The goal of Vacation Bible School is to spend a relaxed five days learning about God's love and sharing in fellowship. Often time during the church year, kids, just like adults, have a hectic schedule of homework deadlines and extracurricular activities. Although kids can enjoy children's church, choir and Sunday school, it is just a short time to be together on Sundays and then it is back to the hustle and bustle of life. For the five days of VBS, teachers and volunteers get to establish a relationship with the kids. The theme chosen each year unifies everyone and gets the kids excited about God.

Each spring the Trinity education team gets together to choose a theme for VBS. We were excited about this year's Galactic Space theme because we have never done a space theme before. The children are very conscious of saving our planet, and all children are fascinated by space. It is also a neat theme in that it can really enlarge a child's view of God and his creation. "This wonderful loving God created by planet Earth as well as the cosmos!" This year's theme pulls lessons from both Old and New Testament, which further broaden a child's scope of the Bible.

We keep it relaxed and fun! Kids are grouped by ages so their activities are developmentally appropriate. The kids love that they get to be artistic in the craft center, sing, hear the daily Bible story, and of course, move during recreation time with their pastor, Brad. It 's fun for the kids to see Brad away from the pulpit; he always makes it a point to know each one of them and welcomes kids who are visitors. Thanks to Brad and all the wonderful teachers and volunteers, every year we have several kids who come up and tell us on the last day that they wish VBS could last longer.

Think your child is too old for VBS? Think again. Every year a significant portion of the VBS volunteeers consists of tweens, teens, and young adults who return to VBS to teach, help, and ultimately foster our youngest members' relationship with God.

We open and close in the sanctuary every day so it gives us a chance to show the kids how we are gathering together to love and serve God as a family. We always do a service project; this year we are collecting school supplies to help Haitian schools get back on their feet.

This will be Suzanne's fifth year as director. Some of those assisting her will be Ellie Munsen, Cindy Boudreux, Laura Farabaugh, Kim Smith, Jessica Smith, Corey Fischer, Gina Steinbrecher, Debbie Ellis, Courtney Klendaris, and Brad Martin. There are always openings for new volunteers. Contact Suzanne if you would like to be involved next year and pray for the continued spiritual growth of all the children who participated this year.

My Appalachia Service Project experience has been a journey that has influenced not only me but my family...greatly.

From the first foray with my son Wil to eastern Tennessee five years ago, and all of the uncertainty, anticipation and excitement that accompanied that initial trip for us, to the subsequent trips with my daughters Emily and Hilary, ASP has been a source of comfort, learning and inspiration to me.

I'd hoped to spend close time with Wil on our first trip, but found us on separate teams and ending up not really doing a lot of things together; however, the times we did talk we shared our new and different learnings--teenager and father growing together. There are few instances these days where we have this opportunity, and those memories have made our already solid relationship so much stronger, particularly as Wil forges his way into the outside world in the new environs out West. I feel at ease with his ability to connect with all types of people--abilities we and his sisters have honed through the "people ministry" of ASP.

As we have come together each year in our Trinity family, heading to Appalachia, the constant nature of our trips together is one that lends a solid foundation to the turmoil of our lives. With Emily and Hilary moving through their educations and on to their next adventures, we can all cleave to the ASP experience as something that binds us together. It has been a great inspiration to see all of our young people grow up together at ASP, and each participant gives an enormous amount to the group just by being there. It is through these relationships that I have taken so much away from ASP--far more, I feel, than I have given.

ASP is a week of goodness--all that happens is overshadowed by God's will, and we are bound together to help others and ourselves. With all of the other pressures of life crashing into us constantly, ASP is an oasis in which my children and I (and all the participants) are refreshed and nourished together, in which we are reminded of what is truly important. This goodness has stayed with us through our ups and downs, reminding us that we are blessed every day.

Two years ago when I joined the T.G.I.F group I expected for us to just read the Bible and talk about the lessons we learned, but to my surprise it was so much more then that. Becoming part of this group changed the way I thought about how Jesus changed peoples lives back in his time and how he still does today.

Later on in the year we started to talk about confirmation. When I looked around the room the first day Penny told us about it, I was pretty sure none of us knew what was going to happen.

The second year into T.G.I.F the people that were going to get confirmed got to meet their mentors, and we all had fun. The first time I met my mentor, Carol Luzak, I learned we had some things in common, but the more time I spent with her the more I was able to learn about her.

As confirmation day grew closer, we all started on our statements of faith, and we all had help from our mentors. We all had a little trouble at first but we all made it through. By the time it came to read them to the Session, we all were a little nervous. I was worried mine would be to short, compared to the others but I think everyone's was great.

Going through confirmation may feel a little different to everyone, but to me it's like just a another step onto something greater. The things that you have to go through before confirmation can be hard, but in the end it will be worth it because all you learn you can teach others.

I learned a lot through my time in church. I learned about all of these different things and they all just seem to fit together like a puzzle but it goes beyond that; we actually got to experience some of the things we learned. When we fasted for 15 hours, we got to know how it felt to be like a kid in Haiti or when we served pancakes at the old West Presbyterian church, it opened our eyes to how many people have no home and out of all the people that showed up it is about a handful of homeless people compared to all the homeless people in the U.S.A but I'm still happy I could help out the best I could.

Each word that we spoke from our statements of faith I hope will live on and stay with us and reign true forever.