African Sunday schools vary widely, just as they do in other countries. The following describes a typical village Sunday school in the interior of DR Congo.

In Sunday schools in many villages of Congo….

• Children come barefoot.
• The children’s offering is more likely an ear of dried corn than a coin.
• The children know it’s time for Sunday school when they hear the church "bell"—pounding on an old tire rim hung from a tree
• Children squat on log pews under a thatch roof in a mud hut church or sit on straw mats or even on the bare ground.
• Chickens, goats, and pigs wander in and out of the church.
• The children always dance when Sunday school music is sung.
• Drums and rattles are the only musical instruments.
• No child there has every owned a book or colored or used play dough.
• The teacher may write in the sand with a stick or on a rough board painted black.
• Acting out the story is a popular and effective teaching method, and the children even pretend to be pigs, or a donkey, letting another child be Jesus "riding" him into Jerusalem.
• Bible verses may be recited with a rhythm similar to rap music.
• Clapping is done to an intricate pattern.
• Boys sit on one side of the church, girls on the other.
• The number of kids on one bench quadruples after you think it is full.
• No child would dream of missing it.
  
  Most African Sunday schools are very simple. In most cases, only the teacher has a lesson guide or a Bible. There is no material for handwork, and no place to do it. Yet African children love to come to Sunday school. They sing enthusiastically, learn to recite Bible verses, learn Bible stories and principles, and eagerly respond to the love of Jesus.

It costs ECM about $32 to establish one new Sunday school. This covers the cost of training teachers and providing them with basic materials. To sponsor one or more new Sunday schools, click here.

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