I was concerned too. Mr. Heinz was the teacher of the third and fourth grade Sunday school class back in 1991. We were all a close-knit church family. Most of us lived in Corona, CA, and were very active in the small church's ministries, such as AWANA, Bible study, and of course Sunday school. In fact, Mr. Heinz's wife was the principal of our new home school group. We church kids really grew up together in a good sense of the word.
"I don't know where he is," I answered. "They were all at AWANA Wednesday." I racked my almost-ten-year-old brain for a reason why our teacher would be late.
We all turned as we heard the door down the hall open. Was it Mr. Heinz?
"Hi, kids," it was my dad, the adult Sunday school teacher. Was he teaching us?
"What's going on, Dad?" I asked.
"Mr. Heinz is sick. We just got word. He had appendicitis. You'll have to go to Mr. Snow's* class [not his real name]."
I think everyone wanted to groan. Mr. Snow was the fifth and sixth grade teacher that year. His room was just down the hall.
Knowing there was no other option, we all shuffled down the hall, hoping for a good class experience, but prepared for otherwise.
"Hi, guys!". Mr. Snow grinned merrily as we walked into the room at the far end of the hall. He was as jolly as Saint Nicholas himself...but somewhere, buried not so deeply, was a raging volcano, ready to erupt at a moment's notice.
"Hi, Mr. Snow!" I replied for the class, hoping to keep him happy.
Class that day was relatively painless, if you didn't mind being lectured about how grateful you should be not to live in the Soviet Union. Beyond that, we read the Sunday school quarterlies. That's how to teach a class when you don't want to prepare! Complain about foreign dictatorships and read pre-written material.
"These words are hard," a couple of the third graders complained about the fifth and sixth grade quarterly.
Mr. Snow laughed, " It's good to be challenged!" This was to become his mantra.
It is not! I thought stubbornly. It's good when things are easy!
We were told Mr. Heinz would be out recovering for a while. In the weeks that followed, we learned more about being challenged than we ever wanted to know! I always felt that volcano was on the verge of eruption!
One particular Sunday, Mr. Snow finally said something that hit home.
"How would you feel," he began, looking around the room seriously, "if the Soviets took your Bible?"
"Why would they do that?" One of the older kids asked. "I thought they didn't like Bibles."
"Yeah," I added. "Besides, they can only read Russian and my Bible is in English."
Mr. Snow laughed. "You misunderstand. I mean, what if this was just like the Soviet Union and we didn't have freedom to read the Bible?"
Suddenly, I was struck to the heart. At that moment, I realized just how much God's Word impacted every area of my life. Without it, there would be no AWANA, Sunday school, church family, Bible camps, devotions at home, or Christian home school. And worse, how could people hear from God without the Bible? I realized that I had taken God's word as my right, taken it for granted.
Mr. Snow continued. "If you lost your Bible, you would have to rely on the scriptures you memorized in order to hear from God."
Again, I was struck with the seriousness of it. I had gotten awards for scripture memorization. I knew dozens of verses, even a couple passages. It was impressive in Sunday school...but stacked against the possibility of losing my Bible forever, it was kind of lame.
I had to do better. I had to take memorizing the Bible more seriously...and I would!
Meanwhile, Mr. Snow warned us about the poverty of Soviet citizens, no butter for the potatoes and all that (one student asked if they at least had cheese whiz, that's what HE liked on potatoes). Boy would everyone be surprised at the end of the year when there no longer was a Soviet Union.
"Mr. Heinz still isn't back," Darren moaned as I arrived at class the next Sunday. "I don't want to go in Mr. Snow's class anymore. I always feel like he's mad at us."
I was hit with an idea, one so good I wondered why I hadn't thought of it sooner.
"Let's go to my Mom's class!"
My mom taught Kindergarten through second grade. She was a popular teacher...and she gave out candy!
"Great idea!" Darren grinned.
All of us third and fourth graders rushed to the opposite side of the building.
Mom was just setting up her room."What are you doing here? Aren't you in Mr. Snow's class until Mr. Heinz comes back?"
