After school, it's time for gum, songs and the Bible

CHESAPEAKE

Classes were over, but in the Georgetown Primary School library, scores of children were still gleefully shouting out their lesson.

"Good news, Jesus died for me! Good news, he can set me free! Good news, I can be saved eternally!" sang grinning members of the Good News Club, a Christian program hosted by Child Evangelism Fellowship Inc.

Blending dogma with candy, games and Bible memorization, the club proselytizes children ages 5 through 12 each week in a familiar setting: their own school.

There are Good News Clubs meeting in at least five public schools in Chesapeake, Suffolk and Portsmouth, and more are planned for South Hampton Roads, said Wanda Keith, head of the CEF's Tidewater chapter. The clubs are not school endorsed or sponsored.

CEF, a national group founded in 1937, has evangelized young children for years with home-based after-school clubs, Keith said. But it expanded into on-campus venues after recognizing that children were increasingly attending latch-key programs instead of heading home after school, she said.

The presence of an overtly religious group using public school property sometimes surprises parents. But the Supreme Court ruled in

2001 that CEF had a constitutional right to free speech at schools that gave after-hours access to other community groups.

Club fliers distributed via Chesapeake schools tout a weekly "exciting, fun-filled hour" that includes "inspiring missionary stories," "meaningful songs" and "creative learning activities."

The promotion promises that "your child will learn: Respect for Authority, Character Qualities, Moral Values, Biblical Principles." Parental permission is required to enroll.

At Georgetown Primary, membership has doubled to 80 in less than a year, said Melanie Watkins, a substitute teacher who co-founded and volunteers with the club.

"We teach them about sin first, then tell them God created them and sent his son... and if they accept him, their sins can be forgiven," she said. "They get so excited."

 On a recent Friday afternoon, club members trickled into the airy school library decorated with pictures of Big Bird and Clifford the

Big Red Dog. Outside, other pupils boarded home-bound buses.

Roger Paul, a freckle-faced 9-year-old, immediately earned a reward - gum - for bringing his new Bible to the meeting.

The club is for "learning about Jesus," he said while picking "God" and "Israel" from a Christmas word-scramble game. "I found Lord!" he exclaimed, chewing.

The pace quickened with the Good News tune and the "rules song," sung to a cadence reminiscent of boot-camp training runs.

"Jesus wants us to obey!" pealed club leader Angie Miller, a real estate appraiser and mother of five.

"Jesus wants us to obey!" the children resounded.

"Sound off!" - "Jesus!"

"Sound off!" - "That's right!"

"Sound off!" - "Jesus helps us: Today!"

Pumped up, the children tossed a beanbag through a paper wreath while sharing thoughts on why Christmas was special.

When a new member stepped up, Miller reminded the group: "This is the way you can get candy: if you invite your friends and tell 'em about the Good News Club."

Next, the children grappled with a new Bible verse, shouting the words while jumping about in a Simon-Says game with the instructor.

It was their "memory verse," to be learned like the Christian doctrines they already knew by heart.

"What is sin?" a volunteer called out.

"Anything we say, think or do that God does not like!" children chanted with summer-camp excitement.

"What has he done for you, Jesus as Lord and savior?" the volunteer urged.

"Saved me," a child said.

After a skit on giving Jesus gifts on his birthday, Miller quieted the children, praying aloud to Christ.

"If there's a child here who'd like to accept you into their heart as the best Christmas present ever, I want to be able to give them that opportunity," Miller said.

A dozen children stood at her invitation and lined up for one-to-one talks with adult volunteers.

None converted to Christ this afternoon - instead, they shared worries about sick relatives and families separated during the holidays, Watkins said.

Nonetheless, "We have had nine children saved since September," she said. "We had two a week from March through June last year."

CEF believes that non-Christians "shall be cast 'into the lake of fire' " for eternity after Jesus' second coming, according to the group's Web site.

 Each club depends on CEF-trained volunteers and looks to churches or donors to underwrite CEF curriculum materials.

The Georgetown Primary club is sponsored by the nearby Woodland Heights Baptist Church and St. Paul's United Methodist Church.

At Woodland Heights, the Rev. Ken Barnes said supporting the club fits his congregation's goal of reaching out to the wider community.

"What we need to do is expose the children to God's love," he said. He said each child would be different in his or her ability to profess a personal Christian conversion.

He also stressed that "the children are there because their parents want them to be there."

At Georgetown Primary, the club is a spiritual pinch-hitter for some parents who ruefully confess they don't take their children to church, Miller said.

"They know that, deep down, there's some sort of spiritual help they should be giving their child, and they don't know how to do that," she said.

Other parents are like Roberta Felton, who said the club reinforces the same religious message her 7-year-old daughter, Malena, gets at home and church.

"She loves to read Scriptures, so I thought this was a great idea when I heard about it," Felton said.

Like several parents, Felton said she initially was surprised to find Christian evangelism in a public school - a venue sometimes seen as hostile to religion.

Keith said many parents and educators don't know about the U.S. Supreme Court decision granting religious groups access to public schools that allow community groups to use space after hours.

The court ruled that religious clubs were constitutional so long as a public school itself was not sponsoring the activities, said William Van Alstyne, a scholar at the Marshall-Wythe Law School at the College of William and Mary.

At Georgetown Primary, principal Dalphine A. Joppy said the Good News Club is just one of several groups, including the Boy Scouts, that use school space.

Watkins said Georgetown Primary's faculty "all say they're really glad" the club is active, and some teachers help kindergartners find their way to the after-school meetings.

It's that kind of ambience that could make children think Good News is school-sponsored, said Ayesha Khan, legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

"Their capacity to distinguish what's privately sponsored and publicly sponsored is necessarily limited," she said.

All Kristen Crite, 7, knew as this Friday wound down was that Good News was "the best club I've ever been to."

"We can get from our classroom and get to the Good News Club and eat our treats," Kristen said, "and then we can learn about God."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com