ⓒ 2015 WATV

The school vacation provides students, who are exhausted by study, with a rest as sweat as honey and an opportunity to experience various things. On the other hand, students are likely to fall into bad habits or go astray with an intemperate life.

During each vacation, the Church of God has put an effort into building middle & high school students’ character and cultivating their emotions through the summer/winter student camp on the basis of religious belief. This time, the church has first held the Winter Vacation Camp for Elementary School Students. For this camp that proceeded from January 5 to 30, about 400 Churches of God in Korea made a full preparation by making various programs and appointing guidance teachers.

The program accounted for the largest proportion at the camp, was the Bible education. The pastoral staff and guidance teachers taught the elementary school students biblical knowledge and educated them on building up character on the basis of the Bible so that they would establish right values and grow to be considerate of others in society rife with egoism. The education programs consisted of interesting classes such as Bible quiz and biblical figure role play, and both students and teachers worked joyfully together. Apart from these, they did their school homework that had to be done during the vacation together or wrote reports after reading books or watching a movie, so that they might not make a blank in their school studies during the long vacation that lasts for more than a month.

As for a camp, a work-study program is the most exciting. The classes such as cooking and arts (knitting, clay art, Korean paper art, and corrugated paper crafts), stimulated their curiosity, and they also visited a nearby science museum, security experience center, and so on. Outdoor activities like climbing, sledding, and other sports games were also carried out actively.

The elementary school students said with big smiles, “I had thought the camp would be boring, but it was really exciting,” “I was happy to experience what I couldn’t do alone,” “During the camp, I became close with older brothers and sisters in Zion,” “I felt satisfied, taking care of younger brothers and sisters,” and “We had fun and laughed a lot, working together.”

Since the students in all grades had combined class together, the higher grade students helped the lower grade students, and the lower grade students followed the higher grade students. At this, the guidance teachers felt proud of them and said, “I thought it would be difficult to teach the students, but I learned and laughed a lot thanks to the students who laughed brightly and rejoiced even at a small thing.”

Those who welcomed the camp more than anyone else were their parents. They said with joy, “Today, many children have few or no siblings. What is worse, they are used to computer games, that they have no opportunity to get along with their peer group except at school. During winter vacation, they usually stay home because of cold weather. This time, however, they became healthy both mentally and physically through diverse experiences at the camp. Their bad habit of getting up late disappeared through the regular life, and their complaint decreased by learning how to be considerate of others and to give in for them.”

Spending the vacation meaningfully, the students grew much mature and prepared for their new term and new grade.

ⓒ 2015 WATV