Every Thursday a group of students from our school meets in Room 202 (Mrs. Laurie Abel’s room) at 7 a.m. to have a small Bible study before school starts.

This group is Fellowship of the Word, and it’s mainly student-led, meaning that mostly every week a student who feels comfortable will lead the Bible study. The students take turns leading lessons, but senior Sam Mateer is a notable student who often leads the studies.

Obviously, there are adults present, and those two adults are math teacher Mr. Steven Maker and Mrs. Abel.

Mr. Maker has been a part of FOW for seven years now and has been in charge of it for five following the retirement of Mrs. Jodi Shugert.

Mrs. Abel has played a role for about two years and is known to bring snacks to the meetings.

Sophomore FOW member Anna Mateer said that “It’s a great way to get you in the right mindset to get you through your school day. With it being student-led there is a lot less pressure to be the best leader; you can just share a [Bible] verse if you want and then have group discussion about just that verse.”

Our student-led Bible study group also participates in the annual See You at the Pole event for the purpose of worship and prayer before school. This event officially began in 1990 and spread to schools across the country.

This year, the FOW student group participated in this event September 25 when 15 students and six faculty members attended. As one big group led by Sam Mateer, they prayed for teachers and administrators, soldiers, family and friends, first responders, students’ safety in school, the state of our country, and health for all.

Following the group prayer groups split off for personal prayer requests or anything that came to their mind.

When asked about what FOW means to her, sophomore Vivian Gedman expressed how good it is to have a time to worship before school starts: “I think it’s great to have people in school who are open about their religion who are willing and able to come during the middle of the week right before school.”