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| A quiet spot of my own. |
Phew! After a week of teaching arts and crafts at vacation bible school, I'm so ready to enjoy my morning mini-retreats again. A cup of tea, some lectio divina with scripture, and a pretty view of the pond is my idea of a great beginning of the day.
Actually, I had some plans of posting photos of VBS. But good luck with that! Each morning, forty children filed through my classroom anxious to complete their projects. My hands were just as busy as theirs. And it was wonderful--hectic, creative, exhausting, and sometimes hard to wrap my mind around the next step. But it was wonderful!
When I had a few minutes to spare, I slipped into the sanctuary to visit the tabernacle. It was a joy for me to combine my work with prayer right in front Our Dear Lord. Sometimes when I felt it was too much--a small room in the basement with 14 children and 14 helpers is quite a bit for this claustrophic--I simply prayed, "Stay with me, Lord. I know you can help me through." My worries then dissipated, and the class time flew by.
I think my favorite thing about vaction bible school was watching the teenagers from the parish youth group work one-on-one with the children. Even the young men who play football during the school year were quick to offer gentle and brotherly care. It seemed to come naturally to them...big guys offering to three-year-olds, "Would you like the fishy here? There? Okay, I'll put your fishy there."
And I would be remissed to forget to mention how hard all the youth group members worked--both boys and girls. After VBS was dismissed, the teens spent the afternoons at a mission, doing heavy yardwork at a convent, then feeding the poor at a shelter, then helping the elderly practice for the Senior Olympics. Their director said, "Sure, I could take you on a missions week in Mexico, and that would be a great experience, I'm sure. But you are needed here, too. You needn't go far to find a mission." I was sitting in the next room counting out craft supplies, nodding my head in total agreement! At the end of the day, the kids then made an evening meal for themselves and set up all the classrooms for the next day's lessons. They were exhausted!
I'm hoping to post little essays here and there about my week with the children and the teens, and perhaps I can find photos from other attendees. But now I am preparing to get caught up on cleaning my house, finishing the paperwork homeschooling requires at the end of the year, completing editing and writing assignments, weeding my gardens, cleaning out the fridge, and maybe--just maybe--spending some time in our awesome pool. Ah! That sounds so nice! And every day will start in my little quiet spot pictured above. I am so looking forward to my work in the month of July. God is good!
God bless!
