Contrast between 8-10 year old girls in Honduras and USA

Overnight Camp-out with our church's Sunday School class of 8-10 girls

Listen in to this conversation as Alfredo and I ask the girls gathered around our ping pong table:
Jesus is your BBF but what is your friendship really like? 

"Jesus protects me from getting robbed like what happened to my cousin. The other day she was on a bus and some guy held a knife to her and took her cellphone."
"I prayed to Jesus for Him to save my friend who had been kidnapped. He answered my prayers and really the whole school's since we were all praying for her. (another chips in and says, oh so-and-so, yeah, we heard about it in our school and prayed for her too.) Yeah, after a couple of weeks, she was returned to her parents."
"I know Jesus is with me because when the robbers came into our home, we were gone and they didn't take much."
"One time I felt like Jesus hugged me, but it was so real that I thought for sure that it was my dad. So the next morning I asked him if he had come in during the night to hug me. But, no, he said it wasn't him, so it had to be Jesus." (she hugs herself to show us how He hugged her.)

Several more shared, interspersing stories about Jesus as their BFF, robbery, kidnapping and other security issues.

Alfredo leaned over and whispered in my ear: "Can you imagine hearing stories like this with a group of 8-10 year olds where you grew up in Pittsburgh?"

I said that at their age, that world was unknown to me. But, his observation got us all thinking, together with the two other Sunday School teachers who were present. The gest of our discussion was:
"The dangers in Honduras are so obvious that an 8-year old can figure it out. They depend on God to protect them from robbers, kidnappers and the like. But, in contrast with children from the USA, the dangers are not as obvious but no less dangerous. Sure, depending on where they live, most kids are not worried about robbers and kidnappers, but are their parents aware of the need to protect them from the dangers of materialism (thinking that the more you have the better off you are), consumerism (thinking happiness comes from what you consume like technology, entertainment, stuff), and moral decay where God is less and less part of the picture and "what's in your heart" is trusted more than "In God we trust?"

So many Hondurans, even several families from our church, have immigrated to the USA for security reasons. No doubt it's a relief to be able to drive your car with the windows down, to walk without looking over your shoulder, to let your kids play outside, to not have to hide your purse under the driver's seat, etc. 

But, what new dangers do they need to be on the look-out for?

I would love to hear your thoughts, you may have a new perspective to add, please take the time to share it by clicking below on "observations."

(This conversation formed part of our first "Over-night Camp-out" for each Sunday School class. I will share with you in my next blog some images from the camp.)

What if a student can attend a Sunday School class and never have to handle or touch the Bible itself?

 

The use of THE BIBLE in the Sunday School curriculum

 

Part I: The problem

 

What if a student can attend a Sunday School class and never have to handle or touch the Bible itself?

What if kids’ only contact with the Bible in Sunday School is memorizing isolated verses to win prizes?

What if students do not bring their own Bibles to class and therefore are not able to write in them, highlight text, stick in them post-it notes, and familiarize themselves with where verses are?

What if a student only reads the Bible passage with his eyes or listens to it but is not prompted to comprehend its meaning nor think critically about its message?

What if a Sunday School lesson does not create the space and provide the guidance for students to prayerfully consider how to apply the Word of God, in community with others?

What if just the Bible Stories are taught but no reflection follows and no prompting is given to help students see its connections with daily life and with other stories of the Bible so that they see God’s meta-narrative and grapple with how they fit into His-story?

What if Sunday School does not help the students develop a love for their own Bible such that they are motivated to read it and see its relevance in every day decisions?

What if parents, whose responsibility it is to teach their children scripture (Deut. 6), renege because they themselves do not know how to study the Bible?

What if students don’t read their Bible at home because they have not been shown how to study and understand it for themselves in Sunday School?

What if the Bible is no longer the textbook for Sunday School?

What if these statements are true, what would happen?

What might happen is that students graduate from years of Sunday School without ever learning how to handle the Word of truth correctly, in the sense meant by 2 Timothy 2:15 (NIV): Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Ever since Alfredo and I have been in charge of Sunday School in our local church, I have been on a quest for Sunday School materials. This quest, combined with some of my classes at Trinity, has prompted me to take a look at exactly how the Bible is used in curriculum. The product thus far has been an in-depth analysis of how the Bible is handled, what difference it makes, and what should be done about it. I invite you to peruse the paper I've written about it, which can be found in the links below. 

Part I of my paper analyzes how the Bible is used in Sunday School curriculum through the lenses of curriculum theory. Part II presents a specific methodology, called the Flower/bee overlay, by which you can customize existing commercial curriculum to build your own lesson plans with a greater emphasis on helping the student present themselves to God as believers who can correctly handle the Word of truth.

You can read the paper here on my blog or on-line at www.slideshare.net Use of the Bible in Sunday School Curriculum… from where you can also download it.  The title of the article is called: The use of the Bible in Sunday School  curriculum.

Use of the Bible in Sunday School Curriculum

View more documents from Lisa Anderson-Umana, Christian Camping International, Latin America