Hope Lives in teays valley Schools
Since Spring of 2022, HopeStrong has served Teays Valley School district, to provide students exciting and engaging biblical lessons during school release time. The great people at Hedges Chapel have graciously opened their doors to facilitate HopeStrong classes for the Teays Valley School District.
A message from Joy Shields-Miller: HopeStrong Teays Valley's site coordinator.
"HopeStrong is a school released time program made possible in the USA by the Supreme Court in 1952. Over 80 entities in Northern Ohio participating but none in Southern Ohio, so when Hedges Chapel heard about it, we eagerly began working to make it happen with Walnut Elementary. Children are allowed, with parental consent, to be brought offsite in order to have Bible lessons during the school day. This cannot be done on school grounds. HopeStrong does not interfere with major studies such as math or science. We started this Pilot Program with second graders to be held at the end of the school day, one day a week, for 7 weeks.
The kids’ enthusiasm over the classes exploded and they told others. We started the first week with 8 students and grew to 52. Midway through, the class became so large that we had to go to 2 classes a week. Volunteers stepped up and met the challenge. Each lesson, song, and activity was Bible-themed. Each student received their own Bible to take home with them, wrote their name in it, and placed a bookmark at the Book of John for a place to begin reading it. The kids were taught about Creation, the Easter Story, the Bible, the 10 Commandments, the lost sheep and the lost coin, plus the Lord’s Prayer.
At the end of each session, every student was given a treasure chest bag with usually 5 school supplies, 2 small toys, some crafts, a Bible-themed book, and a CD or DVD of Christian songs or stories to take home with them, share with others, and start to build their own little Christian library. We finished by spotlighting the kids on the Sunday following the last session. They sang songs, quoted Scripture verses, and showed our congregation (which had doubled in size since each family was personally contacted by phone and invited to come) how they memorized the Ten Commandments. Our students were showered with applause and several returned to our Vacation Bible School program two weeks later. One of our members stated that “HopeStrong is the best thing that has happened to our church in years!” We are praising and thanking God for the revival spirit that HopeStrong has helped to bring to our church!"