Children’s Easter camp

Once again this year, the Saint James Vicariate decided to hold a short spring children’s camp during the Passover school holidays, which fell this year during Easter week. 50 members of the kehillot (Hebrew speaking Catholic communities) – children, youth and sixteen adult counselors) went off to the Salesian monastery at Beit Jemal, near Beit Shemesh for three days during which they relived Holy Week and the Easter celebration but this time in order to transmit the Easter joy and the message of the feast to our children.

On Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013, the children, youth and counselors stayed behind after everyone had left, following the Kehillot Day. Children from all the different kehillot participated as well as five members of “Desert Flower”, the youth group, and there were sixteen counselors, including Fathers David, Apolinary, Piotr, and Roman, Brother Thiago, Sisters Camelia and Kasia, Benny, Claudia, Lioba, Eran, Kirill, Giordano, Barbara, Basha and Shahaf.

The days were spent with times for prayer (morning prayer and mass), religion classes (one day on Passover and Easter and another on the events of Holy Week), music (learning songs from the Easter repertoire), games and social time. Mass was celebrated in the beautiful little church built over the traditional tomb of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

The big project of this camp was the production of a video clip based upon a song “I believe,” written by Benny and Thiago, especially for this camp during the Year of Faith.

Special thanks to all who worked to prepare the camp, to the Don Giorgis and the Salesian community in Beit Jemal and to the organization, Kirche in Not (Church in Need) who helped the Vicariate cover the costs.