I just had a delightful email exchange with Pastor Brent Dahlseng, Sr. Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Loves Park, IL. Here is part of his first note to me:

“one of our interns (Shannon Arnold, recent Wartburg College grad and soon to start seminary education at Wartburg Seminary) for our 10-week summer sports camp said this about the new kids Spark Bible – “It is out of this universe the best Bible for kids!” Part of the sports camp time is spent in Bible story time – we have 2 sessions each day – 1: 1st-4th graders; 2: 5th-6th graders. We have had 13 different kids (1 from Grace) be part of the younger sessions and 24 kids (4 from Grace) in the older group. Bible stories are brand new concept for most of these kids. Spark Bible communicates well. Its catch to look at, fun approach, yet tells the story clearly. Thanks!”

I was delighted, but curious. He seemed to be talking about our new Spark Story Bible which we think of as being for children age 2 through grade 2. But, the kids he referred to are mostly older than that. So, I sent him a note asking for clarification. Was it Spark Story Bible or our Spark Kids Bible?

His reply:
“it is the gorgeous illustrated stories from the Bible – kids love to look as stories are told – these are mostly unchurched kids!!…it’s the fun dimension of the images that kids of all ages seem to love…these kids have not heard any of these stories before so they are new…and kinda hard to imagine when you have little if any faith stories to draw on as a point of reference.”

So, they are finding that even the older kids love the Spark Story Bible because of the gorgeous illustrations and the fact that these Biblical stories are new to them!

It is, indeed, hard to imagine not having the stories of Scripture as foundation for day to day living. It’s this opportunity to touch children, youth and adults through the creation of excellent faith formation resources like these Spark Bibles and our Spark Sunday School curriculum through the nurturing work of people like Brent and Shannon that makes our work a delight!

Thanks for sharing this great story, Brent! Blessings to you, Shannon and the others who are proclaiming the Gospel in the neighborhood of Grace Lutheran Church in Loves Park!

Beth
http://twitter.com/bethalewis

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO
Augsburg Fortress

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 6:01 PM and is filed under Faith Formation Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.