Steve Eliason, left, and Ope Niemeyer, take time for a photo with two of their third grade Sunday school students. Photo courtesy of First UMC.

Sunday school at First United Methodist Church in Brookings, South Dakota, happens at 9:00-9:50 a.m.  Sunday school classes are offered for ages 2 through adult. Third grade is a transitional year when students receive their Bibles during worship early in the fall. In the third grade classroom you will find two men, Steve Eliason and Ope Niemeyer, helping students dig deeper into the Bible.

"It really doesn't do a whole lot for kids if you just give them a Bible and it sits somewhere. The Bible takes some understanding before it becomes a tool for your life," said Ope Niemeyer, who teaches third-grade Sunday school at the church. "The idea to have third grade Sunday School about the Bible came from the mother of a third grader."

Shepherd to teacher

For several years, Niemeyer, who also happens to be the Brookings mayor, was a shepherd for Sunday school. "This mom had the idea to teach her third-grade daughter how to use the Bible with other third-grade kids. It did not work out for her to teach that year. Gretchen [Knutson], who organizes Sunday school, asked if I would teach the class. It was the first time I taught an entire class. Every once in a while, I would get stuck teaching a class, but I was always a helper. We follow the timeline of the Bible. We start with Genesis and make our way through the New Testament. It seems to work."

Niemeyer recruited Steve Eliason to co-teach the Bible the class."I got involved because my son was going into third grade," said Steve Eliason, who co-teaches with Niemeyer. "I thought it would be a good idea to help the kids understand how to read the Bible, find things, and get around in the Bible."

Eliason and Niemeyer selected a book with a timeline that tracks the stories and events in the Bible. 

"I enjoy being able to teach the kids the Bible stories what I learned when I was their age," said Eliason. "We cover most of the Bible. We don't talk about Kings or get into all the details about all the different kings. We don't cover Psalms; we will touch base on it briefly. At Christmas time, Advent Season, that's when the kids really hear the Christmas story. They hear about Jesus' birth. They learn about what Jesus did with his disciples. We spend several weeks on Paul and his travels—how he told other people about Christ."

Bible journey

Sometimes, there are ten people in the class; some weeks, there may be only one third grader. The goal is to touch the lives of those who show up and help them dig into the Bible. Steve and Ope use maps, drawings, computers, videos, crossword puzzles, word searches, and conversations to make the Bible come alive. 

"We will show on the map where everything's going on. For Exodus, we'll have a map in the book showing where they were in Egypt and where Mount Sinai was at," describes Ope. "When we study Paul and the four trips that he went on, we explain to the kids the distance and time. He didn't get on a plane and go to Rome. He took a boat, he walked, he rode a horse, mule, or donkey. It wasn't a motorboat. It was a sailboat. It took years to get to places. It didn't happen overnight. You know, think about walking from Brookings, South Dakota, to Volga, South Dakota. How long that would take? It's a 10-mile walk. It could take you all morning to get to Volga."

They compare looking up things in the Bible to looking up words in the dictionary. "The Bible is very similar to the dictionary. You look for the name at the top of the page. The little numbers are the verses, and the big numbers are the chapters. That is all you need to remember," said Ope. 

Different versions of the Bible provide focus areas that are indexed. "I tell them that some Bibles have different focus areas for times in your life if you're sad, or if you're happy, or you need encouragement," Ope said. "There is a guide to send you to certain verses in different chapters of the Bible. We have had a lot of fun doing that."

Throughout the year, lessons in the classroom are reinforced during worship. The timeline in the Bible replicates or follows the church year. 

"A lot of the time, what we are talking about in class, Pastor Pete is talking about during his sermon on Sunday," said Steve. "The church really comes to life for them. When it is Easter time, we are also talking about the Easter story. At Christmas, we're talking about the Jesus being born. We connect those 11 repeating themes from the Old Testament about how people misbehaved then and how people today are the same way."

Always learning

Currently, the focus is on the Old Testament. Steve and Ope expect questions about the current conflict in Israel and Gaza. "I hope they ask, and we can figure it out together," said Ope. 

The two find themselves not only as teachers but also as students. 

"I think the kids get a lot out of it. I feel as teachers, we're reminded of a lot of these stories from the Bible. Isn't the great thing about teaching that you get to learn it again? There's always something new, "said Steve. 

"People keep asking, when will you quit doing this? I tell them 'when I get tired of it,'" said Ope. "I have been doing this for 34 years now and I'm still having 'aha' moments."