WEST PARIS —“Do we have any time travelers out there?” Dorene Lang called out from the entrance of West Paris Baptist Church.

Garrett Harlow waited inside a darkened box as Matt Long and Makenzie Grenier joined him. Inside, a strobe light flashed overhead, coupled with a control board speckled with gizmos and gadgets. The three children wore striped hats attached to brightly colored, curly wires in preparation for their journey.

“Hang on tight, you’re going to be traveling at a high rate of speed,” Lang warned as she shut the curtain.

The time machine took off, complete with flashing lights and strange noises. The vehicle was shaking.

The children crawled through the exit of the time machine and into the sanctuary on Church Street. But the scene before them was a beach with vibrant surfboards, palm trees and the silhouette of a surfer riding inside a dark wave. There were choppy waves in front of the surfer and a sense of foreboding.

As part of the West Paris Baptist Church and Mission Congregational Church’s Vacation Bible School, the three youngsters and many others took a different trip back in time each day this week to witness people who had to overcome difficult situations.

The stars of the weeklong event are the large, three-panel murals created by West Paris resident Judy Lewis and a small army of volunteers. The Vacation Bible School and its five 7- by 8-foot murals are the culmination of two months of work.

The left panel of Friday’s mural depicted Jesus and a small child in a colorful, outdoor scene. The next panel shows the rock beside the entrance of Jesus’ now-empty tomb with three crosses looming in the background. The right panel is just as gray as the middle, showing Jesus with a shepherd’s staff, knocking on a door.

“The last day is Jesus overcoming death and sin,” the Rev. Scott Randolph said.

“The glory goes to him. We’re just his tools,” Lewis said.

Lang and Lewis worked closely with Randolph to come up with the people and situations for each day’s lesson. They included a mournful C.S. Lewis after his wife died, by depicting Aslan the Lion from Lewis’ famous “Chronicles of Narnia”; Corrie ten Boom, who helped Jews escape the Holocaust, through a dreary scene from a concentration camp; and Steve Saint, the missionary in Ecuador whose father was killed by natives. Thursday’s scenario was based on Bethany Hamilton from Hawaii,  the 13-year-old girl who lost her arm in a shark attack in 2003.

“Today, she overcomes a physical thing, but other days it’s loss or hatred,” Randolph said Thursday.

Mary Standard of Sumner portrayed ten Boom and has been interested in her ever since she visited her home-turned-museum in the Netherlands and saw where ten Boom hid people persecuted by the Nazis.

“I was overcoming my time in prison and hatred,” Standard said of the Holocaust, adding that the school’s project was different; it was as much about fun as it was about learning.

“(The children) all seemed to be having a good time,” Standard said. “I was listening to them. I think they’ve gotten something from the lessons. They seemed to relate to the paintings and it helped them remember what the stories were about.”  

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