the week, our young people finished their week for Vacation Bible School at 'Splash Canyon.'  Today our VBS Players acted out the story of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River by Saint John the Baptist.  Then in their classrooms for storytelling, they learned how Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God's promises as our Savior.  Then it was outside in the heat to enjoy everyone's company for water games under the big top.  Almost everyone got wet and didn't seem to mind, but rather enjoy it giving the heat today.  We organized into a procession to pray the rosary as we walked around the property.  Our two pastors, Father Richard Scioli from Sacred Heart of Jesus and Father Peter Joyce from Saint Mary of the Assumption led the prayers as eveeryone followed Michael, the seminarian at Sacred Heart for the summer, with the cross.  Some carried placards with a picture and the name of each mystery, others carried roses, and the others read cards to help in the meditation of each prayer. The group stopped in front of the Parish Center, encircled statue of Our Lady, stopped next to the church and then returned to the large hall for our snack, Trinity cake, three layers:  cookie crumbs, vanilla and chocolate ice cream.  Then we saw the photos of the week, remembered the lessons of everyday, and then was the final effort to 'sink the ship.'  Encouraged by the previous days, the youth today donated $300.68, almost more than the other four days totaled together for a total of the week donated being $641.41!  Then it was time to thank all our leaders, sing a couple of songs and we wrote Splash Canyon into history.
Mrs. Amy Donahue did an amazing job of keeping the week on track and our youth engaged as leaders and campers, while our leaders Ms. Kathy Moran and Mrs. Louisa Savaria, were greatly missed, their efforts to coordinate and organize everything before the week paid off enormously and their presence was felt at so many moments in so many ways.  Our teens, along with needing a couple of reminders during the week did an amazing and impressive job.  Their interaction with our younger members was delightful to witness.  There's a lot of work that goes into every aspect, planning either a craft or menu or game, organizing the materials and teaching teens to direct the youth and then following through on every level.  Our adults do a wondeful job and are amazingly generous and joyful in the work that they do, and they inspire and direct the teens in a wonderful way.  So, a wonderful week thanks to the efforts an input of everyone who was involved.   Enjoy the rest of the summer, stay cool, and remember God's Promises on the Wild Ride of Life!

Heading toward the end of the week, our campers evidenced greater comfort and ease with their leaders and the program.  The day began with our VBS Players presenting the story from the Acts of the Apostles as Saint Paul the Apostle is being transferred as a prisoner to Rome.   Encountering rough seas they eventually shipwreck.  Saint Paul reassures them of the promise of God that they should hope in and that all will be saved, which is what happened.  From our opening we moved to storytelling in the classrooms but the humidity was unbearable and in short time everyone returned to the large hall for our storytelling with Fr. Peter.  Giving us some background on the Underground Railroad (which had a station in our own Milford) they held onto the hope of freedom. Friend on Freedom River was the story of a young family crossing the river into Canada and a brave young boy who helps them.  Then our camper feasted on a snack with graham crackers as a raft with cream chueese, goldfish crackers and teddy grahams.  From there they moved to their groups.  Games were inside with the threat of thunderstorms and were acrostics and using cups.  Our service project was to make centerpieces for the Meals on Wheels program at the Service Station.  The craft was to make jellyfish that are drying overnight to go home tomorrow.  We ended with sinking the ship as our campers donated $76.06 toward our project in Haiti.  The day ended with a decade of the rosary and familiar songs.  Hard to believe there is only one day left! 

Our campers had a 'wet and wild' Wednesday.  They began with the story from the First Book of Kings of Naaman the Syrian general who is healed of his leprosy by washing in the Jordan River.  Our teen players made a great presentation of the story, everyone sang a couple of songs and then were off to the classrooms for storytelling to reinforce our lesson that God is faithful!  Yes, he is!  From there our groups returned to the large hall for the telling of Gershon's Monster by Fr. Peter and how God cleanses us.  Our snack was a Jordan River Trail Mix that was a big hit.  Breaking into the centers, our campers made special soaps with crosses or religious items embedded in them, they created special cards for special members of our group, and then tried to get water from one bucket into another by using washcloths that they soaked in one bucket and wrung out in another.  This turned out to be the wet portion of the day as the heat caused many to look to cool off as the water passed from one end of the tent to the other!  In making soap, one helper got blue from a broken packet of dye while Hanson (one leader's service animal) became an official member of our team with his own staff T-shirt.  To close, the third grade led us in a decade of the rosary. Half of our sixth graders managed to sink the ship with the donations of $118.67.  Then there were familiar and treasured songs from former years of VBS and more than half the week was now done!

