Summer Bible school lessons cross time, distance

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jun 30, 2001 by Rosemary Harris

As soon as she completes Vacation Bible School at Morgan Memorial Chapel, Brittany Curry will write a letter.

She'll address it. Stamp it. Kiss it. Hold it up to the sky so God can bless it. Then, she'll drop it in the blue mailbox on the corner by her home in southeast Colorado Springs - headed straight to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's house in Texas. Which seems a whole world away, not just a state, when you're 91/2 years old, missing the two people you love and wanting to share your latest news.

"My grandpa and grandma are the BEST!" she says. "I wish they lived next door. But I write a lot. They write me back. I know they'll be happy I've been in church FOR A WHOLE WEEK STRAIGHT."

When she writes her letter, Brittany will use big letters like that. So she can get across the point that they were right. Church can be a cool place. Kids need to be in church. It starts your life off right. That's what they always tell her. "This church isn't boring. It's been fun."

Through summer, banners go up all over advertising vacation Bible schools. It's a tradition, a rite of the season. Every year, a new child comes who's never attended church regularly before, and sometimes, they have an ah-ha experience - like Brittany's.

If you travel north on Spruce from Bijou, you'll stumble upon this historic little church - Morgan Memorial Chapel Church of God In Christ - where Brittany and about 60 other children have spent the first full week of summer vacation.

Meeting new friends and singing Jesus songs. Telling long-ago parables from The Good Book and learning their meaning. Arts and crafts and snacks every day. A program for the parents. Though some churches have gone high-tech, the standard formula for vacation Bible schools hasn't changed much. But times have changed. And maybe this kind of summer pause is more important than ever.

At least that's how Elder Justus Morgan, pastor of the church founded by his late father, sees it. Something as simple and old- fashioned as a summer Bible school can help children make good choices, help develop a sense of their place in the world, convince them there are adults who care - and a God who cares, too.

"Jesus thinks kids are cool," Brittany says.

When Brittany Curry writes her letter, she'll include a verse of one of the lively praise songs she learned: a song about "Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego - three brave boys who knew the right way to go."

When she writes, she'll tell them that every day the kids brought nickels and dimes to send to a mission school for Haitian children who "barely have food to eat and certainly don't have a McDonald's."

When she writes, two grandparents will, no doubt, feel a pride that physical distance can't diminish.

Brittany asks that contributions for the Haiti mission be sent to Betty Greene, c/o Morgan Chapel, 701 N. Spruce St., Colorado Springs 80905.