Shaking it up at VBS!

See some of the fun images from this year’s Vacation Bible School on Friday including the closing ceremonies!

Vacation Bible School is Back!

At this year’s Vacation Bible School, our theme is all about cooking and using the bible as the recipe for living our lives with love that is shared with everyone. We’ll be discovering a secret ingredient each day while we have fun at the Shake it Up Café.  We’ll learn of Old and New Testament festival celebrations through drama and storytelling.  We’ll also have fun in arts and crafts, snack, and our bible-based cooking and creative sports.

Our service project this year will again be on meeting the needs of the hungry.  We’ll be collecting canned foods (undented), boxed cereals, rice, pastas, peanut butter, tuna, and juices (no glass please).  Our donations will go to St Luke’s/St Paul’s Episcopal Church Food Pantry in Bridgeport.  Each day everyone at Shake it Up Café  will bring in non-perishable items to help build our wall of food on the café stage.  We’ll measure it every day to see how high we can build it before it’s taken down for the Pantry.

Here are some reminders as you get your child / children ready for VBS:

• Dates:   Monday – Friday, August 22^nd – August 26^th
• Location:  Trinity Episcopal Church, 651 Pequot Ave, Southport
• Times:   9:30am – 12:00pm, Tuesday – Thursday
• 9:15am – 12:00pm, Monday (come early via Red Doors)
• 9:30am – 11:30am,  Friday (Closing program & picnic)
• First Day Sign In:  Sign in your child with the staff at the welcome table (come through Red Doors)
• Each child will receive a VBS t-shirt, their Café Team assignment, and a music CD (one per family)
• Sign In:  Please arrive on time (by 9:30am) every day (T-F) and sign your child in with the Café Team Leader.  Please give the Team Leader any information about dismissal changes.
• Dismissal:  Will take place from your child’s last rotation room at 12:00pm.  Please check your child’s Café Team list (posted in Parish Hall & by Red Doors). No child will be dismissed until their parent/guardian signs them out (if the child is leaving with anyone other than the parent/guardian, i.e. playdate, carpool, please give the café leader a note).

What to bring to VBS each day?

• Nut-Free Snack: please send your child in every day with a nut-free snack and drink.  Label all snack bags and containers.  These will be placed in your child’s Café Team basket each morning.  They will not be refrigerated, so please plan accordingly.  On Friday we will offer Goldfish and other non-nut-based treats with apple juice.  If you’d rather your child not have this, please let me know.
• Shoes not Flip-Flops:  for your child’s safety.
• Non-perishable food: for the service project / Food Pantry (and our food “wall”)
• A smile!  Once you start, it’s contagious and everyone can’t help but follow on!

We will be having a closing program and picnic that everyone will want to attend!  It’s an opportunity to have the young chef’s in training share with you some of the fun things they’ve learned and the songs they sang.  It’s also unique this year in that we’ll be honoring Wendy Steinfeld for her marvelous work in developing all our Sunday School programs, our vacation bible school programs, creative movement and just her overall amazing, joyous service to all our children, friends, and family over the past 11 years here at Trinity Church.  We are so grateful to have had her touch our lives.  We’ll be saying a few words at the closing of the final program and giving her a couple of nice momentos as a thank you for all she’s done.  More details about this Friday program and family picnic will be coming soon.  Please watch your e-mail for updates.

We still have a few more VBS openings if your children have any friends that are interested in joining the fun!  I also am looking for one more adult volunteer (or perhaps two that could share the week) to staff the “snack” rotation area.  It takes the least amount of preparation, and you’d have a teen helper.  Please let me know if you or someone you know would be interested in staffing this important rotation for the chef’s in training!!

Nest week, we’ll be ready to Shake it Up!!!  Please don’t hesitation to contact Lead Chef Janet Souza if you have any questions or concerns. She can be reached on her cell at 203-610-3425 or at Trinity at 203-255-0454 x309.

Trinity Takes Honduras 2011

In February 2011, Trinity sent its ninth group of parishioners on a mission trip to Honduras, making a total over the years of 96 travelers ranging in age from 13 to 83. These pilgrims arrived in the country with great zeal to serve others less fortunate than ourselves, worship among a people different in culture yet common in faith, and deepen our relationships with God and each other. The Lord is truly generous for we succeeded on all counts and came away with more than we had given!

Since 2000 Trinity has maintained a mission relationship with the San Lucas church in a small village near San Pedro Sula, Honduras, sending teams to work on various construction projects that include building a road to the church, constructing latrines, interior walls, steps, and a water tower. In addition Trinity has since 2002 consistently supported scholarship students with funds for their middle and high school years.

Honduras Trip

As a photo journal of the Honduras trip, here are a few images of what our parishioners experienced. Images courtesy of Margaret Rieck.

 

School time!

On horseback

Digging for a well

"I've been working on the railroad...."

What a buena vista!

Stoking up the stove

It takes a lot just to make a few tortillas

Some of the locals

Lil' cuties...

Bat carving from 1400 year old Mayan ruins at Copán

 

Inside the Vestry Retreat

By Eileen Weber

Can you spark creativity and out-of-the-box thinking in a rural setting? That’s what the goal was for the Vestry retreat at the Incarnation Center in Ivoryton this past weekend. About an hour from Fairfield, the center gave the group an opportunity to meet without the distractions of every day life.

Fr. Nigel Mumford To Speak in Ridgefield

Nigel Mumford is an Episcopal Priest and a renowned Healer.  He is Director of Christ the King Spiritual Center in Greenwich, NY outside of Albany.  Many Trinity parishioners were interested in inviting Nigel to present to us as part of the Radical Sabbatical.  We learned that he is booked for weekends through 2013!

Fortunately this conference had been scheduled in Ridgefield.  The Jesse Lee Church has offered us space so that we can have our own time together at lunch and with our clergy.  Space is limited and we need to get our numbers to them as soon as possible.  Let me tell you my experience with Nigel at a service he held at Christ Church, Greenwich.

Reflections

By Mark Grayson

Image courtesy of ReligiousIntelligence.org

With the Radical Sabbatical underway, I’m becoming aware that in a few, brief moments my perspective is already starting to shift. I guess this is exactly the outcome that Nicholas expected from our virtual pilgrimage.

My first “a-ha” was during the instructed Eucharist several Sunday’s ago. It was fascinating to hear Dawn’s commentary on the origin and meaning of the various pieces of the liturgy. Such a close “reading” of the service really focused my attention on the words and gestures. I was especially surprised by Dawn’s reading of the breaking of bread. I had always assumed that we were symbolically partaking of Christ’s life. It never occurred to me that we were celebrating our own community as the “body of Christ.”