The Sunday School Department at First Pentecostal Church of Jackson, Mississippi, underwent a fabulous revamping in every way this year!
A retired public school teacher/administrator took on the project with a head full of ideas. She gathered an enormous team of people and delegated projects at the beginning of the summer with an Open House scheduled for last weekend in September.
She asked me to create a flock of origami birds for the check-in station. I was open to the suggestion because I know how to fold cranes; my daddy taught me how!
When I was growing up, my church in Houston, TX, was always full of children, and sometimes the services went long.
Dad would see a restless kiddo (often me or a child seated nearby), pull out a dollar bill, and proceed to fold a crane. The ability to pull the tail to make the wings flap always seemed to calm a child.
I ordered origami paper (a small 8×8 and large 12×12) and began the folding of 100 cranes on the long road trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester this past July. Each bird took about four minutes to fold.
The process brought back memories of my sweet dad.
The installation happened a few days before the Open House. Luckily for me, there was a lift at the church. My brother-in-law learned how to operate it (on-the-job training), and we strategically attached the 100 birds to the ceiling tiles using a paperclip, about 8 feet of fishing line, and a tack on each one.
The overall effect is stunning if I do say so myself! The cranes appear to be more spread out over the two glass doors and then get closer in a serpentine formation, up and down, as the flock nears the single doorway to the stairs that lead to the new children’s wing of the church.
I am so thankful to have played a part in the bigger production of the new Sunday School, which got a significant physical facelift, as well as a whole fresh way of teaching Jesus to our kids.
Now when I ask my beginner Bible Quizzers about Sunday School now, they inevitably reply with wonder in their eyes, “It’s AWESOME!”
