Huff’s Union Church (ELCA and UCC) recently held vacation Bible school for all ages with a focus on mission and justice.

Using the curriculum from Augsburg Fortress, “Great Bible Reef,” Huff’s worked with the themes of conserving water, using fair trade products, and supporting the creation of fish farms.

Attendees and staff were given a handout on the first day that talked about the precious nature of water. The adult class watched part of the DVD, “Troubled Waters,” produced by the UCC for the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission (available for purchase through www.ucc.org.). The video tells about water as important to the three Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, as well as to other religions throughout the world.

Children were encouraged to think about ways to conserve the precious resource of water, for example, by turning off the faucet when brushing teeth. The congregation’s Fair Trade coffee, tea, and hot chocolate products (sold at cost) were described (see www.lwr.org or www.ucc.org), and a Fair Trade soccer ball was used in games for the teenage class.

These soccer balls come from the Evangelical Church of Westphalia and the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland, Germany, whose names are printed on the balls. They were available at the 50th anniversary gathering of the UCC through the Justice and Witness Ministry Team.

Fair trade soccer balls are produced by people who earn a fair wage for their work. Most soccer balls are sewn in Sialkot in Pakistan. Workers sew them together by hand from hexagonal shaped pieces of leather—stitch by stitch. They work on the individual honeycombs using a fork that is squeezed between their legs. A ball consists of 32 pieces. The workers can make three to five balls a day. Without fair trade prices, the typical worker earns less than $3 a day for such work. With fair trade prices, workers get a fair wage, which means good education for children, regular working hours, health protection at places of work, safe jobs, and money to cover illness.

Huff’s VBS offering has traditionally been given to support a mission project chosen each year by the VBS staff. This year the staff chose to support the ELCA Good Gifts project of fish farms. (www.elca.org/goodgifts) Each evening we talked about how this related to clean water and food for all, and added 4 small fish to a large poster for each $20 increment of giving. Our final total was $452. Our top day’s attendance was 94, which included all pupils and a variety of volunteer staff.

Huff’s continues supporting the Good Gifts project during Advent, when its junior youth group, the Christian Kids Club, offers Good Gifts catalogs and Christmas cards, and encourages people to give a gift to someone in need in honor of a loved one, teacher, or friend.

A skit for Advent gift giving is available from Pastor Kropa (krosmart@enter.net), where kids show what sorts of gifts they might receive (a bag full of socks, a much-too-large or much-too-small sweater, and a mysterious baked something no one wishes to eat) and encourages people to give something meaningful for Christmas.