Aug. 28, 2024

By Keith Benman
Contributing writer

About 50 children and teens took part in a reality show all about Jesus in early August in Massena.

“I thought it was going to be just learning about God and stuff,” said 10-year-old James Park. “But you’re actually re-enacting what it was like in Jesus’ time. So that kids that don’t know about God can learn about him. It’s still teaching me stuff I didn’t know.”

James had come to that conclusion by Day three of Massena’s ecumenical Vacation Bible School, a summer tradition with a more than two-decade history in the community.

This year’s theme for the Vacation Bible School was “Hometown Nazareth, where Jesus was a kid.” It included Mary’s house, a carpenter’s shop, a bead bazaar, a farmer’s field, rock quarry and just about everything else you would have found in Jesus’ hometown.

Those were all housed in tents erected throughout Emmanuel Congregational United Church of Christ on Orvis Street. In addition to Emmanuel Congregational, St. Peter’s Parish, St. John’s Episcopal and Grace United Methodist all participated in this year’s ecumenical Vacation Bible School.

“My whole mantra is the kids who learn together and play together are now able to pray together,” said Ann Borsellino, a former teacher at Trinity Catholic School. She was the “head farmer” helping children build pots and plant seeds at the farmer’s field.

Like all the other adult leaders she was dressed in a robe and sandals as people would have worn in the time of Jesus. Those adult leaders were helped by teen volunteers in similar garb who guided each grade through Jesus’ hometown. Each grade level was named for a different tribe of ancient Israel.

Next door to the farmer’s field, 9-year-old Isabella Cristy of the tribe of Zebulun was one of those stringing clay beads at the bead bazaar. At Mary’s House she had already learned how people knew early on that Jesus was something special.

“I learned they traveled around to Bethlehem and Jesus was born in Bethlehem,” she said. “And then later three wise men came and gave him gifts.”

Adult leader Trish Murphy demonstrated for Isabella and fellow tribe members how to create beads out of clay. And she added a lesson about faith.

“That’s the thing about clay,” she told them. “You can always re-form it. It’s like with God, you can make mistakes but he’ll always forgive you.”

It takes months of work to produce the one-week ecumenical vacation bible school. This year, that included erecting the tents inside Emmanuel Congregational and adding realistic details to each. It’s all done by volunteers from the churches. Vacation bible school leaders also have to formulate an ecumenical curriculum acceptable to all.

“You know, the basic stories about Jesus, that he was God’s son, and he came so we could all have eternal life -- those are all basic eternal principles that I don’t think anybody would disagree on,” said Rev. Judith VanKennen, pastor at Emmanuel Congregational.

The Hometown Nazareth theme and help with the curriculum were provided by Group Publishing, a provider of youth ministry resources.

The original idea to make Massena’s vacation bible school an ecumenical one was inspired by cooperative efforts undertaken over the years by the Greater Massena Ministerial Association. The association remains a force for cooperation among Christian churches in Massena.

Just last autumn, it formed “Fourth Coast Companions” to provide help for seniors in the area.

“I think we need to model for our children that we’re all one in Christ,” said VanKennen. “We can do so much more together.”