The Sunday School of Hebich Memorial Church had its beginning as early as 1960’s. This initiative was taken by the Church elders, who had a concrete vision for the future of the children of our Church. What began with a handful of children, a few committed and dedicated teachers with vision has with the passage of time let roots deep and grown into a mighty organ with the sole aim of guiding the young children to walk in the LORD’s way.
The Sunday School began with a few children who were grouped into two sections- senior and junior. Since then it has been a long journey moving from strength to strength with an endeavour to reach higher and scale greater heights. It has been the hard work and dedicated service of certain men and women like Late William Muttelgeri, Late Samuel R. Malekar, Late R.S. Jogul, Late Mrs. D.A. Ezra, Late Dr. A.E. Punit, Late Mrs. B.R.Jogul are among the pioneers who laid a firm foundation to the Sunday School.
With the passage of time, especially during the 90’s, efforts were made to streamline the syllabus. Various syllabi like the Union Sunday School syllabus, CEEFI, Wings of Fire and Windows to Encounter Bible Society of India were taken as guidelines in framing our own syllabus. Today we have a consolidate syllabus which has been through various modification and has emerged as something worth emulating. In fact the Sunday School is proud of the fact that Sunday Schools of various Churches borrow our syllabus as guideline in framing their own. The syllabus is a fine amalgamation of stories from the Old Testament, birth, teaching, miracles and parables of Jesus, lives of missionaries and compulsory items like The LORD’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Apostle’s Creed, Books of the Bible and Verses for memorization.
The Syllabus is designed with specific objectives in mind, they are:
a) To provide experiences/ exposures to children to mould them into wholesome personalities.
b) To enable children imbibe Christian values through well-designed curriculum.
c) To prepare children face the challenge of the day in the outside world.
In recent times, keeping in mind the changing scenario, the Sunday School too has been trying to keep abreast with the changes and has been successful in including educational and social values along with spiritual values.
As of today, the strength of the Sunday School stands at 250 children with 26 teachers. The children are divided on the basis of academic standard as in the school. The syllabus is designed standard wise. Our Sunday school functions from June to February each year.
Ten lessons are prescribed for each section with work books provided by the Sunday School. After completion of a lesson, the children are required to work on the tasks and assignments given at the end of each lesson. Examination is conducted each year in the month of January. Questions set are both objective and essay type. The main thrust is on knowledge with intent to give adequate weightage to experience and application.
Children with excellent performance are given prizes during the Anniversary which is usually held in the first week of February. The emphasis is laid on attendance and Home assignment along with the score in the exam while adjudging ranks to each class.
Besides examination, Sunday School has the overall development of the child in mind. To nurture a sense of healthy competition, Sunday School conducts various competitions throughout the year like- Essay competition, Drawing competition, Writing of Psalm or Hymn. We encourage children to think independently on the topics like the importance of protecting environment, status of women in different perspective including biblical perspective. The best performers are awarded prizes on the Annual Day.
Children are encouraged and given opportunity for Bible reading, memorizing verses, singing, praise and prayer to foster their spiritual life.
On a routine, Sunday School begins at 7.30 each Sunday, every teacher is given an opportunity to lead the service which is conducted systematically and methodically with opening prayer, Hymn, Bible reading, lyric for offertory, offertory prayer with birthday prayer, followed by breakup for classes and closing prayer with the LORD’s prayer and benediction.
Sunday School Anniversary is celebrated with great pomp and enthusiasm. The day begins with a procession by our children round the Mission compound, this is followed immediately by the church service where children play a major role like Bible reading, intercessory prayer, collection of offertory, action songs, skits and finally the prize distribution.
The evening is colourful with cultural entertainment, which is looked forward to by children, parents and the congregation alike.
Sunday School plays an active part in the Harvest Festival too, where teachers enthusiastically prepare sweets and savories for sale.
Having realized the importance of interactive methods and activity- oriented activities we have conducted one day Refresher program to orient teachers to employ extensively interactive methods of teaching in their classes. Ample use of modern gadget for teaching our children is our desire.
Thus we wish to build today’s children for a better tomorrow!