Last week we held vacation bible school at Grace Church. This was my first time to see vacation bible school in action. In previous years I was only able to help through donations of supplies or through volunteering with set up with the youth group prior to the start of vacation bible school. But this year I got to see vacation bi-ble school in all its glory! While many of you may see the fruits of our vacation bible schools – children throughout our parish growing their relationship with God and learning, this year specifically, how God built them for a purpose; many including my-self, may not know the amount of detailed planning and volunteer effort that goes in-to the making of a successful vacation bible school. Under the direction of Christie, vacation bible school planning started in Janu-ary. I asked Christie if I could be part of the process from the start so I could see how she plans, prepares and executes each step of the process. Christie first selected a theme – that was then confirmed with the other local churches in town. As we are a small community, our vacation bible school is open to all children ages 3 to 5th grade throughout West Feliciana. And to make sure that no vacation bible school overlaps – the directors check themes to ensure that each church’s vacation bible school is a unique experience. After the theme was selected – Maker Fun Factory, just in case you forgot, de-spite the plethora of announcements and blurbs on the liturgy sheet, newsletter and website, Christie began to devise a long list of the supplies that would need to be or-dered and donated to make vacation bible school run smoothly. First, she recruited Ms. Sharon to run the kitchen – who did it flawlessly – big shoes to fill for next year, but I know she’ll train our next head of snack duties well. Between Ms. Sharon analyz-ing each snack need and Christie breaking down each station’s requirements, the do-nation board was developed. Ms. Sharon in her creative genius found the bee cutouts on the donation board. Once ready, the board was placed in the narthex for our vil-lagers to help provide materials and support. As vacation bible school drew closer, Christie developed the student and vol-unteer registration website and I helped devise the social media posts encouraging reg-istration. We then began the all-important and integral component of vacation bible school – volunteer recruitment. The week cannot run smoothly without the numer-ous volunteers – those in the kitchen helping to prepare the intricate snacks, those leading each station that teaches and reinforces the “Bible Point of the Day,” those volunteers who oversee each grade level group, and those that make registration, check-in and check-out run like clockwork each day. It takes a massive number of volun-teers to make vacation bible school run smoothly and even then, some days can, at best, feel like organized chaos. As an individual who has been involved in numerous community organizations and festivals, volunteer recruitment is the most daunting task of ensuring that any event can both happen and go off with the least number of

Grace Church of West Feliciana Parish

Newsletter July 23 & 30, 2017

(225) 635-4065-Office (225) 635-4410-Fax

Rector Vy Rev. Dr. Roman Roldan

rector@gracechurchwfp.org

Associate Rector Rev. Dr. Peter Kang

associate@gracechurchwfp.org

Director of Family Ministries

Meg Kendrick Youth@gracechurchwfp.org

Parish Administrator Anne Klein

secretary@gracechurchwfp.org

Pre-School (225) 635-4030 Diana Weller

Preschool@gracechurchwfp.org

Emily Barrow Stacy Loyacono Erica Blanchard

Director of Music Ministries

Melvin E. Hale Music@gracechurchwfp.org

Vestry Leslie Daniel

Christian DeJean Dare Didier Zed Howell

Heather Howle Richard Kendrick Mickey Melancon

Sue Steib Dr. Adam Whatley

Glenn Thomas, Treasurer treasurer@gracechurchwfp.org

Stewart Hughes, Chancellor

Website www.gracechurchwfp.org

It Takes a Village

"A loving congregation seeking unity with God and each other in Christ"

Grace Church of West Feliciana Parish

Intercessory prayers are asked for Grace Church

mem-bers who are ill: Matt Armstrong, Da-vid Barnes, Jamey Daniel, Ruby Havard, Daisye Howell, Lucile Lawrason, Nicole Means, Tom Morris, Eric Nelson, Sara Nel-son, Dahn Savell, Kay Tengler, Eleanor Thomas, Wendell Wade, David Walker, Jake Wray, Madeline Wright.

