T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Teacher Jessica Vujnovic, left, the Rev. Tim Snyder of Bethesda Christian Church and other volunteers welcome Union Local fourth- and fifth-graders to the first day Bible-based instruction through LifeWise Academy. The program offers the instruction to students who participate voluntarily during free periods of the school day. Classes are being held at the Vestry in Morristown.

MORRISTOWN — Union Local is the latest area school district to open a LifeWise Academy program, offering Bible-based instruction during school hours.

The students had their first class Monday, meeting at the Vestry in Morristown. Union Local LifeWise Director Dana McGary said the former church is now privately owned and rented out for community events, and it will serve as a temporary site for the program. She said fourth- and fifth-graders will visit the site from 12:30-1:25 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays.

“We are doing it during their lunch and recess,” she said, adding that the children will get lunch and physical activity through games, as well as creative work. “We want to make sure they get some activity and have some fun.”

She said 27 children are currently enrolled. Jessica Vujnovic is the teacher. The volunteers met in prayer before boarding the red LifeWise bus. Vujnovic then gave some last-minute instructions to the volunteers about how to greet and relate to the children during class.

Vujnovic, a mother of four and an instructor for vacation Bible school at East Richland Evangelical Friends Church, went through training in the LifeWise curriculum.

“Dana approached me at the end of last year and we crammed a month of training and all the paperwork to get hired,” she said. “The training is just to make sure we’re engaging the kids.”

The volunteers were also busy setting up worksheets and preparing to play music in the central room.

“We don’t want to be a boring church service. We want to have our kids involved, up and running around and giving them real-life situations … and take a look at what the Bible says about that,” Vujnovic said. “It goes with the head, heart and hands. The head goes over the Bible lesson, the heart is how we can apply it to ourselves, and the hands are how we can apply it in our life and go out and do the good works.”

McGary said the first week will include getting to know the children and enjoying fun activities. In the second week, the grades will be split up into two classes.

“That first week, we will introduce them to what the Bible is. We’ll have a video that we’ll play,” she said. “The week after that, we’re going to start right in Genesis and creation. The week after that will be ‘Sin entered the world.’ We’re going to get right to the heart of it and why we needed Jesus in the first place.

“Because we’re going to have Easter during our time with these kids, we thought it’s kind of hard to talk about Easter and Jesus dying on the cross if we’ve never talked about Jesus being born. “So we’re actually going to backtrack a little bit and tell them about the Christmas story,” she said. “That’ll move us into Easter. We’ll finish May 1, and wrap that up with talking about how Jesus loves us and how we can have a relationship with him.

“All of the local programs, we all use the same curriculum that LifeWise provides. Even though we may do it in different orders, it’s all the same curriculum that we’re teaching,” she said.

Many of the school districts in Belmont County have or are exploring LifeWise programs. They are active in Bellaire, St. Clairsville, Shadyside and Barnesville, with Bridgeport Exempted Village School District and Martins Ferry City School District looking into the possibility.

Vujnovic said there are 16 volunteers at Union Local, and organizers are always looking for more. She added that people can visit LifeWise.org to look up Union Local’s program.

“There’s a link you can click to volunteer. There’s also a link on the site to donate,” she said.

She can also be reached at 740-310-3629.

McGary said they will raise funds by calling and otherwise reaching out to people for donations.

“We have not done our big fundraising event yet. We’re planning to probably start that in March, but we have been very blessed to have people … sending in donations, and we’re happy with where we are. There’s a long way to go,” she said. “Just the generosity we’ve seen without even doing that big effort.”

McGary reviewed goals for the coming years.

“Location is a thing for us,” she said, noting that while they are happy with the Vestry, the opportunity for growth there is limited. “We need a more permanent location.”

Some options include the Bethesda Christian Church and Flushing Alliance Church, which have both offered the use of facilities.

“But the travel time is pretty long if we do that,” she said. “We’re also thinking of, long-term, trying to possibly build something of our own, and that will be a pretty big undertaking, but we know with God anything is possible.”

She said the goal is to raise about $80,000.

“We’re looking at, obviously, some big donations, but then what we need is that sustainability. That big kickoff is to get those big donations and after that you kind of pursue the monthly giving,” she said. “Right now we are leasing St. Clairsville’s bus to do our program on Mondays and Wednesdays. Long-term we’re going to need our own bus unless we get a piece of property right next to Union Local. Figure about $25,000 for purchasing a bus, painting it and putting the decals on.”

In the future the program may be expanded to other grades, possibly adding third-graders and sixth-graders and more if possible.

“Our board is open to going as far as we can take it and offering it to as many kids as we can,” she said. “People are excited about it, and people are sending their kids up. … People love to see the big red bus.”

She also thanked the Union Local administrative team for its support.

Union Local Elementary third-through-fifth grade Principal Zack Powell said the LifeWise program has been good to work with.

“It’s strictly up to the parents to decide whether they want their child to take part,” he said. “We look at it as no different than any other co-curricular or extracurricular activity.”

McGary learned more about the program from Carol Morgan, the St. Clairsville director.

“I had talked to her about volunteering for St. Clairsville, then it started going through my mind that I’m a Union Local girl, my husband went to Union Local, our kids go to Union Local, and if this program was going to be a thing, when was Union Local going to have it?” she said. “I started talking to some different people.”

McGary worked with Tim Snyder and Nathan McKeen, pastor at Flushing Alliance, and gained support from Union Local’s communities.

“I’ve been so blessed to be a part of it,” she said. “We are going to continue to enroll kids from February to May, so it’s never too late to sign your kid up if they’re a fourth- or fifth-grader. And again, we’re just really excited about what God has already done and what he’s going to do.”