Religion Brooklyn Boro

Salvation Army sets out to make Bible study fun

April 7, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Lt. Joel Ashcraft (center), the officer-pastor of the Salvation Army’s Bay Ridge Corps, spoke at a Community Board 10 meeting when he first arrived in the neighborhood in 2014. He is pictured with former chairman Brian Kieran and District Manager Josephine Beckmann. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

Lt. Joel Ashcraft (center), the officer-pastor of the Salvation Army’s Bay Ridge Corps, spoke at a Community Board 10 meeting when he first arrived in the neighborhood in 2014. He is pictured with former chairman Brian Kieran and District Manager Josephine Beckmann. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

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Parents with kids who will be home from school for spring break now have a new option to keep the youngsters busy and entertained, thanks to the Bay Ridge Corps of the Salvation Army.

The Bay Ridge Corps, located at 252 86th St., is hosting a week-long event called the Maker Fun Factory VBS.

Running from April 10-14, the Maker Fun Factory will have children participating in a variety of Bible-learning activities, sing catchy songs, play teamwork-building games, make and devour yummy treats, experience Bible adventures and collect Bible Memory Buddies.

Kids will also learn to look for evidence of God all around them through activities called God Sightings.

Each day will conclude with a Funshop Finale that promises to get everyone involved in living what they’ve learned. Family members and friends are encouraged to join in daily at noon.

Kids who attend the Maker Fun Factory will also join the Salvation Army’s effort to raise funds for the digging of clean water wells for remote villages in Peru.

Maker Fun Factory is for kids from first grade to fifth grade. The activities will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information, call the Salvation Army at 718-238-2991.

Lt. Joel Ashcraft, the officer-pastor of the Bay Ridge Corps, outlined the group’s mission when he was a guest speaker at a Community Board 10 meeting shortly after he first arrived in the neighborhood in 2014.

The Salvation Army’s goal is to “give needy families a sense of dignity,” he said.

The Bay Ridge Corps has been helping people in need in the community for more than 105 years, according to Ashcraft.

The Salvation Army, a worldwide Christian service organization, has 39 community centers in the New York area, including five in Brooklyn.

The services the Salvation Army provides across the U.S. run gamut from disaster relief to combating human trafficking. The army also runs rehabilitation centers and distributes food and clothing to the poor. Its mission is funded through a variety of means, including corporate donations and the sale of goods at its Salvation Army Family stores.

Its most famous fundraising program is the red kettle drive which takes place every Christmas shopping season when Salvation Army members stand on sidewalks in shopping areas with large red kettles, ring bells and collect donations from pedestrians.

The 86th Street site in Bay Ridge offers a wide variety of programs, Ashcraft said. There is an after-school for children, music and art classes, recreation, Christian education classes, food and nutrition programs, emergency financial assistance, senior citizen clubs and worship services for teens and adults.

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