Birthdays Lin Kendrick-July 23; Danielle Betz, Jeanne Morris-July 24; Al Har-douin-July 25; Stephanie Powers, Molly Porter-July 26; Charles Jenkins, Ronnie Martin-July 27; Christian Tregle-July 28; Elizabeth Hughes, Brooks Barnes, Ashley Fox-Smith-July 29; Deb-bie Thomas, Emily Fusi-lier-July 30; Hannah and Hunter Adams-July 31; Steve Parnell, Dora Metz, Sophie Dowd-Aug. 1; Davis F. Bank-ston, Lilli Higgins-Aug. 2; Bert Babers, Hutch McClendon-Aug.3; Mad-eleine Kane, Ella Corinne Howle-Aug. 4; Joey Gammill, Sara Rol-dan, Sean McKenzie, Brandie Olsen-Aug. 5.

Wedding Anniversaries

Ronnie & Pat Martin, David & Beverly Walker-July 26; Tom & Jeanne Morris, Bel-ton & Dare Didier, Jim & Susan Roland-July 28; David & Jane Opperman-Aug. 4; Joe & Maria Gerry, Neil & Becky Wright-Aug. 5.

hitches possible (pro event planning tip – expect and plan for hitches!) Volunteers this year included adults and youth volunteers from throughout our community. It was heartwarming to see youth from other church communities come to support our vacation bible school. Once we had registration running and volunteers recruited, the week of vacation bible school arrived. The Sunday prior to the start of vacation bible school, our youth group, and several other volunteers prepped Jackson Hall for the sixty to seventy children arriving bright and early Monday morning. We assembled cardboard archways, painted cardboard boxes, sort-ed and planned each day’s snack needs, prepped and decorated each station such as imagina-tion station for crafts, and bible story to teach and reinforce the bible point of the day. We listened to the songs Fr. Peter would sing with the children to open and close each day and learned the essential dance moves to each song. As we left that evening, there was, at least on my part, a lot of anticipation, a few nerves and overall excitement for what the week would bring. As is the norm for highly planned and anticipated events – the week of vacation bible school was a complete blur! In that wild and crazy blur, I had the opportunity to watch firsthand our children learn about how God made them, is for them, will always be with them and love them; an experience that was both inspiring and deepened my own faith. I listened as children explained in their own words how they experienced God – through the support and love they felt from their families and friends, to sharing a lesson they learned in church. Even our littlest three-year olds could express in their own words, their love of God and God’s love for them. Watching the children get excited over Fr. Peter’s physical manifestations of what God’s love may look like brought a smile to my face and made me think of how I con-ceptualized God and his unceasing love for us. And despite being eight months pregnant and trying to keep up with the fast pace – watching our village of volunteers and children in action made me understand how important and integral of a ministry vacation bible school is to Grace. Here, one can see our mission of restoring all people to unity with God and each oth-er in Christ in action. So as Christie and I begin debriefing about this year and making plans for next year’s vacation bible school, I ask you to continue to pray for our children’s ministries and to pray how you can be involved. It’s truly an experience that awakens and deepens one’s faith – at least in my point of view. But, more importantly, vacation bible school can only oc-cur through the love, dedication and hard work of our village! Meg Kendrick

Grace Church of West Feliciana Parish

Youth Retreat: The Baton Rouge Deanery is hosting a youth retreat Saturday, July 29th to Sunday, July 30th at St. James Episcopal. All 6th through 12th graders are invited to at-tend. This will be a fun night for youth across our deanery to come together, have fun, and share their faith. Must register by July 19th to participate. To register visit, stjamesbr.org/dye729. If you have any questions, please reach out to Meg at 225.635.4065 or youth@gracechurchwfp.org. Men’s Prayer Breakfast will be Wednesday August 2 at 7am in Jackson Hall.

Friday’s Swim day: refreshing snow cones! All eyes are on Fr. Peter as he tells amazing stories and shows examples of God’s Love. Alex Daniel creates one of God’s creatures during snack time uses pretzels and marshmallows.

