"W" is for WRE Ministry . . .

And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi,

Let me now go to the field,

and glean ears of corn after him

In whose sight I shall find grace.

And she said unto her, Go, my daughter."

Ruth 2:2  KJV

 

'Jesus' on WRE Float

A father and his young son get on a train and sit down across from an old man. The young boy notices that the old man is holding a box and he’s very curious and begins to wonder about what’s inside . . . Cookies? A toy? Candy? What does this old man have in his box???? And will he share it with me?

 

Finally the young boy just can’t hold back any longer and he asks, “Hey mister, whatcha got in that box?”

 

The father says, “I’m sorry sir; please forgive my son for bothering you.”

 

The old man smiles and replies, “I’d be happy to share with the lad what I have in my box.”

 

And so the old man begins . . . “In this box I have – bread, a compass, a roadmap, a light, a mirror, a sword and sixty-six books.”

 

The young boy has a look of surprise on his face and says “Mister, you couldn’t have all that stuff in that box, it’s way too small.”

 

The old man slowly opens his box . . . and shows the contents to the curious young lad.

 

The young boy looks a bit confused and says “Why that’s just a Bible. Where’s all that stuff you said was in there?”

 

The old man smiles and begins to explain . . .

 

“The Bible is the bread of life . . . it helps us to grow spiritually just like bread helps our bodies to grow physically.

 

A compass . . . always points us in the right direction as we travel through life, even when we’re lost.

 

A roadmap . . . directs you to the right road/path and keeps you there.

 

A light . . . helps us see things that are in our pathway that might cause us to stumble and fall.

 

A sword . . . provides us with the power/weapon we need to fight our temptations.

 

A mirror . . . helps us to see the faults in our life that we may need to change.

 

And sixty-six books . . . the Bible has sixty-six books.”

 

WRE Students
walking to class

This story was shared with the third and fourth grade Weekday Religious Education (WRE) students that I work with during our first week of classes this year. Most of the lessons they hear in our classes are stories from the Bible, but a few, like this one, are about the Bible. Each week, during our classes, the students sing songs that go along with that week’s lesson (and maybe some from past weeks); recite their memory verse & receive a sticker for their book; are prayed for; listen to the Bible story/lesson and take home a new memory verse to memorize for the next week. The first verse they took home, after hearing this story, was: “Grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Second Peter 3:18b.

 

This year, as we study the great men and women in the Bible, our students will learn about faith, trust and obedience and how important this is in their own lives. They will also find that the Bible is the most important book in our world today . . . which is why we call it our ‘treasure book.’

 

Yes, the Bible, God’s Holy Word, a treasure book – the bread of life, a compass, a roadmap, a light, a sword, a mirror and sixty-six books . . .

 

The bread of life – we must have bread for physical growth and we also need to be fed spiritually and our Bibles supply the food for our souls;

 

The compass and road map – our Bibles point us in the right direction and keep us going on the right path;

 

The sword – our Bibles are our weapon to fight the temptations that we face every single day and give us victory over those temptations;

 

The mirror – our Bibles help us to see our faults and help us to change our ways;

 

The light – our Bibles bring light into our lives and keep us from doing the wrong things;

 

And sixty-six books – our Bibles are a library of sixty-six books. There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament and twenty-seven books in the New Testament. This library contains so much wonderful knowledge, we can study it all our lives and still learn new truths each time we open it and read it.

 

God’s Word – A Treasure Book

Study it carefully

Think of it prayerfully

Tis truly a treasure

Which no one can measure.

 

Our Bibles . . . a treasure book guiding us through all of life’s battles.

 

Do you carry a little box with you? What’s in your little box? Do you share its contents with others or keep it closed up? What do you/have you done to share God’s Word, the Bible, with our Young Friends/youth? Are you willing to share what’s in your box with others?

 

 



WRE Parade Float

Weekday Religious Education (WRE) is a time release program offered to public school students around the United States. Here in Indiana, it is allowed under State law. Each WRE program is a bit different as each program creates/selects their own curriculum and what grade level they work with. In Morgan County, our classes are for 3rd and 4th grade students. Letters and registration cards are sent home the first week of classes in the Fall and only those students that return the cards are released from their classes to come to WRE. Students are picked-up from the school and walked across the street to a local Church - at three of our schools we use buses to transport the students, due to distance or for safety reasons. This year our classes run anywhere from 35-55 minutes, depending on what the school can schedule and are once a week. We serve all 15 public schools in the County and have an enrollment of 70% of all the 3rd & 4th graders. We currently have 5 teachers who all have assistants in their classrooms and 3 bus drivers.

 

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Recipes for “W” I found both of these while going through my mom’s recipe boxes this week. The first one I thought I’d throw in is ‘William Tell Coffeecake,’ it’s been a while since I've posted a breakfast recipe. Her handwritten note that says ‘QUICK!’ ‘Wiener Wrapups’ for all my Scouting, Guiding, camping and outdoorsy F/friends – a super simple dough to mix-up and wrap around hotdogs and cook on a stick over a campfire or the grill . . . reminds me of the ‘Pigs in Blankets’ we’d make with canned croissant rolls.

 

Wiener Wrapups

2/3 cup milk

2 cups biscuit mix

 

Add milk all at once to biscuit mix, stirring briefly with fork to form soft dough. Coat hands with a little flour or biscuit mix and form dough into rectangles or six-inch-long fat-pencil-thickness strips. Peel bark off end of green sticks three-eights to one-half inch in diameter, and completely push them through skinless hot dogs. Spiral dough strips around franks, or wrap rectangles around them, pinching dough to secure. Turn sticks frequently about five inches over hot coals of grill or carefully tended campfire, till well-browned. You could also wrap thicker strips of dough around green sticks over fire – for campfire biscuits.

 

 

William Tell Coffeecake

¼ cup margarine

¾ cup white sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup milk

 

Stir butter to soften. Cream together with sugar till fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating smooth after each addition. Pour into greased 9x9 inch baking dish.

 

Apple Topping

1 cup finely chopped pared tart apple

1/3 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

 

Combine apples, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Sprinkle apple topping on top of coffee cake.

 

Bake at 375 F for 25-30 minutes.

 

Cool 15 minutes, cut into square and serve warm.