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Humboldt Park UMC, Chicago, IL |
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Aug
13 – 20
VBS +
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| Project Overview: |
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| VBS For Bilingual Hispanic
Children. This will be the second year and there will
be approximately 20-25 children who would otherwise
not have a Vacation Bible School. The volunteers could
also end teaching up English and cooking skills to
adults. |
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| The following story was written by Wayne Rhodes and first
published in "The Reporter" of the Northern Illinois
Conference on Sept 10, 2004. Used by permission of Linda Rhodes,
Editor. |
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| TeachUM team leads Humboldt Park VBS |
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(Sept. 10) A North Central Jurisdiction Volunteers
in Mission (VIM) team that went to Humboldt Park UMC in Chicago
last month to teach Vacation Bible School (VBS) brought with
it an unexpected bonus in its intergenerational composition
and took back with it a well-earned experience in multiculturalism.
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Humboldt Park’s congregation consists primarily of Hispanic immigrants.
The church facilities at 2122 N. Mozart provide transitional housing for women
and children, overnight shelter, food pantry, clothing distribution, three meals
a day for homeless persons and counseling and rehabilitation referral.
Members of the VIM team were drawn mainly from First UMC, Arlington Heights,
but also included three persons from Iowa. One of those is a retired NIC clergy
member, the Rev. H. D. Mitchell, who now resides in Des Moines.
The team put on the VBS as part of the teachUM program of North Central Jurisdiction
(NCJ) VIM. TeachUM provides opportunities for persons of all ages to use their
specialized gifts, training and experience in educational projects.
Mary Stitt, a retired principal who is a member of First UMC, Arlington Heights,
and a teachUM board member, led the team to Humboldt Park.
At first, Stitt was worried the team wouldn’t have enough people to put
on the VBS at Humboldt Park. She put an article in First UMC’s newsletter
asking for prayers and volunteers. She got both. |
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By the time the VBS got underway, teachUM volunteers included
a bilingual college
student, retired educators and First UMC’s director of Christian Education.
The VBS at Humboldt Park used materials that First UMC employed in its own VBS
this summer. “Because we had used them a couple of weeks before,” Stitt
said, “we didn’t have to buy materials.”
The Rev. Lynn Mikels, director of Christian Education at First UMC, coordinated
and directed the VBS at her own church, so she was intimately familiar with the
curriculum. She volunteered to join the VIM team after reading the newsletter
article. “I was really in more of a supervisory role at First UMC,” she
said, “but here I have hands-on involvement working with the children.”
Another team member was Meg Schellinger, University of Illinois education major
who speaks Spanish and spent a semester in Mexico.
The 12-member VIM team started with 14 students, but the numbers grew to 30 as
the week progressed and word about the VBS spread around the neighborhood.
Judy Siaba, wife of the Rev. Fernando Siaba, Humboldt Park pastor, helped with
the VBS and noted that the children of every family, except one, in the second-stage
housing at Humboldt Park participated in the VBS.
The Humboldt Park community was evident at the VBS as well. The curriculum, “HeroQuest,” calls
for visits from “heroes” in the community. Ald. Rey Colon (35th Ward)
visited with the children, as did a policeman and a female captain from the Chicago
Fire Dept., accompanied by three firemen. The Rev. Siaba represented the religious
community and visited with the students, too.
VBS was held from 5 to 8 p.m. each evening. The program featured an evening meal,
classes, games and other activities. Each evening concluded with a prayer meeting.
Mikels said the VBS turned out to be a “good experience” in multi-culturalism
for the teachUM team members. “And it was great for the children to get
to meet people of all ages, which our team included,” she added.
Judy Siaba agreed the gray hair among the teachUM team members proved to be an
unexpected asset. She said the most recent VIM team to visit Humboldt Park had
been a youth group from South Indiana Conference. “Most of their members
were in high school,” she said. “I think they had one college student.”
“Last night at the prayer meeting,” Stitt said, “the children
prayed that they would see us again. Quite a few of us are silver-haired, older
folks, which turned out to be a real treat for the children. Most of their own
grandparents are not in this country.”
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The week concluded with an ice cream social for the children and their parents.
The teachUM team showed slides of the week’s VBS.
Fernando Siaba said the VBS had been an excellent outreach, pulling in neighborhood
children and parents who had little previous experience with the church.
“I’ve been on many mission trips,” Stitt said, including Africa
University in Zimbabwe twice, Chile, Panama and Costa Rica. “There is a
real need here, just as in those places.” |
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| TeachUM trips have also been scheduled for Tampa, Haiti, McCurdy School in Espanola,
NM, Alaska, Lithuania, Rockford Urban Ministries and Humboldt ParkUMC. More details
about teachUM or North Central VIM opportunities can be obtained by contacting
Lorna Jost at Old Sanctuary, 928 4th St., #2, Brookings, SD 57006, (605) 692-3390. |
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