"We want to be with you, Mom," I said.
"We love you, Mrs. Heiden!" Darren exclaimed.
My mother looked gently at us. "Don't you think that would hurt Mr. Snow's feelings?"
"What would hurt my feelings?"a voice from behind almost gave me a heart attack. I spun around to face none other than Mr. Snow himself.
THINK! My mind raced. "We, uh, we don't think we're smart enough for your class."
"Really?" He looked surprised, then gratified. Smiling, then chuckling, he said his famous line, "It's good to be challenged!" He swung his arm triumphantly, almost accidentally hitting the side of my head. "Come on. It's time to start class!"
It was a subdued little group following Mr. Snow. Our attempts to get into the fun class had failed.
The fifth and sixth graders were already there. We all got to chatting. Mr. Snow said it was time to pray and start class. At the exact same second, Darren was saying the punchline to a joke: "I'm allergic to being a vegetarian!"
Mr. Snow's face went from merry to furious in less than a sevond. He may have set some sort of record.
"If you're going to joke around, you can just leave!"
Darren looked shocked. "I'm sorry."
"You heard me young man! I've put up with enough nonsense!"
Everyone was stunned silent. Mr. Snow rose up out of his seat, made his way to Darren and glowered down at him. "Come with me now!" He grabbed Darren's arm (not strongly or abusively, just enough to show he meant business).
"I've had enough! I've just had enough!" The teacher huffed as he and Darren disappeared out the door.
No one said a word.
Mr. Snow appeared out the window. We could see him from the chest up, the top of Darren's head just visible beside him. In the classroom, Mr. Snow had appeared the strong commander. Now he looked lost, as if he were thinking, "Now that I have him outside, what do I do with him?"
They disappeared from view.
The seconds seemed like hours. My heart pounded. What was Mr. Snow doing to Darren?
Finally, our silence was broken.
"Well, let's start class," Mr. Snow was striking his hands together as he reentered the room. What had he done? My overactive imagination raced to the worst case scenarios, such as maybe he'd killed Darren!
Class started. Mr. Snow was jovial again. He never mentioned Darren. It was if he no longer existed! Mr. Snow didn't seem to notice how subdued we all were.
I will not leave you in the suspense we were left with. Mr. Snow had simply left Darren outside in the front of the church. Darren had ended up going to my mother's fun class. While I worried for his very life, he was eating candy and playing fun Bible games!
After Sunday school, I made a decision. No matter what, I would somehow get Mr. Heinz back by next week.
When I got home, I wrote him a letter, telling him how much we missed him and wanted him to feel better soon and come back. I stuck a postage stamp on it (newly raised to 29 cents) and dropped it in the mail Monday morning.
"Did you hear? Did you hear?" Darren shouted triumphantly the next Sunday.
"What?" I barely dared hope.
"Mr. Heinz is coming back today!".
There were cheers all around. We all settled into our classroom to await our beloved teacher.
"I'm just glad we're done with Mr. Snow," I said. Some might say I spoke too soon. Speak of the devil, Mr. Snow appeared around the corner. My heart froze! Had he heard me say that? Worse, was he here because Mr. Heinz really wasn't coming back?
But Mr. Snow looked happy. Laughing, he asked, "Are you kids waiting for Mr. Heinz KETCHUP to get here?". He walked away, laughing at his own joke. Funny, but hadn't he disliked jokes last week?
A few minutes later, Mr. Heinz walked in. I almost wanted to hug him! He smiled genuinely at the class. Then he looked at me. "Thanks for your letter, Janelle. I read it, and it seemed to just make me better instantly!"
My good feelings dimmed a little. Instantly? My letter had made him get well instantly? If I had known that would happen, I would have written three weeks ago! I was rather cross with myself.
Oh well, maybe Mr. Snow was right. Maybe it really was good to be challenged after all!
*This very amusing story is true. I only changed Mr. Snow's name. Those named are people I have either spoken with about it, or I know beyond a doubt they would be okay with it. Mr. Snow really did teach me the value of scripture memorization.
No comments:
Post a Comment