Shawville’s annual Vacation Bible School summer camp was scuba-themed this year, titled “Scuba: Diving into friendship with God.”
Over 100 children attended the morning program which ran from Monday to Friday last week, this year hosted at the Bethel Pentecostal Church with the help of volunteers from the New Hope Church and the Grace Community Church.
“The purpose is for the kids for the mornings during one week, to be able to spend some time getting to know who God is,” said Joy Moquin, a member of the Grace Community Church and one of the volunteers with the camp. “The purpose is for kids to get to know more about who God is as their friend.”
The four days of events featured a variety of activities including singing gospel songs, learning Bible scriptures and stories, outdoor games, as well as an imagination station, featuring water-related experiments.
Patti Moffatt was the host of the imagination station. She explained the station offered an opportunity for the kids to become familiar with the science of the underwater world.
“The imagination station is the sciency part of it all,” Moffatt explained. “It’s where we tie science and God together.”
For Friday’s experiment, Moffat used a pitcher to create a scaled-down model of Earth’s water systems, teaching the children about the distribution of water across rivers, lakes, swamps, oceans, and groundwater.
Moffatt explained that for her, the Vacation Bible School is a chance to give children a chance to connect with God.
“I believe that everybody should have the chance to experience God, to know God, to follow God and to see how much better life is,” Moffatt said.
The school’s closing ceremony featured children sharing what they had learned from their experience at the camp, as well as a goodbye from Moquin and some of the volunteers from the event.
To close the ceremony, the kids chose one song they had learned at camp to sing for their parents. With a unanimous scream, the children cheered for the sixth option, I Have a Friend (Yo Tengo Un Amigo).
Once the song was complete, strings of confetti were released in the crowd as the children celebrated the closure of the Vacation Bible School’s scuba experience.
