A long influence

I’ve been involved in the girls’ club at Portage Ave. MB Church, Winnipeg, as a prayer pal and then as a committee member. One evening I attended the club to help with a short drama. I watched the girls reciting their verses to their teenage leaders and hanging around with them. Down the hall, the boys’ club was doing woodwork. I could hear screams and laughter coming from the youth room.

“Is this what giving spiritual direction is all about?” I wondered.

Then I read the obituary of Elma Brown from Winkler (Herald, Dec. 5, 2003). After listing the preacher who led her to salvation, the obituary notes the influence on Elma’s life of Sunday school and meetings led by Ida Hiebert and Mary Loeppky.

Ida Hiebert Penner was my mother, so I did some investigating. I was able to contact two people from that group who are still living and I reread my mother’s diary.

The girls’ club Elma attended was active only a short while, but it was started at a crucial time. Many of the girls (ages 13–15) in Ida’s and Mary’s Sunday school classes had experienced revival through Rev. F.J. Wiens. They discussed how to keep their spiritual fire glowing.

“Let’s get together a lot,” the girls cried.

One family offered their home because their daughter had trouble walking. They met during the week and on Sunday afternoons. Ida’s prayer list of 1931 mentions 24 girls. Not all of them were attentive. Others, however, took it all in, even checking to see if the Bible text agreed with what was being taught.

One of the participants, Linda Penner Dyck, says, “The meetings were a real inspiration to me. I had just quit school so this was also my social life. At 16 I started teaching Sunday school.”

One difference between these meetings and clubs today was that Ida and Mary had no curriculum to follow. They had to figure out what the girls might like and match activities to their abilities. They always had a short Bible study with application to life. The girls were encouraged to ask questions that were then answered sincerely, using Bible verses and rhymes such as the following to emphasize truths:

Whatever you are, be that.
Whatever you speak, say true.
Be honest – In fact
Be nobody else but YOU.

Memorizing Scripture, especially psalms, was strongly encouraged and there was a lot of singing. Ida played guitar and piano and some of the girls played piano. They practiced “The Ninety and Nine” with pantomime for a performance. They also acted out dramas with Ida writing the script.

After a snack they did handwork. Ida and Mary taught them crafts like making crepe paper flowers, which was popular at the time. Not all the girls liked handwork so one of them read a continued story while the others crocheted or knit or embroidered.

This club without a formal agenda had an influence that was remembered after 70 years. Anyone who works with kids should be encouraged by this example from the past. You never know what sinks in if young people are allowed to do things and ask questions.

Shirley B. Bergen, formerly of Brandon, Man., attends Portage Ave. MB Church, Winnipeg.