Scuba diving & Vacation Bible School

I attend Renaissance Church in Harlem, and over the past year or so I've been volunteering with our Restoration Crew. Our church meets inside a school, so my crew's job is simple but not small — after service, we take down everything in the classrooms the kids use, and then set it all back up so it's ready for school on Monday morning.

Usually before we get started, we take some time to chat about what we do outside of church and things like how our weekend went or fun facts about us. Occasionally, I'd mention that I have a dive trip coming up or I just got back from one, and I would pull up a clip from a recent dive trip to show them. A few of the leaders on the children's ministry and Restoration Crew picked up on the fact that I was an avid scuba diver. I would encourage them to try it out one day and I guess they filed it away for later.

One day, one of the ministry leaders mentioned that Vacation Bible School was coming up, and that this year's theme was "deep sea." She asked if I'd be willing to be part of it. I was genuinely surprised — and honored — to be asked.

A few weeks later, I met with Tanya, the Director of the Children's Ministry, to talk through the details. One of the main reasons Tanya reached out to me about this was because the team really didn’t like the idea of using AI-generated video for the underwater content. So, she asked if I'd be willing to provide some of my own footage instead. Of course I said yes. From there, we talked about different ideas and the conversation turned into something bigger — she asked if I'd also record short intro videos to open each day of VBS.

I had a dives already scheduled and Tanya thought it would be great if I could record videos while I was on my trips. I was in Long Island two weeks before VBS, and I was planning to be in Cabo, Mexico the weekend right before it started. Tanya sent me scripts to read, so I recorded my intros on location.

For Day 1, while I was in Long Island, NY, the script was for me to introduce myself as "Mr. John, their Master Scuba Diver for VBS," tell the kids where I was, and then say: "Today I'm going to dive deep into these waters. And today, you're going to dive deep into God's word. Check out this story of Moses and the Red Sea." . Day 2 and Day 3 followed the same format, except I was in Cabo — Peter walking on water for Day 2, and Jonah and the land of Nineveh for Day 3.

I flew back from Cabo to New Jersey just in time to make Day 3 in person and surprise the kids.

I brought my BCD and regulator with me and let the kids get a close look. The MC, Sam, asked me to explain what each piece of gear does and to talk about some of the places I've dived. But honestly, my favorite part of the whole day was the Q&A. Almost every hand in the room went up. What's the deepest you've ever gone? What's your favorite thing you've seen underwater? Where are you diving next? What's it like diving with sharks? We didn't come close to getting through all the questions — there just wasn't enough time.I wasn't sure what to expect walking in, but the energy in that room caught me off guard in the best way.

Right before I left, I mentioned that the youngest age to get certified is 10 and Sam asked how many kids age 10 and up were interested in getting certified themselves — and again, hands shot up all over the room. Sam then asked if anyone younger than 10 was interested and again all the hands went up!

This moment was very important to me for a couple of reasons. First, diving has a way of making me think about how vast and amazing the ocean is — every dive is like traveling to another world and it puts me face to face with so many different kind of animals, and it's beautiful reminder of how amazing God is. And getting to connect that feeling to a room full of kids learning Bible stories felt special.

The other reason: being a Black diver in front of a room of kids who may not often see someone who looks like them in scuba gear. Representation is so important and can help ease fear and make something like diving feel accessible instead of distant. If a 10-year-old in that room walks away thinking "I could do that too," then I did my part.