Our campers returned for the second day.  Knowing their leaders for a second time clearly made for a more comfortable and engaged effort by everyone for this second day.  Our story was from the Book of Joshua and the Israelites crossing through the Jordan River on dry land to take possession of the Promised Land.  After our opening prayers our campers were off to different centers.  For their craft they worked on decorating cupcakes with otter faces, one of the mascots of our week; they were a true chocolate delight.  For our activity they broke into two lines by gender to pass water from one cup to another over their shoulders (without looking).  Each group said the other cheated, but we can't believe that! at a Bible School!!  Then for their service project they helped to double bag plastic grocery
bags for the Daily Bread Food Pantry.  Then we witnessed the Bible story and our storytelling was a science experiment in trying to move an empty soda can without using one's hands.  The photos in the classroooms are of the science experiement.  Graded 3 led us in the decade of the rosary and Kindergraten and First Grade sank the ship with $68!  And then, our campers got to sing.  While you can't hear their voices or know the lyrics from the photos, you can see their joy and enthusiasm on their faces.  Another great day! Thanks to our amazing team of leaders, young and old alike.

We welcomed 55 campers for the day, distributed our 'team shirts' for the week together and began with our team members acting out the story from Exodus of Moses being sent down the Nile River in a basket.  Despite the danger, the basket floated and Moses was saved so that he could save God's people.  Though our science experiements didn't completely work (it's Bible camp, not science camp!) we did get from the storytelling that God is always with us. God helps and protects us through the struggles of our sin and in life.  For snack we had scoops that reminded us of Moses' basket which we used to snack on salsa or cheese dip.  Fr. Peter told the true story of the elephants who rescued the people in Sri Lanka during the tsunami in 2006.  Our games were keeping balloons afloat with our hands or on a parachute.  Our craft was to fashion a basket out of burlap for a baby Moses and we wrote cards to special parishioners for their birthdays.  Our day ended with a decade of the rosary and an effort to 'sink the boat' with our donations for the children in Haiti.  Even though it was only our fist day, we collected over $78 and to chants of 'sink the boat! sink the boat!' we actually did sink the boat!  We finished with our favorite songs, the new ones we learned to 'Jump, Jump!' in the river of life, that 'God is on our side,' and the familiar and favorite 'God's House.'  

On Sunday, July 22nd, our teens arrived with enthusiasm and imagination.  Our local Knights of Columbus Valencia Council # 80  treated them to a pizza lunch and then we shared the opportunities for the coming year to serve our community and build youth ministry programs.  They received the information with interest and already some have committed for the coming year.  They are great kids!
Then they went to work.  With crayons, scissors, tape and the almighty glue gun they carefully  and thoughtfully transformed our small hall into  'Splash Canyon!'
All is ready for Monday morning to welcome our sixty campers and begin the learn the great lessons of the Bible, God's Promise for Life's Wild Ride!
Come back every day to see what we learn and do and how God is working in our midst!  Take the ride with us this week, right here!

On Wednesday, July 18th, our young people gathered to bring their imagination and creative talents to build 'Splash Canyon' in our parish hall.  Their enthusiasm and energy was contagious!  Our campers arriving next week will be in for a great time!  In the photo album are photos of our teens creating trees with rolled paper bags for vines, cut out leaves and the posting of preprinted characters for the week from the publishing company.  Can you envision the waterfall and rock face to the canyon that our 'engineers' are constructing. 
From the rescue of Moses on the Nile, to the Israelites crossing the Jordan to enter the Promised Land, to the cure of Naaman the leper, to the rescue of Paul at sea to the Baptism of the Lord  - water, water everywhere this week.  We will investigate, explore, discover and celebrate the wonders of water and God's uses for it in the Bible.
Our adult and team leaders are preparing fun activities from crafts and skits, to water games and special treats for snack time.  Fr. Peter has a special water story for each day to help us get in the mood.  You won't need an umbrella, but you might want to bring a raincoat for the fun!