Children learn more about Jesus in Mattoon

A weeklong event brought community members together to learn about Jesus and build relationships with each other in Mattoon.

Over the week of July 11-15, Shepherd’s Watch hosted a vacation Bible camp for community members.

“We did a variety of things this week,” said Kathleen Knowles, who directed the Bible camp. “We did crafts with the kids, we had interactive story time, we did games, music and food.”

Pam McAuly, who helped Knowles during the week, said that community members from the area, including people from as far away as Antigo.

“Some of the fellow churches got together, started it and put invitations out to those people in the community,” said McAuly. “We had 4-year-olds through sixth-graders here.”

McAuly and Knowles added that this was the first year that churches in western Shawano County came together to get involved with the program.

Knowles said that the week went fantastic and that she noticed the excitement and happiness from those who attended.

“We wanted to do this for years,” said Knowles. “This year, we got more of a variety of kids than we have had in the past. There were more younger kids here this year.”

She added that this event is to help children learn about Jesus and build relationships with him.

“We put this on because we firmly believe that kids need to know that Jesus loves them,” said Knowles. “They need to know that they are worthy to be loved.”

Throughout the week, McAuly estimated that there were about 30 kids who consistently attended the camp.

“That was pretty average to years in the past and other events like this,” said McAuly.

During all of the activities, Knowles and McAuly incorporated Bible verses and history surrounding Christianity.

“Each of the areas related more towards one part of Christianity,” said McAuly. “Especially story time, each story was a Bible story.”

More than just kids, McAuly said that parents would stay during the week to participate and learn themselves.

“We had several families who would stay each day, too, because maybe they had a small child, but they participated in the activities,” said McAuly. “It was nice to see them involved. They were very complimentary of the whole event. It was nice to get to know other people, too.”

Through this experience working with other churches, McAuly said that they learned more of how to work with others, as well as what others can bring to the table.

“This is exciting, because other people are bringing ideas,” said McAuly. “We had one church who was running the kitchen and they did an awesome job. They did things that we did not even think about.”

Knowles said that continuing to work with churches in the area, as well as other leaders in the community will continue for the future.

Looking forward towards next year, McAuly said that they want to get the word out there better and to get more community members involved.

“When people found out what was happening, we had more people come later in the week,” said McAuly. “That is kind of exciting that these people know it is going on and that they can look forward to it next year.”

Summing it up, Knowles and McAuly said that this was a positive experience and that they were happy to see the kids have fun.

“We learned that as a community, we can come together for that one sole purpose of learning about Jesus,” said McAuly. “It doesn’t matter what denomination you are, we are all one and the same.”

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com