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Teacher's Corner
Our church, Roberts Presbyterian, just completed our annual Bible School this evening. We have a relatively small church in Anderson, SC, and did our Bible School a little differently this year. Because of very busy summer schedules, we opted to have it in August, except that school started very early this year, on this past Tuesday. Therefore, we decided to try a weekend Bible School and called it "Back-to-Bible School, instead of Vacation Bible School.
I had seen your "Build a Better World" materials on the Internet, really liked them and downloaded them for us to see how they would work out. We eventually developed the theme of "Sanctuary," not in small part because we planned to have our youth and a couple of adults build an outdoor Sanctuary on the church property. At that point I began looking through all the resources we had to see how I could help our younger kids (K-4th grade) understand what Sanctuary means.
It was quickly apparent that your lesson on landmines in Cambodia would fit in very well, especially when teaching that a Sanctuary is a place of refuge, a safe haven. We did use it, and talked about how the work you are doing in Cambodia is making safe places out of once lethal property. We also ordered 100 landmine bells, which we used, along with shells and stained glass/plastic, to make wind chimes.
Well, on Saturday, after about 7 hours, our 7 youth and 3 adult "helpers" completed the sanctuary, five rows of two sturdy benches, set in concrete on a slight downhill slope under a huge oak tree, facing a beautiful cross, made from a tree from the property. In the trees around the cross we have permanently hung four of the landmine bell wind chimes, which tinkle softly when the wind blows across the area.
We also took up a collection, small in part because of the limited time, and collected enough ($30) to fund a landmine probe through your agency, as mentioned in the lesson. It is really important to be able to teach our kids that even such a small amount can play an important part in helping make more of Cambodia a safe and peaceful place for the people there.
I should also say that the whole story behind the landmine bells really entranced our congregation. Many of our non-Bible School attendees came up this morning after our Sunday worship service to talk about the bells and pick up one to keep. With just 5 kids in our younger program, we used all 100 bells, making 8 windchimes and many necklaces.
This past week I spoke with a couple of your folks who were very helpful and forwarded to me the new Rainbow of Hope kit. I will be letting the other organizations in our church know about the Tools & Blanket program and anticipate that we may do more through out the year. I know I will be using the other lessons in the "Build a Better World" program in the future with our younger folks, and possibly to introduce your program as a service project opportunity for our youth.
I'd like to thank you and your staff for the tremendous helpfulness and the wonderful efforts to get me the materials quickly this week, since I didn't know about the Rainbow of Hope kit until last Sunday. (I ended up with two sets, but will be sending one to the Resource Center for the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley in Alabama for their use.)
I'd also like to thank Church World Service, as an organization, for making the Build a Better World materials available in full over the Internet. It made the materials much more accessible to me, and therefore to our church. I was able to examine them closely, and then use them with no financial outlay, which, although not totally necessary, is a huge plus for a small church in today's economy. That the materials were free was not a determining factor in the decision to use them, but it certainly helped us spread our resources a little further.
Thank you very, very much! Julie Luppino Member, Roberts Presbyterian Church Anderson, SC
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