I asked Erma Boswell to share her testimony about Good News Clubs. “For me, there are so many testimonies from Good News Club that impacted my life. It all started with a child in my oldest son’s class bullying him, especially on the bus. I heard you speak on WMHR about CEF and Good News Clubs and that’s when I decided to start one in our home. We invited this boy to the club, and he came along with his sister. At that time we weren’t able to do clubs in school. I had 10-12 student’s getting off the bus at my home for GNC. Through GNC this young boy went from being a bully to being a friend.

“Later, we learned that this boy and his sister had been abandoned by their mom and had to move to our area to live with their father. They were new to our community and were hurting from their abandonment. Once schools were open to having GNC, I began meeting at the school. Over the years, we grew from 12 to 36 students weekly in our GNC.

“I learned so much myself as I prepared each weekly lesson. Though I had heard or read many of the Bible lessons myself, I learned so much more as I studied and prepared each lesson. I learned from the students who always had great questions. I came to know the students well enough to anticipate the questions they were probably going to ask, and this in turn helped me in preparing each lesson.

“When I first started a GNC in the school, I was not an employee there. I found that after I became a teacher aide in the school, my connections with the students and families became stronger. Seeing the students throughout the day allowed for them to share their memory verses with me, tell me how much they enjoyed the Bible story, or share a prayer request. I often heard, ‘See you at GNC, Mrs. Boswell!’

“There was a time that we actually had a tornado warning while at school and we all had to move to a certain hallway where it was safe. We were sitting shoulder to shoulder along the walls of the hallway. The kids were scared, and I have to be honest, I was concerned myself. One of the students next to me attended GNC. She told me she was scared. We talked and I asked her what we have learned in GNC. She told me that she learned that God is with her and she can talk to him any time. I encouraged her to pray and that I would do the same. After a few minutes, I asked her how she was feeling. She looked at me and replied, ‘Just a minute, Mrs. Boswell, I’m still talking to God.’ The storm passed and we were all fine. I will never forget our time in the hallway and how God used what we had learned in GNC to help that student and me.”