Today’s newspaper from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Iowa, area carries a story about after-school Bible clubs and mentions several Grace Brethren women (Vivian Weimer and Rita Kehoe) who are involved. Here is a short excerpt–the entire story may be read by clicking here.
Students Learning About God After School
By TINA HINZ, For the Courier
With hands folded and heads bowed, 19 students sat in a semi-circle as Vivian Weimer led the opening prayer.
During the next hour, the kids sang spiritual praises, heard the Gospel and learned about God’s word. But this isn’t Sunday school. It’s an after-school club in a first-grade classroom in Lowell Elementary School.
This is the first year that four Waterloo elementary schools — Lowell, Edison, Irving and McKinstry — are home to Good News Clubs, a ministry of the international Child Evangelism Fellowship. Clubs also have been started at elementary schools in Jesup and Manchester.
Students ages 5 through 12 who present a signed parental or guardian permission slip may attend free of charge. Bible lessons, missionary stories, songs, Scripture memorization activities and review games are packed into each weekly session, which currently draws about two dozen students per week . . .
Rita Kehoe, a first-grade teacher at Lowell and a member of Grace Brethren Church, volunteers for the Lowell club. She said the program has been well-received, and has a positive influence on the students.”When you teach public school, you can’t use sin and obeying God in your lesson, and it’s frustrating when you see kids being disruptive and can’t use the Bible as guidance,” she said. “Since it’s after school, you can. I really truly believe these kids will become better in their classrooms, better well-behaved and better citizens.”
. . . CEF has provided Good News Clubs for more than 67 years and currently has more than 1,300 school-related clubs reaching nearly 37,000 students in almost every state.