Catholic Social Teaching... For Kids!

I'm director of this year's Vacation Bible School; it is the first time we've had a VBS, and even though the content is canned, I'm very excited about it because the focus is on service.

I'm excited about it because I love to teach kids about Social Action and I love it when they really get it. It's one thing to talk about service, another altogether to actually do something.

It's not that we don't do service projects during the winter classes, we do. But a whole week focusing on it every day is something new. So not only are the kids doing service, but they're also going to be learning Bible verses, which is another big shiny new thing. I mean, how many Catholics of my generation learned to quote scripture?

For VBS, our focus will be on helping our local food pantry with much needed items. These are hard times here in Michigan and our food dollars are not going very far. Add to that the fact that kids are out of school; the working poor need things like cereal, macaroni and cheese, and spagettios to help get their kids through the summer months at home.

I have tweaked the program a bit. I threw out the scripture verses the publisher suggested the kids memorize--I dunno, I guess I just thought there were better ones they could learn. I think the publisher is not accustomed to creating Vacation Bible School programs that serve the needs of Catholics. The service aspect is what the publisher refers to as the "Catholic component." Service is good, and it's really a very nice program. Let's just learn a few verses that are more centered on service. Like Matthew 25:40. Now that's Catholic. Or James 1:22. Or Mark 9:35.

We don't usually have the kids memorize things in the winter, but there is something to be said for memorization. Of course it's totally optional, but I have a feeling they're going to want to do this. Because there are rewards, see?

One thing I learned from working in retail banking is that there are really only two ways to motivate people: money and time off. For Vacation Bible School, time off is not an option. But money...

Okay, it's true. I'm playing right into their little consumeristic hearts. I bought all kinds of TNT (trinkets and trash) from Oriental Trader and I'm setting up a VBS "store." Everytime they memorize something they earn "Jesus Bucks" and on the last day they can spend them at this store. Of course, I'll have the store set up all week so they can look at everything, find things they like, see how many Jesus Bucks they need to buy it, plot, plan, dream, and memorize.

Soooo, hopefully they will be motivated to learn. And to serve their family, neighbors, and community.

And they'll have fun. Of course they'll have fun.

I got a bounce house. Oh. Yeah.