Taking the Bible into schools

In January 2006 in a little Welsh home /prayer meeting, I felt the call of God when they were praying about schools work, something called Bible Explorer. I had never heard of it or seen it... but a week later I was on my way for 4 days to train up, 3hrs away. Farmers don’t usually do that sort of spontaneous thing!!!

Bible Explorer is an educational programme taught exclusively in schools to children in Key Stage 2 years 5 & 6. There is a series of five one-hour lessons for the Old Testament and five one-hour lessons for the New Testament. The aim is to teach children the storyline of the Bible – the big picture. The children are taught a set of keywords and hand signs that help them to remember the storyline (for example, the Old Testament begins “Creation – Fall – Flood”). Above all Bible Explorer is fun; it gets children excited about RE and helps them to discover that the Bible isn't a boring, old, irrelevant book.

My very first teaching lesson in 2006 was very scary but both boys and girls enjoyed the session. Now just 2 years later I am fulltime teaching the Bible in the 3 counties around me.

Here’s the story of just one school:
When I initially contacted the School in April 2008 they said “no thank you” but by June they had changed their minds and asked me to go as soon as possible. So in June/July last year I taught the Old Testament lessons to year six and was invited to also teach the younger children. It was wonderful to lead 42 9-11 year olds in the hand signs in their assembly. All the children were proud to be awarded their certificates and the whole school received the gift of a children’s Bible each. I was invited back to do the New Testament lessons in September/October and also to speak at their Harvest Thanksgiving service, attended by children, parents and teachers. My theme was ‘God looks for fruit in our lives’. One of the dads said “Thank you for the Bible – my son reads it to me every night.” Also in October, I was given the opportunity to do an extra lesson on the theme of prayer. The children wrote down their worries and then prayed in their class time.

I went with a team from church on a mission trip to Tanzania in late October. One of the things that the children learn in Bible Explorer is about Paul’s missionary journeys so it helped me to bring it to life to tell the children about what we were doing. The school responded by giving us some money to bless the needy children we would meet. After the trip I invited another member of the team to come with me and we were given the whole morning from 9.30 – 12.00 to show our slides and talk to the school about our experience.

It was an honour to be invited to the school Christmas lunch. A 9-year-old boy came to talk to me, asking if he could have an adult Bible. He said that he would read it if he had one. I was so touched that I nearly wept.

The church puppet team had put together a Christmas performance based on the theme that Jesus was born to be King and His name means ‘Saviour’. Seven schools (1200 children!) took me up on the offer of a show and this particular school was one of them. The children were singing along with the music and dancing – it really was party time – like welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem! The headmistress was quite moved by the children’s response. She said, “We teach knowledge and information but you have brought life!”

Recently 6 more presenters have been added to the West Wales team, reaching even more schools. Lord of the Harvest, please raise up more workers to go into this harvest field. Amen!

Submitted by Janet, New Life Church, Cardigan, West Wales

You can find out more about Bible Explorer on their website www.bible.org.uk/BX