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By Rachel Ortego, Regional Reporter
BRANCH – In his book, The Power of Surrender, Michael Catt writes, “You may be God’s ‘anyone’—the person He will use to open the door and let Him in. It just takes one to start a revival. Jesus isn’t waiting on the results of a poll or committee meeting. He’s waiting on a person.”
Two young ladies have opened that door to revival with prayer at their public school in the tiny rural community of Branch in Acadia Parish.
Kevin Colson, pastor of Elizabeth Memorial Baptist Church in Branch, and father to one of the girls, says this little study is sparking a revival, “not the two-week kind,” but the kind that is slowly but surely spreading throughout the town.
Inspired by a “See You at the Pole,” prayer event at Acadian Baptist Center last year, Branch Elementary students Leah Colson and Skylar Hoffpauir decided to share a short Bible message and prayer together on Wednesdays at their school. They asked for permission to meet at a stone bench near the school’s office entrance.
“We wanted to do something. We wanted other students to stop talking about some of the things they were talking about,” explained sixth-grader Skylar. “Third graders and even pre-kindergarten students were cussing.” The girls attribute bad behavior among some students to family problems, bad examples and peer pressure.
“We invited other students to come help us,” said Leah, “and some heard about it and just came. Last year our theme was HUGS – Humble Under God’s Service. This year is it HALOS – Helping All Love Our Savior.”
In the same year the girls started the study, Pastor Colson was volunteering as a basketball coach at the school. The following year the girls asked Principal Marlene Courville if Colson could lead their Bible study, which was that time numbered 20 to 30 students.
Now Colson, who is often joined by his wife, arrives at school at 7:45 each Friday morning and gathers the children in an empty classroom for a short bible message, then leads them outside for prayer. They have been doing this since the fall of 2012.
The support of the principal has been key in the growth of the group. “When you see someone helping out around school, it’s usually one of the prayer group members,” Courville said. “When the students asked if they could have the study, I explained that though I could not lead them, they were welcome to meet.” Courville says she also has a “fill-the-bucket” philosophy with all the students, based on a book she reads regularly to the children.
“I tell them we are either filling someone’s “bucket” with kindness or emptying it by bad words and actions.”
On a recent chilly mid-April morning students of varying denominations gathered indoors to hear Colson’s lesson about Jacob and Essau and about head knowledge of God’s word turning into heart knowledge.
“When did you first hear from God,” Pastor Colson asked the children, “and when did you stop hearing from God? God reminds us to make a commitment in your church but when you get to school sometimes everything changes. To get back to the place where you hear from God, arise, stop feeling sorry for yourself, get up and move on. “
Colson questioned the students, “Is the music you are listening to helping you get close to God or further? Is the stuff you are watching on television helping you get close to God or further?”
The students shared with Colson that some of the actions they would like to see stopped in their school are “lying and picking on other kids.”
Colson said the impact of the school Bible study has trickled into the church and community and resulted in the salvation of an entire family.
“Our church hasn’t been community focused but we are turning our vision to the community,” the pastor said. “Children are telling their parents about what they learn in the school Bible study and we are seeing more and more coming to church. The community is getting to know our church,” Colson said, and the church has become more involved in ongoing real-life missions in the community.
Church members now regularly serve by distributing quarters at the laundromat in a “Laundry for Love” ministry that started last October, by visiting in housing projects and other areas in a “Reach and Beyond” ministry, and by carrying groceries for the elderly at grocery stores in a “Labor of Love” ministry.
Colson said even though the ministries at the church and the school Bible study are separate ministries involving different individuals, he feels the student prayer group has definitely made a difference in the growth of the church and awareness of what the church is doing in the area.
“One girl from the school study group started attending our church and was saved. She told her brothers, they started coming and were saved. Then I received a phone call from their mother wanting to know what I was teaching her kids,” Colson said. “I didn’t know what to expect, then she told me that her children’s attitudes had changed for the better.
“The mother and father came to church and on the second Sunday both accepted Christ and I baptized the whole family. The majority of what is happening in and through our church is because of what is going on at school.”