Fort Bliss Monitor

Daniela Vestal

First-grade children imagine sailing their boat through troubled waters.

Fort Bliss youth take the
plunge with Jesus

Daniela Vestal
Monitor Staff

More than 450 youth from Fort Bliss gathered Monday through Friday for Vacation Bible School. VBS has been in practice on Fort Bliss for at least 25 years, said Barbara Cotton, Protestant director of religious education.

This was the largest vacation bible school held so far and included Catholic and Protestant children.

“[During the regular school year], the Catholics and Protestants each have their own activities, but this is the only event we have that draws everybody together into one big event and it’s wonderful,” Cotton said.

“Something new that we have this year is that we have two Catholic nuns,” said Mima Soto, Catholic director of religious education. “Army kids don’t [always] have an opportunity to go to Catholic school so they don’t have that much of a relationship with nuns.”

The sisters came from the Adrian Dominican Sisters whose mission includes ministering and serving others as proponents of education. The remaining teachers were culled from congregations on post.

“[I like] the kids for one thing; it’s always fun to be involved in a children’s ministry and you get families who aren’t necessarily churchgoers and who don’t know about Christ,” said Amy Crossman, one of the 130 volunteers it took to make the summer program a success. “A great way to minister to families is to minister to kids, because even if the parents and the children don’t know [about Jesus] before they come, the kids go home and talk about their stories and they sing the songs, so you can reach so many families just by teaching the children.”

The theme for the summer program this year was “Take the Plunge – Make a Splash with Jesus.” Each day, the teaching focused on one of four splash points: obedience, worship, courage and service. The material was chosen from standard publishing and came complete with teacher books and student workbooks, classroom packets, crafts and craft supplies, all designed specifically for VBS. Each classroom had a leader, co-leader and at least one classroom helper, Cotton said.

The children had a daily music lesson where they learned songs and practiced a performance for the closing ceremony Friday, Cotton said. The music classes had a penguin puppet mascot named JP who performed a skit each day focusing on the splash point of the day.

“I brought my three grandchildren [who are visiting],” said Patricia Branch. “I go to [church on Fort Bliss] and they said they have vacation bible school. I think it’s a good thing to do. [My grandson] comes home and talks about how much fun he is having. If they are with me next year, I will bring them again.”



www.bliss.army.mil	Published for the Fort Bliss/El Paso, Texas Community	Aug. 9, 2007

<map name="boxmap-b4"> <area shape="rect" coords="0, 589, 120, 600" href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" > <area coords="0,0,10000,10000" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=&creative=92501&camp=8117&link_code=dl1&path=subst/misc/amazon-cobrand-cc/v3/marketing-from-associates-step1.html/ref%3Db1_assoc_29" > </map>	Daniela Vestal First-grade children imagine sailing their boat through troubled waters. Fort Bliss youth take the plunge with Jesus Daniela Vestal Monitor Staff More than 450 youth from Fort Bliss gathered Monday through Friday for Vacation Bible School. VBS has been in practice on Fort Bliss for at least 25 years, said Barbara Cotton, Protestant director of religious education. This was the largest vacation bible school held so far and included Catholic and Protestant children. “[During the regular school year], the Catholics and Protestants each have their own activities, but this is the only event we have that draws everybody together into one big event and it’s wonderful,” Cotton said. “Something new that we have this year is that we have two Catholic nuns,” said Mima Soto, Catholic director of religious education. “Army kids don’t [always] have an opportunity to go to Catholic school so they don’t have that much of a relationship with nuns.” The sisters came from the Adrian Dominican Sisters whose mission includes ministering and serving others as proponents of education. The remaining teachers were culled from congregations on post. “[I like] the kids for one thing; it’s always fun to be involved in a children’s ministry and you get families who aren’t necessarily churchgoers and who don’t know about Christ,” said Amy Crossman, one of the 130 volunteers it took to make the summer program a success. “A great way to minister to families is to minister to kids, because even if the parents and the children don’t know [about Jesus] before they come, the kids go home and talk about their stories and they sing the songs, so you can reach so many families just by teaching the children.” The theme for the summer program this year was “Take the Plunge – Make a Splash with Jesus.” Each day, the teaching focused on one of four splash points: obedience, worship, courage and service. The material was chosen from standard publishing and came complete with teacher books and student workbooks, classroom packets, crafts and craft supplies, all designed specifically for VBS. Each classroom had a leader, co-leader and at least one classroom helper, Cotton said. The children had a daily music lesson where they learned songs and practiced a performance for the closing ceremony Friday, Cotton said. The music classes had a penguin puppet mascot named JP who performed a skit each day focusing on the splash point of the day. “I brought my three grandchildren [who are visiting],” said Patricia Branch. “I go to [church on Fort Bliss] and they said they have vacation bible school. I think it’s a good thing to do. [My grandson] comes home and talks about how much fun he is having. If they are with me next year, I will bring them again.”