FOLEY, Ala. — Learning about the created order is nothing new in Vacation Bible School, but children who participated in an “ecumenical” VBS in Foley this week got hands-on experience in what the Bible means when it says the whole creation is “groaning and travailing in pain.”

The travail associated with the oil spill crisis along the coast had fifth and sixth graders at Foley United Methodist Church creating boom that will be used to protect the Weeks Bay area from the oil’s encroachment.

FUMC hosted this year’s VBS with Foley First Presbyterian Church and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Beth Arp, a member of FUMC, said the three churches had approximately 100 students, 20 older student volunteers and 90 adult volunteers for the combined VBS.

This year’s theme, “High Seas Adventures,” was timely to say the least.

On Monday, the fifth and sixth grade group - about two dozen students in all - set out to do something to address the oil spill crisis. Arp said the VBS students annually do something locally in the way of ministry or mission. It might be Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, Ecumenical Ministries’ Food Pantry, or the nursing home, but this year oil was understandably at the forefront of local concern.

According to Arp, Brook Kelly from St. Paul’s has a friend at Point Clear - Amanda Bacon - who was concerned about the prospect of the oil coming to the Alabama coast and wanted to know how to clean it up if it did. Bacon got on the Internet and found Matter of Trust in California, an ecological public charity. Lisa Gautier is the president and executive director of Matter of Trust.

Matter of Trust advocates use of the “hair” boom in cleaning up oil spills, as does Alabama inventor and hair stylist Phil McCrory, who came up with the idea over 20 years ago when he saw how sea otters were affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. While the hair boom idea has received mixed reviews as far as effectiveness in cleaning up oil spills, Matter of Trust Foundation insists it works, Arp said.

Thus, Bacon got 50,000 pair of hose donated from Hanes, purchased swimming pool “noodles” with donations, and had a produce company in Louisiana donate mesh produce bags. With the materials in hand and Kelly’s guidance and motivation, the VBS students made hair boom, the hair in question consisting of everything from human hair to animal fur, even alpaca.

“They packed the boom and took it to the Magnolia Springs Volunteer Fire Department,” Arp said. “Fire Chief Jamie Hinton put them in storage and said they would be used at the mouth of Weeks Bay.”

According to Arp, Hinton said he has an idea how to make the hair boom set lower in the water to catch oil that is below the surface.

The VBS students who made the boom were Wyatt Arp, Brooklyn Thomas, Morgan Sayers, Tweety Richardson, Osten Belew, Keanna Mason, Jada Powell, Nate Hill, Chris Maurin, Carson Brantley, Trey Cote, Blake Parker, Payton Gray, Jackson Gilbert, Jaret Powell, Javier Ford, Payton Reeves, Eme Ellis, Hannah Kelly, Julia Pritchett, Courtney Latham and Alexa Woods.