Sunday school is beyond babysitting
- Written by Malita Wamala
I wonder if Sunday School these days is still as memorable as it was in our days. I wonder if it is as impactful on a child’s life and future.
What I see more of these days are serious ‘children’s churches’, where tweens and teenagers go for Sunday nourishment, but for children younger than nine years, I wonder whether it is as it used to be.
The Redeemed Church of the Lord Sunday school of the 1980s was so famous, we would leave home in Makerere after assuring our single mother that we were headed to the Mulago Catholic parish for mass, but we would instead walk the longer route to Redeemed church, where we were even leaders in the Sunday school.
Well, until that fateful day when a stray dog bit me on the way from church, and the good Samaritan that delivered us at home in his car informed my mother where the dog had found us – Gaddafi road, the opposite side of Mulago hill!
But that is a story for another day. I was just reminiscing that Sunday school headed by Aunt Freda, now Pas- tor Freda Sserwadda, where the Bible would come alive for me.
She would make us sing in harmony at that tender age, and we would regularly dramatise Bible stories, which helped us memorise scripture and its meaning effectively. From this, I distinctly remember the story of the ten virgins from Matthew 25; the story of Saul at Damascus; the story of Noah and the ark...
Most memorable of all is when we were invited to the adults’ church to showcase, and we would march from the Sunday school to the church podium, stomping our little feet and singing, “Keep me shining Lord in all I do and say/That the world may see Christ lives in me/And learn to love Him too.”
Well, then the dog happened, and we were banned from going back to Redeemed church, but the seed was sown. I flirted with salvation several times after that, but it was at age 27, when I truly gave my life to Christ. Soon after I returned to Redeemed church for the first time, for a praise rally; the flood of emotions and nostalgia!
Sunday school is where my beautiful salvation journey started. My two partners in crime from back then are also born-again today, and one of them teaches Sunday school.
Are you a Sunday school teacher? The precious seed God has entrusted you with will one day blossom and bring glory to God in amazing ways, if you plant with wisdom.