World Bible School – what does that phrase bring to your mind? If you are not one of the members of the WBS team, you may have a misconception of what it really means. WBS is not just preparing and mailing study materials to students; it’s not just grading answer sheets returned by students; it’s not only reading and responding to questions asked by students; and it’s not just enjoying the fellowship of working with others in a group environment. While all of the things mentioned above are a part of what goes on in WBS, the main reason most of us are involved in this work is because we are privileged to help introduce those who do not know Jesus to the One who can become their Savior and change how they live their lives as well as the purpose of their life.

The members of our group are not all educators by training, but we are all interested in sharing the good news of Jesus with others and have been blessed to be able to do that through working together right here at Singing Oaks. We work with students from many parts of the world, but almost all of them are able to communicate in English. Additionally, we study with several thousand students who are incarcerated in Texas prisons.

Many of us meet together on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 and perform the tasks of preparing lessons, grading lessons, opening and sorting incoming mail, and preparing mail to be sent out. These sessions are very informal and allow each of us to visit with other members of the team as well as get actual work done. We also spend time in prayer about the congregation as well as the students that we serve.

Several members of our team do their work from their homes. They pick up materials from our work-site in the Community Room (Room 123), take it home to complete whatever is necessary, and then return it to the work-site when it is ready. By using an Internet connection, some folks actually log-on and update student records on the church server from their homes. One of our older team members (Tom Carlisle) is no longer able to get to the building on Wednesdays but he is still very involved – we deliver lessons that need to be prepared to him in his assisted-living facility, he completes the lesson preparation, and we then take the lessons back to our work-site to get them ready for mailing to students.

One of our newer activities involves students in the Texas prison system. We have a partnership with a small group of individuals who routinely make visits to several of the prison units. While they are on-site, they distribute introductory lessons to the inmates who show an interest in studying. The inmates then complete the lesson and return it to us via the post office. As they continue to study and complete lessons, we grade their answers and supply them with additional lessons to study. Tom Locklear heads up our WBS prison work.

A couple of letters that we received might encourage you to become an active part of our efforts. We received a crumpled, dirty answer sheet along with a short note from a young man in Nigeria. He said that the found our lesson in a trash can as he was searching for food. He decided to study the lesson, complete the answers, and return the lesson to us. In his note he said, “How could anyone be such a bad person as to throw away information about God? I want to continue to study with you people.” We received another letter that informed us that one of our students had died as a result of being attacked by a group of angry Muslims. The letter also reported that all of our students in that particular region had moved away because they feared for their lives.

We normally mail out between 9,000 and 10,000 pieces of mail each year. Through the use of computers and mailing labels, we have managed to streamline the processes; but handling that number of lessons requires a good deal of work, and we are always looking for additional people to join our team. You can make a difference in the lives of people by assisting us in this work. Come by one of our work sessions on any Wednesday night or contact Reid Norton, Tom Locklear, or Tom King and we will happily discuss WBS with you.