Other persons prayers are asked for: Charles Barham, Micae-la Kell Bennett, Leslie Bickham, Phillip Bow-en, Leo Brown, Ben Brown, Steve Brown, Willie Bryant, Randy Bryant, Mac Bullock, John Caruthers, Jenny Clark, Kitty Claus, Bob Crowley, Kathleen Da-vis, Debbie Desmar, Helen Desselles, Cathy Doslovic, Molly Doug-las, Mark Ellison, Jen-nifer Erickson, Mark Feltner, Dennis Flynn, Matthew Gill, Roy Har-din, Parke Henderson, Wayne Hudnall, Joel James, Michelle Jean-sonne, Jill Joffrion, Hen-ry Jones, Mary Jo Kaly, Cecil Kelly, Jody Lem-oine, Bob Lewis, Jessica Liddle, Max, Paul McGuff, Ralph McKen-zie, Lainee Martrain, Kathy Drew Matter, Mary Anne McCrory, Ruby McKee, David Merritt, Robin Michel, Bill Miller, Dorothy Anne Millikin, Jimmy Mitchell, Rusty Melton, Randall Nachman, Bar-ton Platte, Cecelia Polito, Susanna Pres-cott, Susan Pray, Carol Ratcliff, Tammy Riggs, Cole Rourke, Stephen Seale, Gwin Shanks, Kaizlyn Shockley, Cade Stapleton, Roland Toups, Denham Turner, Darold Whitmer, Rufus Yerger. Those serving in the armed forces: Parker Blanche, Amanda Browning, Jay Christo-pher, Ryan Coacher, Ben Colia, John Davis, Joseph Dooley, Bryan Geltz, Edward Jenkins, Laura Latson, Shawn Lemons, Terry Palmer, James Powers, Jeff Ragu-sa, Christopher Willis, Matthew Young, 745th & 746th Exped Squads, 379th & 926th Exped. Support Squads.

Sunday July 23, 2017 Acolytes: Nicole Mulkey, Hayden Howle, Logan Reinhardt, Clara Jane Hughes Chalice bearers: 7:30am: Carol Stamey 10am: Landon Anderson, Rucker Leake Ushers: Tony Horn, Zed Howell Lectors: Sarah Rhody, Glenn Thomas Vestry Rep: Sue Steib Altar Guild Team 3 Altar flowers: Molly McGraw Sanctuary Candle: Tapper and Betty Sessions Coffee Hour: Sheryl Wynters Babysitters: Madison Pollet, Madie Kane

Sunday, July 30, 2017 Acolytes: Fiona Tully, Charles Fox-Smith, Ella Corinne Howle, Madison Pollet Chalice bearers 7:30am: Lucie Butler, 10am: Maria Gerry, Drew Nordgren Ushers: Richard Kendrick, Tom Morris Lectors: Will Plettinger, Beverly Grant Vestry Rep: Adam Whatley Altar Guild Team 4 Altar flowers: Olivia Pass Sanctuary candle: Joe and Dahn Savell Coffee Hour: Tom and Susie Tully Babysitters: Julie DeJean, Shelby Griffin

Wednesday, July 26 5:15pm - Eucharist 5 - 7pm - Youth Group Thursday, July 27 9:15am - Morning Prayer 10:00am - Worship: SF Country Manor Friday, July 28 7:00am - Eucharist 8:30am - Lectionary Bible Study Sunday, July 30 7:30am - Eucharist 9:15am - Bible Study 10:00am - Eucharist

Wednesday, August 2 7:00am - Men’s Prayer Breakfast

5:15pm - Eucharist 5–7pm - Youth Group Thursday, August 3 9:15am - Morning Prayer 10:00am - Worship: SF Country Manor

Friday, August 4 7:00am - Eucharist 8:30am - Lectionary Bible Study

July 23,2017 7:30am - Holy Eucharist

Bible Study 10:00am - Holy Eucharist

Coffee Hour

July 30, 2017 7:30am - Holy Eucharist

Bible Study 10:00am - Holy Eucharist

Coffee Hour

Grace Church of West Feliciana Parish P.O. Box 28 St. Francisville LA 70775

Address Service Requested

Sunday Ministry Assistants & Calendar

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage Paid

Permit No. 14 St. Francisville LA 70775