The beauty of VBS week was beyond compare. Children renewed friendships with each other from last year and welcomed many new ones. Nearly 90 children and 50 adults contributed to deepen our children’s connection to God, to St. James and to each other.

Our VBS theme was “Take Time In Life." Thank you, thank you to our volunteers, all of whom “took time” and many of whom used a week of vacation from work to invest in our children. And what amazing children they were! All week we watched the goodness inside them blossom and bring forth kindness and a sense of fairness towards others; there was a strong sense that Church is where you should have fun and find love and play balloon games in the Sanctuary to learn how God’s love touches us. On Thursday, one of our 10-year-olds told his Tribe Leader, Jeff Roper, that he discerned this week that he wants to be baptized. The child spoke with his grandparents and Fr. Fred and the process is now underway.

Thanks to Tribe Leaders and Shop Keepers for showing our children their unbelievable “worth.” Watching Robyn Milne dance down the hall singing, for no reason at all except it was a happy day, was an iconic moment in this regard. Thanks to the Kitchen Ladies for keeping us fed and happy; Robin Rowland’s Cream-Cheese-Caramel-Heath-Bar-Dip-Of-Love-was a hit!

Thanks to Dr. Speary and Michael Weber for bringing St. Luke and his stories to life in our Chapel. These children will forever think of Paul as looking just like Dr. Speary and Luke as looking just like Michael Weber. Thank you for your gift of making scripture come alive for our children.

Thanks to Michael Kephart for the gift of a petting zoo. It’s always a VBS favorite activity and bringing all those animals here in the heat is so very generous.

Thanks to Deb Bagby for her support of Vacation Bible School. Deb does so much for our church and is always kind in helping out with “just one more thing”. Thank you!

Thanks to Fr. Fred, Dn. DeeDee and Mr. Jarl for creating a Praise and Worship component of VBS that drew our children closer to God and taught them that church is “good” and “fun."

Thanks to Gladys Osborne for the gift of all those t-shirts and to Renee Osborne for pushing that rock up the hill in such style!

Thanks to all of our dear community members who made donations so that our week was funded and stress free.

Thanks to Caroline Rowley for her grace, energy, enthusiasm and good taste as she constructed Flowering Message Trees, did research, shopped for the perfect Tribal Cloths and did the 100 other things to make our trip to Africa a beautiful part of our St. James history.