Bible school on the Miramichi

New Brunswick Bible class graduated hundreds

From 1937 to 1969 hundreds of New Brunswick children attended a summer Bible school in Sunny Corners, a small community on the banks of the Miramichi River. The school was run by Rev. Percy McKechnie Sampson and his wife Irene. The couple, who had recently moved from Toronto, had a passion for teaching children about the Bible.

Thanks to the Sampsons’ capable leadership, the summer Bible school at St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church quickly became a community endeavour. Area ministers taught classes, and members of local congregations picked up children with school buses all along the river. Churches in Bathurst, a 90-minute drive away, donated chairs. A Lansbury furniture company donated a grand piano for the school’s closing ceremonies each year. When enrolment over-ran the school’s capacity, neighbours cleaned out their garages, hosting classes with planks as benches.

The Sampsons visited all the Protestant homes up and down the river, meeting parents and inviting children to the school. Although the program used the Presbyterian building, classes were nondenominational. Nearby churches of various denominations made announcements about the summer Bible school during services. Children from Pentecostal, Baptist and United churches all attended the Bible school, excited to see their public-school classmates again during summer break.

By the tenth anniversary of the program, Percy Sampson had died. The couple never had children of their own, but after her husband’s untimely death Irene Sampson continued to teach with a team of volunteers.

Sunny Corners’ summer Bible school, unlike modern-day Vacation Bible School programs, did not incorporate arts and crafts or sports and games. The school was a strictly Bible-based educational program consisting of lessons and songs. Irene Sampson kept order with a school bell.

Each summer school included students from Grade 1 to 12. The school ran for two weeks from 9 a.m. to noon with a 15-minute break for children to visit the local store to buy chips, chocolate or ice cream. Teachers led classes about the life of Jesus, Bible geography, Paul’s missionary journeys and Old Testament history, and tested students on these subjects every year.

Students were also required to memorize a quota of Bible verses every year that increased incrementally according to their grade level. Children in the primary department had to memorize ten verses, but the number increased to 15 for junior students and 25 for intermediate and senior students. To graduate from the program, a student needed to have memorized 225 Bible verses over the course of the program.

Graduate Janice Dunnett Frost recalls, “The verses were required to be said at one sitting. I remember walking to the home of a sweet elderly lady, reciting my verses over in my head as I went. However, the butterflies subsided upon her warm greeting.”

Senior students were also required to meet with a local pastor taking a turn as “summer school pastor” for the two weeks the school ran. The pastor asked senior students if they had made a commitment to Jesus as their Saviour and reminded them of Scriptures about the way to eternal life.

The school’s closing ceremonies were held in a high school to accommodate the parents and relatives who attended the program. Students dressed up for the event that included singing and testimonies. While not all students could recite the full number of verses required to graduate, some of those who did graduate began careers in missions or full-time ministry.

During the peak years of 1956 and 1964, attendance at the Bible school (including students and volunteers) was more than 250. The largest roll call was 289 in 1956. Past students recall the life-changing impact and the Bible verses they still remember from the program they attended in the little settlement along the Miramichi River many years ago.

Rachel Baarda is digital content coordinator and circulation coordinator for The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. Read more in this series at FaithToday.ca/HistoryLesson. Historical photo shows students at Sunny Corners’ summer Bible school. Photo shared by Janice Dunnett Frost and used with permission.