wfn.org | UMNS# 04479-Free computers motivate students academically,

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Free computers motivate students academically, spiritually  

Oct. 15, 2004	 News media contact:   Linda  Green * (615) 7425470* 
Nashville {04479}

NOTE: Photographs and related resources are available at
http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=5850.

By Amy Green*
United Methodist News Service

The Rev. Perry Schnabel leads a youth Bible study group, but he doesn't use
Bibles. 
 
Instead, his students scroll through the Bible's verses on computers they get
free for keeping their end of a contract requiring them to maintain good
grades, attend church and Sunday school, perform community service and stay
away from drugs and alcohol. 
 
It's part of Kingdom Kids Computer Club, a two-year-old ministry at Steele
United Methodist Church in Steele, N.D., that offers sixth-graders free
desktop computers if they follow through on the contracts they sign at the
beginning of the school year. 
 
Students attend classes at the church once a week, mixing computer
instruction with Bible study and discussion of issues such as sex, drugs and
peer pressure. The contracts they sign require them to go to school and stay
away from gangs. Parents must sign contracts, too.

If the contracts are met, the students take their computers home free at the
end of the school year -- a big incentive in the low-income farming community
some 40 miles from Bismarck.
 
The idea is to give the students an opportunity to grow spiritually as well
as to better educate themselves, according to Schnabel, pastor of the
114-member congregation. 
 
The church is collaborating with the ecumenical Kidder County Ministerial
Association and Children of the Harvest, an outreach to needy children
organized by regional church leaders, on the program. Children of the Harvest
has provided some funding, and the rest has come from the community through
donations and fundraisers. A local Internet provider offers free Web access
and additional funds to purchase the computers. 
 
Twelve computers are available each year, and so far the church has not had
to turn anyone away. Schnabel; Lisa Symens, a sixth-grade teacher who is a
congregation member, and a local Lutheran pastor teach the classes, along
with an employee of the local Internet provider. Students learn how to surf
the Web and run programs such as Microsoft Word. They study the Bible using
e-Sword, free software available online. 
 
"It's a Bible class, and yet it's teaching them technological tools to grow
in their faith and grow as a person, and to be better prepared for society as
adults,'" said Symens, who teaches at Steele Dawson Public School. 
 
Symens is showing the students how to design Christianity-inspired graphics
with online programs and software to iron onto T-shirts.   She said the
ministry helps make Christianity seem "cool" to kids. 
 
Julia Scherbenske, 11, a student in Symens' class at school, said the
ministry helps her clear time in her busy schedule for Bible study and
prayer, and she finds the computer work fun. The ministry gives her an
incentive to do well at school, and it has prompted her to consider more
seriously a career in missionary work after graduation. 
 
"I think it would be fun to travel around and help people and preach to
them," she added.
 
Three other churches have picked up on the idea behind the ministry, two in
Sioux Falls and another in rural Bowman.

* Amy Green is a journalist based in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Linda Green, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service