Vacation Bible School at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis will “bee” different, in a hybrid way, this year, according to organizers. Although “maybe 75” children were expected to take part, more than 150 children — ages 4 through fifth grade — have registered for in-person VBS, and more children will participate online, June 21–25.
Pastor Juan Rodas, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Honduras, loves to tell the story of how two remote churches, El Horno and El Sute, joined the denomination. The communities of these churches are at the top of a mountain in the department of Comayagua, Honduras. They are so remote, so small and so economically poor that the utilities that built electric transmission lines overhead, crossing the mountaintop, didn’t bother to connect the communities to the lines. Most people in the communities are of indigenous Lenca descent and are farmers, of coffee, mostly, and of corn, beans and other staples. There are roads, but not good ones, so most people walk, or if they’re well-off, ride mules or horses. It’s a five-hour walk to the nearest paved road.
Jen Evans could not stop the tears when she saw a year’s worth of work come to completion at the 2016 Presbyterian Youth Triennium, a gathering of thousands of Presbyterian youth that takes place every three years at Purdue University. As one of the recreation leaders, she was responsible for creating a Hate to Hope Wall experience that was part spiritual reflection, part prophecy, and part art installation. A year in the making, the wall project encouraged youth to write notes of hope on cloth ribbons to cover hateful words and phrases that had been spray painted onto a wall built of pallets.
