Children’s Hannuka Camp – 2015

55 children, 11 youth and 14 adults joined together for a camp in the sanctuary in Deir Rafat, near Beit Shemesh, during the Hannuka school holiday. This was the opportunity to prepare the children for Christmas and to teach them about the Year of Mercy, which was inaugurated on the day the camp began.

The children came from all the Hebrew speaking parish communities and were joined by children from the migrant worker and asylum seeker communities too. Activities included a daily lesson, focusing on mercy, art, sport, games, dance and theater. Each day the children participated in morning prayer and daily mass. Each day began with morning exercises and ended with a movie. The children were unanimous: “We want more and cannot wait for the camp at Passover time”.

Once again the Sisters at the sanctuary welcomed the group with open arms and we thank them for their hospitality and Church in Need for its generosity in sponsoring the camps.

The children who were to participate in the Family Weekend in Tiberias remained overnight in Deir Rafat and on Friday morning a group of 18 children, youth and adults made their way up north and visited the Nazareth Village, a reconstruction of life in the time of Jesus, before going on to Tiberias.