SUNDAY SCHOOL chapter 181

Rod had not yet begun school, but he was exceptionally bright and did extremely well in groups when they could grab his attention and fully engage him. He had already begun to ask questions I could not answer. I was embarrassed at times. He was only four. By the grace of God he had a preschool Sunday school teacher that captured his attention and held him week as week.

Denise was a college student with an avid interest in nature and science. She used his passion to teach these little ones to know God. It wasn’t unusual for them to be outside finding weeds and plants and inspecting them to see how God made them. One or more times she even borrowed microscopes from school to allpo0w the kids to inspect the intricacies of Gods creation. I don’t really know how all the kids responded to this, but my son made the connection between the flower he picked and the details of what he saw under the microscope. He could hardly wait for Sundays to come.

She had also put a Christmas tree in her class that the kids decorated with their own creations. After the season, she left the tree in the classroom and let it die. At Easter, the broke the braches off the tree and cut a section off the top and made a cross out of that tree. Rod loved that idea.

Most likely David should have been a little taller and
Goliath a little shorter. It struck a sense of awe on the kids.

She wasn’t the old outstanding teacher. Lorraine was an experienced teacher of grades 1-3. Every time I went past her class you could hear the excitement and see the enthusiasm in her room. I’m not exactly sure how the idea came about but as she was approaching the story of David and Goliath she was trying to figure out how to help the kids understand the size difference between the boy and the giant. Any way, I agreed to paint the tow of them. This Goliath being over 9’ tall and the ceiling lower, I painted the figures on canvas so she could use them whenever she wanted. It was fun to do that and see the eyes get so big when they looked at the picture. I’m not sure I got the proportion exactly right, but it got the point across.

In the 70’s women’s involvement in ministry with men was a hot topic. The Paul suggests it might not be appropriate for a woman to teach a man (one opinion). The adult Sunday school had a woman Bible teacher. Without question, Lois was the best hands down. The majority loved it when she was teaching. There was a man that had a hard time keeping people awake. Most of the people accepted Lois as a teacher, but there was a hand full that commented or stayed away.

I was very interested in the issue as I was headed to teach in the Christian Education department of a Bible college and knew the issue would be broached. The CS depart had a majority of women seeking that degree. What was to become of them? Did the school really just want them there to meet future pastors and missionaries and become their wives? Sure by now some of the women were seeking real jobs in a real church and did not want to be the church secretary, pianist or organist. Some wanted to be pastors. I loved seeing the issue up close in a local church.

I don’t want to get too far ahead in my stories, but I banged my head repeatedly on the subject at the college level. It made me mad.