Reflecting on importance of Bible school in 60s, 70s
Friday, July 25, 2008Jay Reeves had a good article in the Faith section of July 17. The first sentence: Its a wonder vacation Bible school made it out of the 60s.
My children attended vacation Bible school during the 1960s and 70s at Prospect Southern Methodist Church in Jamison. Their favorite part of the morning was the Bible stories (not tales) told, with much enthusiasm and animation, by Miss Caroline (Mrs. J.L. Jackson) and sang to the music of Mrs. Yarborough (Hall), which was played with a little jivey jump not usually heard on Sunday mornings. For their snack break, they were served homemade cookies and lemonade along with store-bought chips.
Prospect Jamison is noted for its good cooks, not to mention the endless supply of goodies, and our kids knew it. Usually the crafts, particularly for the teens, were led my Miss Chris (Davis). One year she had the boys digging flower beds around the church and planting shrubbery. It is more beautiful today just knowing its history. Those boys are the daddies now and have their own stories to tell.
The smaller children had equal amounts of fun building their bird houses, bird feeders, stepping stones with hand prints, etc. under the direction of the equally talented other women of the church. We always made a point of talking about Gods love for the birds, and the little hands that created these projects. My house is overloaded with these memories and I cherish every one of them. Many of our girls are now teachers in the more updated VBSs of today.
When our children of the 60s and 70s left Bible school, they knew they had been in the presence of God, and Gods people, had a wonderful time being there and could not wait until the next morning. We did not have a lot of money to spend and many of these children had a hand in helping their parents prepare for the next days activities. Our girls baked some of the cookies while our boys loaded their dads pickups with topsoil, etc. I could go on and on but you get the picture.
In the olden days, maybe the seats werent so soft, but the children were too enthralled in the fantastic stories of the Bible and experiences to notice. Most often they were sitting on the floor anyway.
- Kathleen Horger, Orangeburg
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