Frogs in Church
Rebecca Prewett
We're going to be doing a
"frog project" soon, which got me to reminiscing...The following has
absolutely nothing to do with homeschooling and very little to do
with theology, but it is a true story from my past. Perhaps it can
find its way into a unit study on frogs. A pastor I "met" online
insists that it has already found its way into a sermon he preached.
Perhaps some sort of valuable lessons can be drawn from this story as
part of your children's character education. At any rate, for your
reading pleasure I humbly present:
THE INFAMOUS "FROGS IN CHURCH" INCIDENT
One of the churches that my father pastored during my childhood
was located in a small mountain community. When we were still fairly
new to the church, my older brother and I discovered a damp hollow
behind the church that was teaming with frogs. On this particular
day, the evening service interrupted our happy frog play. For some
reason, we decided to secret on our persons as many frogs as we could
and bring them into church.
The small congregation sat on metal folding chairs and the two of
us children sat by ourselves towards the back. (My mother had stayed
home that evening or none of this would have happened.) Since we
weren't exactly appreciative of fine preaching in those days, we grew
bored and decided to play with a frog or two. One of them was an
entirely different color from the rest and could hop amazingly high.
In fact, he hopped right up onto the folding chair in front of us.
In our haste to capture him, all the rest of the frogs somehow
escaped from us.
Apparently the frogs did appreciate fine preaching and wanted to
hear the sermon better. Or perhaps they were over-eager to respond
to the gospel call. At any rate, about two dozen frogs started
hopping madly towards the front of the church. My father, oblivious
to this amphibious invasion, preached on. As the congregation became
aware of these "visitors", people tried in vain to suppress their
laughter. My father, the poor guy, had no idea what on earth was so
funny until after the service. How he managed to complete his
sermon, I have no idea.
No one suspected us, probably because we were normally
well-behaved children. Besides, we had such angelic faces in those
days. My father was warned not to leave the church doors open any
longer than necessary so that other animals wouldn't invade the
church. It was years before we got up the courage to confess to our
parents our part in the "frogs in church" incident.
Unfortunately, we were caught in another prank weeks later when we
would stand angelically by our parents at the end of the service,
politely shaking everyone's hands, and secretly dropping frogs into
the women's open purses. One of the women was rather excitable and
her reaction upon reaching for her car keys only to find a
frog--well, it was highly entertaining. (When she later on had a
nervous breakdown, no one could convince me that the frogs in her
purse hadn't played some sort of role.)
What does this have to do with theology? Maybe those of you who
are parents or pastors could work this story into a lesson or sermon
about the ten plagues in Egypt. (If you don't believe in a
supernatural origin for the plagues, you could blame the froggy one
on my brother and me.)
If your church is in a rural setting with frogs nearby, you may
want to think twice about telling this story to your children.
Although it did liven up the evening service....
copyright 1996, 1998 by Rebecca
Prewett
Return to the
Family Issues
Page
- You are the visitor to
this page.
All articles authored by any member of the
Prewett family are copyrighted. They may not be reproduced online
or elsewhere without our expressed, written permission. Articles
written by other authors contain copyright notices where
appropriate.
