Deepagam Don Bosco Catechetical Center at The Citadel, Kilpauk, Chennai has organized one-day free training program for VBS Teachers on April 06, 2024. Fr. Patrick Mathias SDB from Kavarapettai (Becchi-Don Bosco) gave practical directives on conducting VBS in his session: Introduction to Sacred Scripture. Nineteen VBS animators (teachers and college students - all hailing from Salesian parishes in Chennai) took part in the training program. Mr. Victor and Lutheran Pastor Ravindran introduced action songs and puppetry animations as creative methods to be used in VBS classes.

Fr. Patrick, highlighted the ‘facts about the Holy Bible’ in his morning session. “As of year 2000, Bible has been translated into 2300 languages, in full or in parts”, he said. He shared interesting facts and figures on Bible: namely, Septuagint is Greek version of the Bible (dated 200 BC), Good News in Greek is Evangelion; there are 34 miracles and 32 parables in the gospels; Psalm 119 is longest chapter; shortest verse is John 11:35 (‘Jesus wept’); In Old Testament, there are 613 Jewish laws; The corpus of Old Testament is Torah or The Law, Prophetic Books, Historical Books and Wisdom Literatures; Book of Daniel was also written in Aramaic, and so on.

“The primary purpose of the VBS for children is to give them deeper faith experience in God; so that they are wholeheartedly devoted to Jesus Christ from their young age onwards”, Fr. Patrick reminded the audience. He gave several practical directives to conduct VBS for this summer; they are, 1) Bible Films; 2) Daily Bible Reading (15-20 minutes of reading parables or miracles) that include group study, reflection, sharing and prayer; 3) Story-telling by reciting biblical passages; 4) Bible Quiz (of less than 50 questions); 5) Bible Skit (on Gospel events) as per today’s situations; 6) Personal Reading of Gospel (for 10 minutes); 7) Bible Action Songs; and 8) Bible Thoughts in Morning Assembly (good morning talk).

Concluding his session, Fr. Patrick asked the VBS teacher not to engage children with harsh words and profane talks. A participant thanked Fr. Patrick Mathias and assented to the fact that evangelization is fundamental responsibility of the Christians. The afternoon session was taken-up by Mr. Victor and Pastor Ravindran who showcased Gospel songs and trained teachers to put up a puppetry show. The participants, in two groups, presented puppetry show on the Parables of Prodigal Son and Good Samaritan. The training camp was concluded at 4:00 PM with parting message by the Deepagam organizers.