Galatians 5: 22-23
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness , and self control. There is no law against such things.
Was Bible Day Camp fun?
Did you make artwork to take home?
How about the food? Was the food yummy?
Did you play games outside?
Learn some new songs?
Did you get to know Jesus better?
Those of us who were here with you know that - but you know what? There are a lot of people who weren’t so lucky to come to Bible Day Camp - like maybe our parents - and some of our Sycamore family who come to worship every Sunday morning.
So, it was sooo great that Reiko sensei, the director of our Bible Day Camp shared all all the fun we had this past week - it was fun to see those pictures of Bible Day Camp on the big screen and remember our friends - new and old!
And it was good to hear from two of our counselors...Ashlee Sheppard and Sheri Hsu...and there were lots of other counselors who weren’t able to be here this morning. But everyone who was here was part of the fun and we’ll remember them, won’t we? We have our own photos to look at, we have our own stories to share...
You know, the Sycamore Bible Day Camp has been going on for a long time....
Reiko - what was the first bible day camp that you remember?
Sheri - you’ve been a part of the bible day camp for a long time, right? since you were a little girl – didn’t you say this was your twelfth bible day camp?
How many of our adults came to bible day camp when you were little?
How many of the grown-ups came to help in some way?
Listen carefully, trick question - how many are here today?
So you are all a part of Sycamore’s Bible Day Camp and the Sycamore Family...and you can come anytime - to our Sunday worship services - we have our Nichigo worship each week led by Okado sensei at 9:45 and the English worship with me at 11:00...
You can come join us at our annual bazaar in September - on the 19th, the Sunday after the Solano Stroll; we’ll have a Thanksgiving breakfast and Christmas boutique the Sunday before Thanksgiving and of course, we celebrate Jesus’ birthday at a special joint bilingual candlelight Christmas Eve worship. So many occasions to come together as Sycamore family!
It’s a special relationship...this relationship with each other that makes us family..Sycamore Family AND God’s family. the bible verse for the day camp that our leaders were focusing on for the week named by Jesus as the greatest commandment - To love God with all your might, all and love your neighbor as yourself.
And throughout the week, we zipped through Jesus’ life - we celebrated his birthday on Monday and heard the story of Jesus’ death and new life on Friday and in between those days, heard some of the stories that Jesus told to teach us how to be in God’s world so that it would be a peaceful and wonderful place for everyone.
The wonderful thing is that you were all living examples of being God’s children because from what I saw - you were definitely connected with each other - very soon after you got here - it didn’t matter if this was the first time here at Sycamore or if you have been coming here to preschool or to church or if you haven’t been here for a long time - you seemed to feel your connection with each other and I think with God. It showed in how you treat each other - you were patient, kind and generous... you were good friends to each other you were good neighbors! Just like the story about the Good Samaritan who stopped to help even though he was a busy traveler - you were kind and generous... You shared your colored markers with each other, shared the riding toys and digging toys... played and took turns, encouraged each other and you were patient whether you were waiting for your turn or walking to the park more slowly than you would like! You were and are awesome!
And it’s so interesting that these three things, patience, kindness and generosity are the three things that are special parts of the fruit of the spirit. Some of us have been talking about the fruit of the spirit and how nine parts of this fruit could be divided into relationships and connections...with God, with each other and with yourself.
This week at day camp was a clear and vivid illustration about what good relationships with each other looks and feels like...isn’t it amazing how things work out? and how God is present in all things? I was wondering how we were going to continue the sermon series on Fruit of the Spirit with a part two and all I had to do was talk about day camp! God is amazing!
All this really has a special meaning to me because of you! Each time I see a picture of Bible Day Camp 2004, I will remember how this year’s bible day camp was a living example of what makes for a good relationship with each other...and thank God!
I’ll look at the picture and wonder how you are doing, what you are doing, what you are interested in now...and ask God to keep watch over you and hope that you will let your Sycamore family know what you are up to....so, we hope you will keep checking in with us and let us know...for we are grateful to God that you are here!
Please pray with me - Father God, we adore you, Jesus, we adore you Spirit, we adore you We thank you for gathering us together to take part in the Sycamore Day Camp and to become a part of the Sycamore Family. We know that we are your children, no matter what age we are and that we have a special connection with each other, especially through you.
We know that even if we are apart for a while or don’t see each other for a long time, we are still connected because we are part of your family - God’s family. Thank you for our leaders - the adults who planned and worked so hard this year for this day camp, for our kitchen crew who came everyday to cook and clean for us, for our counselors who got up so early each day on their vacation when they could have slept late, for our accompanist who came to play for us so we can sing even better...... we thank you!
There are families who will be moving out of this area - we ask that you keep watch over them.... the Harsch family who are moving to Washington State the Shimizu and the Tanishita families who are leaving for Japan. some are leaving for college in the fall.. still others are going to other places. Let them know that their Sycamore Family will miss them and hope they will stay in touch and come visit when they can because even though they are far away, the connection with us and with God is always there and always strong. Be with each of us as we come to the end of this Bible Day Camp and strengthen our connection with each other and with you. Amen.