PAWPAW'S MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 55 - Bible Jeopardy At The Basement Summer Bible School
PAWPAW'S MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 55
Pawpaw loves Bryson, Connor and Archer!
Bible Jeopardy At The Basement Summer Bible School
I have known my friend Randy since we were two years old. Our parents
lived in homed beside each other in East Canton, Ohio. Randy’s parents would
lift him over our chainlink fence where he and I could play together protected
in our yard. Randy’s family moved away and later we moved as well. It was quite
a happy surprise in Kindergarten in a completely different town when Randy and
I found ourselves in the same class. Our parents has unknowingly relocated to
the same town.
Randy’s parents attended the large Methodist Church in town. Even though
my family did not attend, Randy’s family often included me in church
activities. Three gray haired ladies who I thought were aged one hundred or
more but were probably fifty held a Vacation Bible School in the basement of
one of their homes. Since Randy would be attending, Randy’s mother invited me
to go with Randy.
We would enter the old lady house and descend down the stairs to the
spotless basement where chairs were set up in rows for us kids to occupy. After
an opening prayer, things got immediately stressful. The week before, the
ladies gave us a Bible verse to memorize. We were supposed to spend the week
considering and meditating upon it. I
usually forgot it the minute I left the basement. It was the absolute worst to
be the first one called to the front of the class to recite last week’s memory
verse. Randy and I quickly figured it out. After the first person failed at the
memory verse, we’d listen for the old lady to kindly say, “No, dear. Its…” and
say the verse out loud. Then we’d try to quickly memorize the Bible verse
before being called up front ourselves. Being the last to be called meant being
the one with the most time to hear the verse over and over again and memorize
it.
The kids who repeated the Bible verse correctly were given a lollipop.
It was one of the little kid lollipops wrapped in cellophane with a loop
for a handle instead of a stick . It
didn’t matter. A lollipop is a lollipop. I still remember the terror of
basement Vacation Bible School. My heart pounded in my chest because I knew I
didn’t know the verse that the gray haired ladies were going to ask me. I sat
praying that they would not call my name first. Most of the time, they didn’t.
I’ll never know for sure if it was answered prayer or luck of the draw.
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