An
experience while visiting our Sunday School children
Billy and his brother
One Saturday morning, I was on my way as usual in my area in the poor section
by the river in Oklahoma City, which we called “Sandtown”, visiting
the children who belonged to our Sunday School. I drove past a large old mobile
home whose owners had recently moved in. Playing in the grass in front of it
were 2 small boys. They approached me with big eyes full of curiosity.
Their
faces were dirty and their hair was untidy. The one boy who was about 5 years
old was called Billy, and the other one was his younger brother and was about
4 years old. Instantly I fell in love with them. I talked with the parents and
the children, and at the end of the conversation the two children were given
permission to attend our Sunday School every Sunday. I was glad that the Lord
had blessed us again, and now I was able to pick them up with our church bus.
On average, we had approximately 35 children in this bus. There were times when
our three busses which we had, transported over 130 children to Sunday School
and several adults too.
Billy,
the elder brother, always held the hand of his younger brother and looked after
him. Both of them were well brought up and behaved themselves, setting a good
example of being “grown up boys”. Punctually every Sunday morning
at 9.30 AM, they waited, all dressed up, in front of their mobile home for my
green painted church bus to arrive and then they would climb aboard full of
great joy – no wonder, for they were going to Sunday School, and that
was really exciting.
Their mother once told me that every time when her two boys came home, they
would talk about every single thing which they had learnt about Jesus in Sunday
School. I visited them every week on Saturdays and wanted to see how they were
doing. One Saturday, their mother told me that her two children would not be
coming this Sunday, for they were all going fishing and would be taking the
children with them.
Good, I understood that - I said goodbye to her and the 2 boys and wished them
success whilst fishing and that they would enjoy themselves. A week later, on
a Saturday morning, I visited them again and asked whether the children would
be coming on the following day. Then the mother came out of the house and gave
me the reply, “Yes, they will be coming.” I asked the mother, “And
how was the picnic last week and how did the fishing go?” She took a deep
breath, and smiling at the same time she sighed, “The whole fishing trip
last Sunday was a complete let-down. It would have been better if they had gone
to Sunday School and we had stayed at home.” I asked, “Why’s
that?” She replied,” The whole day, the children kept asking, When
can we at long last go to Sunday School? When are we going to stop fishing?
Can we go home now? The whole time they just didn’t stop going on.”
The two little ones got on the parents’ nerves so much, that they were
glad when they were back home again on Sunday evening. Unfortunately, there
were no fish as had been planned. Later on the mother was also on the bus going
to the worship services. rw