Wall United Methodist rounds up summer camp with a splash

SPRING LAKE HEIGHTS — In an effort to let Spring Lake Heights know it’s there in times of need, volunteers of Wall United Methodist Church (WUMC) and Senior Pastor Sunny Shim completed its annual summer Bible camp this past week full of faith and fun.

“We used to call it ‘vacation Bible school,’ now we call it ‘summer Bible camp,’” Pastor Shim told The Coast Star. “This is one of the ways we give to the community, we’ve been doing this for years.”

The camp, “Superheroes 4 Jesus,” returned for the first time, in full, since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 30 kids partaking hand-in-hand with the church’s 26 volunteers in games, Bible studies, crafts, puppets and different talks given by community leaders throughout the week.

Pastor Shim said, “We do have a small number of children who attend our church, but this is for everyone, anyone who wants to come and enjoy this.” She said the church, located on Old Mill Road, has members and attendees of older ages.

Friday’s night’s festivities were nothing short of summer fun; beach balls flew all over the church’s lawn with kiddie pools set up with colorful noodles and toys. The camp’s two age groups — the mini-camp ages of two to four years old and the main camp’s group of kindergarten through sixth grade — partook in the activities together.

The camp ran from July 15 to 19, with the mini-camp being on Tuesday, July 16 and Thursday, July 18; Friday’s community guest speaker was Independent Fire Company’s Lt. Jim Solinski.

“We usually had 70 to 80 kids a year before COVID,” the senior pastor said. “This year, we kind of wanted to use this as outreach so that people who don’t know the church know what we do. The whole idea is to introduce who Jesus is and to live a good life.”

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