by Debbie Akers
She was a pretty little girl of about five years of age. How exciting! Dressed in her finest clothes she was going to Sunday school for the first time in her life that she could remember. Her family did not attend church, (she was not quite sure why,) but today she was visiting with her grandmother and they were going to “grandma’s church”. When they arrived, she was taken to a Sunday School class with other children her age and a very nice teacher.
It was such fun. The teacher seemed to like her; she even gave her a paper to color and said she could take it home to show everyone what she had learned in Sunday School. “Jesus loves you,” the teacher said. She wished she could come every Sunday, but grandma lived too far away.
“Wow!” the little girl thought, “God in heaven loves me, a little kid… He even knows my name and is watching over me!” That was something to think about…And think about it she did!
Years later, as a teenager, that feeling of love, acceptance, and something else, (she was not quite sure what,) kept drawing her. She tried many churches until finally, as a newlywed, at the age of nineteen, she was invited to a United Pentecostal Church. There she found what she had been looking for.
That little girl became my mother. Later, when she and my father (Rev. James H. and Vergie Caldwell,) pioneered a home missions church in Elwood, Indiana, she also became my Sunday School teacher. From Elwood through each of the churches my father pastored, she taught Sunday School with anointing and made Children’s Church fun.
Familiar Bible stories came alive when mom told them. Even when I had heard them many times before, mom’s stories made me eager for more. Looking back over her classes, it is interesting to note that many of her students are still serving God, several are in the ministry, and a number of them are Sunday School teachers!
I still remember many of those lessons. I have used many of her methods; flannelgraph, object lessons, and dramas, in teaching the next generation of Sunday School children, including my son, Jayson.
Jayson is grown now and feels his call to the ministry. He and his wife, Cheryl, are carrying on the gospel of Jesus Christ, sharing it with a new generation of Sunday School children, including their daughter, Rebecca. And thus, the Bible foundation for our Christian experience is laid. Each generation teaches and reaches the succeeding generation. This is God’s design.
In the Arizona District Sunday School Teacher’s Workshop last year, Bro. E. J. McDougal shared statistics that show how the probability of one giving their heart to God decreases greatly as they age. Sunday School is a vitally important tool in helping us reach children before the world gets a hold on them. Even their choices in life are affected for the better when Sunday School is allowed to do its work.
How many lives could have avoided shipwreck if only they had been taught about Jesus at an early age? At a General Conference a few years ago, Sis. Julie Hopper sang, “He Saved Me From a Lifetime of What Might Have Been.” Those who have had the privilege of being raised in the church can especially relate to that song. That’s the beauty of serving God and sharing this wonderful Gospel with each new generation.
As my mother’s Sunday School teacher prepared her lesson, craft, and snack that day all those years ago, I’m sure she could not have known the impact she would have on a child she would only meet once… Sunday School teachers – you mold lives, not only of faithful students, but your love and burden, anointed by the Holy Ghost, can also ignite a hunger for God in the heart of a little five-year-old girl you have in your classroom for only one Sunday!
[Suggested Scripture: “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” (Ecclesiastes 11:6).]
