Genesis 24:19

“I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking.”

 The door opened. After locating the trach can, she stood upright, stopped and took a breath. Cleaning the church’s building was a big job! It felt good to stop her cleaning for a moment.

The hallway light came spilling into the room giving it a soft glow. Gazing about, she saw a waiting scene. Empty chairs with desks standing in an orderly fashion. Closed Bibles stacked on a shelf. Attendance cards awaiting stickers. A memory verse magnet puzzle ready to be used. Colored slips of card stock in a basket with a book of the Bible printed on each one waiting to be added to the correct Bible division, and Bible fact questions in a stack. There were also Books of the Bible cards scattered about on a small table, not yet put in order.

She opened the door wider. Ah, the Bible time line, with an everlasting history to be told. She noticed by the marker, that their studies were taking them to the Patriarchal Age, during the time of Abraham.

The new quarterly theme was brightly displayed.

Suddenly, she felt something in her hair!  “Well, what in the world?” she said as she reached up to brush whatever it was away. She looked up found “Satan’s web” hanging from the ceiling. At this point she thought it was a good idea to turn on the light. Several words were caught up in the web. These were temptations the Bible characters would be tempted by. Hanging from the web were words with verses that would help someone be set free from the same struggle.

As she looked down, in the corner, was a model of a well with fake water and a ceramic jug leaning against it. “Well look at that!” She exclaimed. “What a great visual aid!” She also noticed two chalk colored pictures displayed above it. One was of Abraham’s servant praying and the other, Rachel Pouring water for his camels. Genesis 24 was printed out large enough to be easily seen and was next to the pictures and well. “What a wonderful teaching area.” She thought.

Having lingered long enough, she emptied the trash can and set it back in place. Thankful that the room needed no extra work, she turned the light off and closed the door ready to move on checking and cleaning more classrooms. In doing so she looked at each name on the door and noticed the name of Mary Rose. Like several others, she knew and loved Mary Rose. She thought of the many ones listed and, their happy faces came to mind.

That week Mary Rose received a letter in the mail! It was telling her and her parents all about the upcoming Bible lessons and theme of their new quarter. Also included was a list of their memory verses with strips of paper to cut apart. Each colored strip had a few words of the memory verse on it. “This is great!” Mary Rose thought.  She could actually be ready to say her first memory verse on the first Sunday! Her teacher always changed the wall decorations to go with their new Bible lessons series and Mary Rose could not wait to see what she did this quarter.

The next Sunday morning Mary Rose came in and excitedly headed down the hall for morning Bible class. The cleaning lady spied her and smiling to herself she imagined a busy room with students, figuring out Bible games, a few others peering into the well, stickers on the attendance cards, then chairs filled, Bibles open, prayer being led, colorful visual aids bringing out the richness of the text, and hands flying up to answer Bible questions. How much fun Mary Rose and all the other children were going to have in their class while learning good things from the Bible.

“Well” She said to herself,  “I have a class to get to myself!”  And still smiling she was off.

Greetings!

To my Sister Bible class teachers,

Have you ever wondered who may be peeking into your classroom when you’re not around? Who knows? But one thing is for sure, that cleaning lady sure was lured in to taking a better look! She found herself encouraged by someone who took the time to decorate their room to the theme of what they were teaching. She could even tell what part of the Bible they were studying. If she was able to tell, how much more would the students remember because of being in their vivid Bible based classroom each week?

I hope you see the importance of changing up your wall décor from time to time.

It is sad to see a room with space offered only to have it bare, maybe with a display of yellowing pictures, or things that have been up for the same 3 or 4 years or quarters  and it doesn’t match the current Bible lessons, especially if the means are available to have a change.

If you have the means but are doing good just to get the lesson developed, find someone with creativity and ask for help. Don’t let them just slap anything up there, I do believe some sort of preparedness is due to be able to describe to the helper what book or topic you may be studying so they have a mind to add items to the walls that support your lessons.

Personally, most of the time I have my own vision going on and unless I really need the help (like during Vacation Bible School) I normally don’t ask for it. Also sometimes I like to sketch it loosely out on paper. I do that especially for V.B.S., then me and my helpers work together to “make it happen”.

If I get my class materials a month in advance it helps me tune into what I will be teaching and can look over it and be mulling the theme and lessons over in my mind thinking of the best way to gear my décor to those lessons. I rarely put anything up just for decoration sake. I display things that help me teach.

If I have a shared room with other classes and do not have room to put everything on the walls, I try to at least have posters I can pull out for explanation with my quarterly teaching helps or maybe even use a portable folding display board. I keep these things handy by standing them up in a stack against a wall near my teaching area.

I do have a few things that stay up all the time because they are useful for each class that comes in. Like the Bible Facts Numbers. 39, 27, 66, 40, 1600, Etc. I have some of these up on my ceiling. The kids like it! It even recalls them to the right answers and I don’t mind that at all and encourage them to use their resources.

Oh yes, I almost forgot! Mary Rose received a letter in the mail! Sending a letter to your students/parents is a great way of letting them know you are thinking of them and looking forward to having their child (by name) in Bible class. Giving them the theme name and list of lessons for the quarter lets them know what their child will be learning in your class. I also like to send the memory verses along to work on or any home charts to check off daily Bible reading and such.

“Well”, it’s been fun but I think it is time to close for now.

Until next month, I wish you all the very best and pray you will be excited the next time you hang something up in your room that pertains to your Bible lesson! Oh, and make it big and colorful!

This month’s featured visual aid is the well you can make and use for several different Bible lessons.

• Hagar
• Isaac
• Jacob
• Moses helps Zipporah
• The Exodus
• Jesus and the woman at the well
• etc.

Find directions wth pictures for making your own well here!

My prayers and encouragement go with you.

Serving in Christ,

Gwendolyn Schnell

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Gwen Schnell

Gwen has been married to her supportive husband Dan for 38 years. Dan has been the pulpit minister for the Owasso Church of Christ for over 20 years now, and they both love working with the congregation there. They are blessed with 3 faithful children (a son, a daughter, and a son) who are married to to Christian spouses, and they also have 3 wonderful grandchildren. Gwen has experience in teaching children’s Bible classes from cradle roll – 6th grade for over 30 years and has also had the pleasure of opening up the Word with teen and adult ladies classes. She loves to share God’s word and continues to grow with her students. Her favorite class to teach is 4th-6th grade

Latest posts by Gwen Schnell (see all)

• Mary Rose and Me Growing Together - July 26, 2017
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