So what did they find?
They found a leather sandal, a walking stick and piece of pottery.
What Bible story do you think we were exploring on Friday?
In its day, the road to Emmaus was well traveled but full of rocks. It was common for people to walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Many foot weary travelers could have blown out a flip-flop on the trek. It was on this road that two disciples of Jesus were talking about Jesus and the events of Holy Week including His death on the cross. While walking they met a ‘stranger’ with whom they discussed their hopes and confusion about the things that had happened. This ‘stranger’ revealed himself to them in the blessing, breaking and sharing of the bread at that night’s dinner, just as Jesus had done during His Last Supper and Passover meal with the disciples. In that act, the disciples understood who was with them and they ran to tell the others. We are also challenged to recognize that Jesus is our SAVIOR, that He is with us always and we are to share that Good News with others.
At craft time, our junior archaeologists made a beaded cross necklace, a tissue paper mosaic cross which the words “Jesus is our Savior” and a footprint with the “Footprints in the Sand” poem decorated with stickers. During snack time, they ate pretzel rods tied together in the shape of a cross with licorice strings, and chocolate chip cookies decorated with a chocolate frosting road and mini-chip rocks. A cross was added to our archaeology dig journal to remind us that Jesus is our SAVIOR.
They dug for treasure in our archaeological dig site and found crosses and miniature dinosaurs to take home to remember the day’s lessons.
During our Activity Center time, we learned about different kinds of bread and talked about what we would put in a time capsule to leave for future archaeologists who want to learn about Jesus.
In the afternoon, each junior archaeologist was given a wooden dinosaur puzzle to remind them of the fun they had this week in VBS.
They learned about Oviraptor. When archaeologists first discovered Oviraptor fossil remains, they named it Oviraptor or “egg thief” because they thought it was stealing eggs, as many were found over a nest of eggs. Later excavations have shown evidence that Oviraptors were not stealing other dinosaur eggs; they were protecting their own. Oviraptor fossils show parents with wings spread wide to protect their eggs from the falling volcanic ash or mudslides that were rushing down to cover their nests. In doing so, they were sacrificing themselves in an effort to save their eggs.
Oviraptor and Jesus. Sacrificing themselves for others.
Oh how much God loves us… He sent Jesus to us as a GIFT; He gives us Jesus as our FRIEND; He gives us Jesus as our TEACHER; He gives us Jesus as our HELPER; and because we still don’t get it, He gives us Jesus as our SAVIOR.
It was a week of fun and learning, digging and growing, and singing and crafting. It was a week of stretching the archaeological facts to bridge dinosaurs and Jesus and the Bible and a whole bunch of fun. And hopefully, it was a week of memories that will last a lifetime.
Amen.
I remember some of the stories, crafts and songs from when I was a child in Vacation Bible School. Do you?
(And now I thank God because it’s over…whew! I’ve been doing this for a long time. Anyone want to take it on? Send me a note…)
Come and join us for worship on Sundays at 9:30 am through Labor Day.www.elcaAndy.org
