Our Summer Vacation, Part 1

"What did you do on your summer vacation?"

The people of Shepherd of the Valley will have a myriad of responses to that question. Here is the first in a series of posts highlighting our church activities over summer 2015.

Camp Wapo

 

This June, about 90 children (Grades 1-5) traveled to Amery, WI to visit Camp Wapogasset! We are blessed to visit this place each summer. With a beautiful landscape, tons of fun songs and activities, and wonderful youth as Wapo Staff, kids get to experience God’s love in a new and exciting way at this place! Kids either experienced Wapo for the weekend (Seeds Weekend), a full week, or just one day (Wapo One Day). All campers had a great time and we hope kids will continue to come back to Wapo each summer!

Everest Vacation Bible School 

 

At this year’s Vacation Bible School, kids explored Mount Everest with high school and adult volunteers as their “Sherpa” and their peers as their “climbing buddies.”

Throughout the week, they learned about God’s power to provide, comfort, heal, forgive and ultimately, love! They ate delicious and silly snacks at Mountaintop Treats, exhausted all their energy at Glacier Games, crawled through a bear cave to an icy  wonderland to hear Bible stories, used their imagination to experiment with science at Imagination Station and created many wonderful take-home goodies at Carabineer Crafts!

In large group, kids laughed alongside Everett and E. Hillary as they took on the challenge of making it from Base Camp to the Summit of Everest! Overall, Everest VBS was an amazing success!

During the week, our climbers also brought in offering in their mini “Yeti bears” to help buy food for the people who live in the mountains around Everest. The grand total raised over two weeks was $2,247.26.

All Mixed Up Camp

 

Just like kids, artwork comes in many shapes and sizes. In June, 40 preschool students attended a 4 day, fun filled, all mixed up week during “All Mixed Up” art camp. Students learned about animals that had fur, fins, and scales from Como Zoo and learned all about the ocean from Mad Science. Students went home with projects that included beaded snakes, mosaic garden stones, abstract painting and a cute cupcake sculpture.  Students helped our community by making cards for the kids at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and cat toys for the humane society. The week ended with a wonderful art gallery of all of the students work. To help keep the creativity flowing, each student went home with their very own art kit. A great time was had by all and SOTV is looking forward to another fun preschool camp next year! Stay tuned for the official theme.

Critter Camp

 

In August, 40 1st-5th graders came to “Critters in God’s Creation” mini-camp! They had such a great time getting to know other kids and their small group leaders, all while learning about many different animals that God created. They played games, enjoyed silly snacks and made several unique crafts including cat beds and toys that we donated to the Humane Society, and of course, their own stuffed animal moose! We also were lucky enough to work with the Humane Society, the MN Zoo and the Raptor Center. Those organizations sure know how to make learning exciting for kids! What a great week learning to appreciate how amazing and unique God’s creation is!

Thanks to Ali Drube, Pam Tschida, Jeanne Mikulski for these recaps and photos!