High School Seniors

Well, I guess Bob was just born to be a teacher, because he is now teaching the religious education classes for the seniors (in high school) at our church. Now the interesting thing is that the "religious education class leader lady" (CCD director for Abby M) provided Bob with a curriculum to follow and books to use, but he isn't using any of it. See, the problem is that most Catholics in this area are not Bible readers by any stretch of the imagination. And most students in these classes (no matter what grade) have no idea what the Bible really teaches or what they really believe in. They just go to church because their parents do. I was also in this same situation until my last few years of high school.

Anyway, Bob is teaching currently as I write this post. He also had one class last week also. He taught straight from the Bible, and actually had the students opening their Bibles (some of them had never really done this before). He has also asked the priest to purchase Bibles for all of his students, which the priest has agreed to do. Bob spent the first class teaching the students that God does want us to be in a relationship with him, and that there is a clear difference between what is right and wrong. Again, this was a news flash for these kids. At our church, we sort of hear these messages, but they are always sugar coated. Bob really stressed to them that they need to be serious about their faith.

This was a much different type of religion class than these students have ever had before, which you may not understand unless you have experienced Catholic CCD. However, Bob was contacted by one of his student's parents. She wanted to thank him. She said her son came home last week after having talked with his friends from the class for 1/2 an hour. She said the boys decided they had learned more in that hour class than they had for several years.

I am just so happy that God is able to use Bob in this way. I know Bob is really trying hard to make the classes relevant to the students so they can apply it to their personal lives. Please pray for him and his students that they will continue to have classes that impact their lives. By impacting the senior students, I hope it will evenventually ripple out to impact our church. Catholics in this area are known for their complacency.