Children spend summer at church

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Allison M. Boehm
  • 2d Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  More than 60 children attended Barksdale's Vacation Bible School June 9, 11, 16 and 18 at the Chapel 2 Annex. Catholic and Protestant religious education coordinators organized the four-day event to teach children about God. 

"We are offering a Bible School experience for children during non-school time," said Deborah Weileder, Protestant Religious Education Coordinator. "They are having fun, they are learning Bible verses, concepts, doing crafts and games." 

Each day is an event unto itself, and starts with song and progresses into fun activities for the kids, lunch and ends with song. The children have a total of eight songs which they learned to do hand motions and dance to the music. 

"My favorite thing to do here is sing," said Lauren Basham, age 7, daughter of Col. Steven Basham 2d Bomb Wing commander. "I like being able to sing with my friends about God's Love for us." 

They also kept with the theme by visiting a constructed Roman marketplace where the children did crafts such as woodworking, crown wreathmaking and leathercrafts. 

One of the Chapel's Sunday School rooms was also converted into a cave to bring scripture's to life. The children visited the cave and 'Paul's Home' where he was under house arrest with a Roman guard. Volunteers played the roles of Paul and the guard and performed short skits for the children. 

In order to convey the message to the children, the workers of VBS found fun ways to bring scripture to life. 

"We have several drama team members who are adding lots of realism to our Roman experience," said Ms. Weileder. "Our team leaders, game leaders, crafts coordinators, and people helping with refreshments and food are all important to the success and smooth flow of our program." 

To stay in the theme of "Rome: Paul in the underground church," volunteers made Roman-themed displays and artwork to transform the chapel classroom into an underground Roman church, which made it fun for the children as well. 

"We have the children doing activities around the Christian theme," said Jeanette Lay, program director of vacation bible school. "Because of our theme, they are learning about what happened in Roman times, Paul in arrest and the underground church.
The children also learned about Roman history as they wore togas each day, used an abacus, made Roman crafts, took part in chariot races and song."

Planning for next year's event has already begun. For more information, contact Chapel One at 456-3704.