To be honest, teaching Scripture was not something I thought about. I’m not a teacher by trade – I work in health IT. 

For me, the journey and experience of Scripture teaching started with our church Mums and Bubs Bible study group. We do weekly studies during the term, and in Term 3 of 2023 we did SRE accreditation. 

At that time, I was pregnant with my second child and didn’t think much about the SRE training. It was just part of what we did in our Bible study group, and this made it easy to gain the extra qualification.

When the group started teaching Scripture at the beginning of 2024, we had a team of teachers, helpers, babysitters and volunteers who generously cooked to feed the team, but when we started my baby was only four months old – too young for me to leave. So, instead of teaching, when I was able I helped to babysit the kids of mothers who had gone off to teach Scripture. 

A few months later, we lost one of our helpers. I thought, “My daughter is eight months old now, she will be with her older sibling and our church family”, so I left them with the other mums who were babysitting the kids and started helping with a class. 

The system of having people babysit the kids of Scripture teachers worked really well. I knew it was a safe environment, and it wasn’t a very long time to leave the kids. 

The decision to help with a class in Term 2 was a bit daunting, but the anxieties quickly dissipated because God is in control. The team our church had set up by God’s grace made helping teach a class and managing the students easier.

For the rest of the year I got to watch the students grow and be involved in the lesson; I got to see them learn and answer questions, memorise Bible verses and learn songs, and say the Lord’s Prayer. Those things made me marvel at how much kids can understand and remember. I’m just a teacher they see once a week for 40 minutes, but they are able to learn a lot from the Bible. 

I started because there was a need and opportunity, but it has been really enjoyable. There is such a big need for Scripture teachers and, now that I have my own children, I find myself thinking about what they and other kids learn at school.

God is so important. In a public school, it’s important that students have the option to learn about him, too. 

I use my kids as a sounding board when I prepare lessons. I prepare at night, and then do a run-through of the lesson the day before with my kids. It’s amazing how God has used this as an avenue to not only grow my own knowledge but teach my kids and kids at school. 

SRE accreditation and teaching may have started with our mums’ group, but it quickly expanded to include people working from home and uni students.

It has been so encouraging to work as a team to teach Scripture in our local community. We’re not alone in doing this. I wouldn’t be able to do it without the support of my church.