Side effects

The year I began teaching the grade five Sunday school class on my own was a struggle. Controlling a group of energetic 10 and 11-year-olds is never easy. Doing it as a rookie can be quite a challenge.

One child in the class was particularly difficult. Despite warnings and numerous time outs, James continued to misbehave and disrupt our group. It all came to an ugly climax during a class party.

I had brought a popcorn popper to class and made a mega bowl of popcorn for everyone to share. Suddenly James lifted the huge bowl of popcorn and flung it across the room. Popcorn showered the room and covered the carpeted floor. Everyone screamed and then got quiet as I walked over to James.

I had had enough. ”Go into the hall until class is over and then go home,” I said loudly and very emphatically. “Don’t ever come back.”

For the next 15 minutes the rest of the class soberly cleaned up the room and I began to feel badly about what I had said to James.

Before the class ended I went into the hall and recanted my decision. He could have another chance if he promised to behave. He agreed.

Unfortunately he never came back.

That following summer I was working in my front yard when I noticed a young person walking by my house. I recognized him. I rushed over to greet James and soon discovered he lived in my neighbourhood.

We made a date to play some basketball at a hoop nearby. Throughout the summer and fall we played ball on and off and even did a little mountain biking. We got to know each other better. In September he went on to the grade six class and seemed to do well.

The following year I asked him if he would like to help me in my Sunday school class. He agreed and for most of the year pitched in enthusiastically and was a very positive part of our group.

To date, he is the most difficult child I have had to deal with. But, he is also the only one to return and work in the class with me.

There are other stories I could tell, of Andrew, a boy with an attitude and a terminal illness, and of Sandy, whose father burnt down their house during a difficult divorce. There was Chan whose Buddhist parents run the best Chinese food restaurant in town, an amazing little girl with the voice of an angel, and Jack who wouldn’t sing if his life depended on it. There was shy little Cathy who never spoke a word the entire year, despite my many efforts, and the eighth grader who begged to come back to our grade five class because church just didn’t do it for him.

Occasionally someone asks me why I teach Sunday School. The kids are often difficult. Parents rarely offer to help and no one is ever going to pay me. My answer is simple, “Why wouldn’t I?”

Sure, sometimes the teaching seems to have no effect on the kids. But I learned long ago that it’s not the teaching that does the trick. It’s the unexpected results that occur when you just show up week after week.

Daniel Favor has been teaching Sunday school at Northview Community Church, Abbotsford, B.C. for ten years.