St. Paul's Sydenham Animal Encounter

Malcolm Callister | Jul 13, 2016

The 40 children, aged 6 to 12, who attended the Vocational Bible Study (VBS) at Saint Paul’s Anglican Church in Sydenham for the five days during the first week of July, got more than Bible stories. The theme for the week was Animal Encounters. The organizer, Michelle Laing, had arranged for a different animal to be there each day. The animal owners showed a true passion for the care of their animals and allowed them to interact with the children.

Each day was a mix of energetic praise songs to a demanding arm-waving, foot-stomping beat, followed by water slides, crafts, gardening, and the animal of the day.

Bee keepers came in their space suits, with stories of how a hive works and a show & tell of moth and bear attacks, and finally a sample of pure honey. The children were shouting out questions in excitement.

Silky Chickens, with their soft feathers were happy to be handled by excited children. The apparently delicate, but actually very robust chickens, broke down barriers with even the most reserved child.

Service Dog handler, Brittani Lawson, brought her service dog Anchor, a six-month-old Labrador. Brittani sat on a chair with Anchor lying at her feet. With 20 children at a time sitting round them, Brittani leaned forward and in her whispering voice told children what Anchor had done for her. It was as quiet as only a church can be. The children listened to secrets of what they must and must not do when they meet somebody with a service dog.

• Only talk to the person not the dog.

• Do not touch or stroke the dog.

• Never distract a working dog by talking to it; the handler’s life may depend on the dog.

The children learned that a service dog is working when he/she has the backpack on. When Britany removed Anchor’s blue backpack he was off duty and was a dog like any other, who then played with and got hugs from the children. Brittani would like to help set up a non-profit foundation to help other people in need get and train Service Dogs. She said, “In just six months Anchor has helped me lead a normal life and now I want to help other people do the same.”

The pot-belly pig, who lived in a house and slept in a bed with a dog, was a hit with the children as he ate cereal from their hands, and would come when they called his name.

Pony rides provided the animal encounter on the last day. Every child got to stroke or ride a pony having first heard the sad and exciting story of hand feeding Charcoal the pony. Hand-reared from the time he was 11 days old on goat’s milk, Charcoal, now 11 years old, was there with Lightning to give rides.

Then it was a final excited group photo and a barbeque to round out a great week.