43
Holy Family Parish hosts Vacation Bible School
Photo
Neighbors | Submitted.Some of the children who attended Vacation Bible School at Holy Family Parish were, from left, (front) Angelina Sabatino, Victoria Balestrino; (back) Mary Kate Zeno, Anthony Fire and Katie McDonald. The children holding one of the baskets of personal care items to be donated to Open Arms Community Outreach were Dominic Graziano, Anthony Formichelli and Nick Zeno.
By TIM CLEVELAND
For its Vacation Bible School from June 23-27, Holy Family Parish’s theme was “Weird Animals – Where Jesus’ Love is One of a Kind.”
Holy Family Parish director of religious education/youth minister Marnie Kelty said the idea of the theme was that God filled the world with many different types of animals, including us.
“When children feel weird, different, or even lost in a crowd - nothing compares to the extraordinary love of Jesus,” she said. “Jesus is with us always, no matter what, until the end of time. We can depend on Jesus’ unconditional love. Jesus loves us.
“The Bible Points for the week were even when you’re left out, Jesus loves you; even though you’re different, Jesus loves you; even when you don’t understand, Jesus loves you; even though you do wrong, Jesus loves you; even when you’re afraid, Jesus loves you.”
The Vacation Bible School had 58 children attend in grades kindergarten through four. The event had 44 volunteers from grades 5-8, high school, Youngstown State University, parents and grandparents.
Kelty talked about the various activities the children participated in during the week.
“Each day the children rotated through the following stations: Sing and Play Stampede [in which they learned a mix of classic worship songs and new praise songs], One-of-a-Kind Bible Adventures [participated in Bible story skits and group discussion], Critter Caf [enjoyed snacks that connected with the daily Bible Point], KidVid Cinema [watched films about real kids living real-life adventures of knowing and following Jesus], Untamed Games [played games that reinforced the daily Bible Point] and Imagination Station [experimented with “sciency-fun” activities],” she said. “A different Bible point was reinforced each day at each station. Activities varied daily and were connected to that day’s Bible point.
“The children were able to keep the science gizmos from Imagination Station and collected a different Bible Buddy each day. A Bible Buddy is a dog tag that has a different character for each day of the week that reinforces the Bible Point of that day and serves as a reminder for the future of what they learned.”
Kelty added that a donation of personal care items was collected during the week for Open Arms Community Outreach, Inc., a local non-profit located in Youngstown, that is solely funded on donations from the community. Open Arms distributes donated clothes and personal care items to the homeless and less fortunate. She said Holy Family Parish chose this charity as a tangible way to put what the children learned from the VBS Bible Points and their faith in action.