Country Bible School

In our ranching community, everyone had to travel a number of miles to town, to school, shopping, church or to do anything.  Many did not go to church very often if at all because of the distance, so every summer my mother organized a Bible School for the country kids. Bible school was held in an old two-room school house that my dad had attended as a child. The school house sat lonely on the wide-open prairie, no other buildings in sight, no trees.  Two outhouses, one for boys and one for girls, anchored the barbwire fence which kept the curious cattle out of the small school yard.  The school had no running water either, so it seemed like an adventure to go back in time in these surroundings. We kids enjoyed getting together with our cousins and other neighborhood kids that we either had not seen since school was out, or saw rarely because we went to different schools than they did.

Bible school began in the afternoons after lunch with all ages together.  One child carried the American  flag, one the Christian flag and one in the middle carried a Bible in the opening ceremony in which we all recited the pledge of allegiance to each.  We then sang songs, accompanied by an adult playing on the old upright piano left behind. We vigorously acted out the songs with motions, Praise Ye the Lord Hallelujah, Deep and Wide, Happy All the Time,  or robustly belted the lively tunes like I Have the Joy, Joy, Joy.

 We separated into two age groups, one for the younger kids and one for the older ones.  An adult leader would share a Bible lesson with questions for us to answer.  We would memorize verses from the lesson.  Each group had an age-appropriate craft that reflected what the story was about.  We would take a break after this going outside to have kool-aide and cookies that our moms had baked, each taking a turn to bring refreshments.  Outside we played games such as Red Rover or tag burning up  restless energy before coming back in for a final large group session to summarize what we had learned. We had Bible Drills where we tried to be the fastest to find a verse in the Bible, or contests to see who could recite the memory verse for that day. We always had a missionary story and offering for that endeavor. Stories of sharing the gospel in foreign countries fascinated us with the unknown cultures and customs.

 Bible school went on for two weeks in mid-summer.  On the final day we had a program, inviting our dads and grandparents.  Many a child in that rural area heard the gospel in Bible school for the first time, and in following summers.  The seeds were planted for understanding God's love and the path of salvation.  I know that these times helped me to understand biblical truths and impressed on me the importance of  missionary work around the world and in our own community. We always looked forward to these two weeks in the summer.  The adults who made this time possible will probably never know the impact on our young lives.