Recipes for Living Wavalene Holt and The Sunshine Class

In the history entitled The First 150 Years of the Osceola United Methodist Church, is an account of the Sunshine Sunday School Class. It was condensed from a longer report by Wavalene Holt, the teacher, who has been attending the Osceola United Methodist Church since her two youngest children were small. Here is the complete story of her Sunday School class, a group deprived of the activities and associations most of us take for granted:

In the early 1970s, before Sheltered Workshops or Bethphage, Mary Delk from Weldon conducted a class for mentally challenged adults in a closed rural school west of Osceola. It was a time of "Peace Corps" type programs, and Wendy from New York came on a similar mission to Clarke County. As her acquaintances grew, so did her involvements. She played the guitar for youth gatherings, became acquainted with Rev. Ivan Bys, and came to know about Mary Delk's school. Between them they formed the Sunshine Class made up of members of the school as part of the OUMC Sunday School. The first members were David Page, Russell Woods, Malenna Jones, Mary Jane Wright, Paul Houdesheldt, Harry Wiley, JoEllen Johnson, Nancy Spahr, and a young man named Kevin.

I was attending the King's Daughters Sunday School Class, and each Sunday two of the members would go to teach the Sunshine Class. When my turn came, I felt that, of all classes, the Sunshine class most needed continuity, so I volunteered to teach on a permanent basis.

The members were delighted to attend! They all were faithful, but Russell came 16 years before missing a Sunday. He missed then because his mother was in the hospital, and he was out of town. Early on, David broke his ankle and missed several weeks. When he came back he said, "I have to hug you. I know I am not supposed to, but I am so glad to be back."

Russell was extremely shy when he first came, but he and David joined the church and were baptized, and Russell lost much of his shyness. After the class had broken up, Russell began attending the men's class. Only Fred DeHaan and Jim Connell made up the class at that time, but they met as much for Russell's sake as their own. During the summers when the rest of the Sunday School was not meeting, Rev. Louk tried to get Russell not to come, but he wanted to come and he did.

Malenna Jones was always in a good mood. She was the sunshine of our class. She was quiet most of the time, but she was a joy. One time her parents and she were to go on vacation, leaving on Saturday. Malenna insisted on waiting until after Sunday school.

Mary Jane Wright was the most vocal in our original class. She was more socially minded and often stayed for church. Her health was not robust, but for the most part she was cheerful.

Paul was a challenge. He was curious and active. He liked to bring things to Sunday School to show us - rocks, candy wrappers, beer cans, and sometimes inappropriate pictures. He often resisted correction with cursing and threats. Once I tried to scold with everything I knew. I said, "Jesus wouldn't like that, and Rev. Bys doesn't like that kind of talk. If you keep it up, he might not allow you to come to Sunday School, and I won't let you look at my pretty necklace." It worked for the time being, but I kept looking for ways to get through to him. One day we needed two more chairs, and Paul and I went downstairs to get them. Going back up the stairs, Paul fell to the steps, crying. I said, "Paul, what is the matter?" He said, you called me a grouch." Then I knew the magic word!

One time Paul picked up some matches that were left from lighting the altar candles. Rev. Bys came in to see us, and David and Russell told him about the matches. Rev. Bys said, "I'm sorry, I should not have left the matches there." And Paul said, "By golly, you're right." We often made a joyful noise to the Lord. Paul asked if we could sing "Mary Gray, Mary Gray.” I asked him to sing it for me, and after that we often sang "Amazing Grace."

Kevin was only with us three or four months. He didn't say anything for two or three Sundays. One day I was sick, and David asked what we had to eat. I said that Stephen had put a frozen pizza in the oven. Kevin said, "I can do that." We then knew he could talk. He was in favor of pickup trucks. He looked forward to getting a pickup and changing the oil.

Harry lived with his mother at Leisure Manor. Harry was a quiet, gentle man and a very welcome member. He liked the singing most of all. JoEllen was smiling, energetic, and bouncy. She always had pictures of her family to show us. She wanted to help any way she could. Her dad brought her very faithfully.

Nancy is such a dear. She also comes to church. Once I was coughing very hard. Nancy picked up her purse, unsnapped the top, 'Unzipped the inner pocket, took out her billfold, unzipped it, took out a folded Kleenex, and gave it to me. She reminded me of the woman with two coins. She gave all she had.

One hopes that records of the formation of such institutions as Sheltered Workshops have been kept. They would show the frustratingly slow progress made by persons like Clifford Jones, Malenna's father, who worked to get this kind of program for our area. He was so faithful on Sunday mornings about picking up the Sunshine Class members and taking them home.

Each class member was and is so precious to me and my family. We learned so much from them. David comes to church and still remembers and inquires about each of my family by name. Brenda, my oldest daughter, visited our class and brought her guitar from time to time. One day Brenda was waiting for a bus in Des Moines. A fellow came with a picture he had drawn, and Brenda asked him about it and continued to talk to him. After boarding the bus, a lady came to her and said, "How did you know how to talk to him? I've been wanting to do that for a long time." Brenda said, "My mom teaches this class ..." and continued to tell the lady how natural and comfortable is was for her to strike up the conversation.

Debbie, my second daughter, came with Baby Rico. Some of the class wanted to hold him and did. David said he wanted to learn how to change a diaper. This was accomplished the following Sunday with a wet baby and Pampers. He was so proud of himself but later was scolded by his mom.

Denise, my third daughter, enjoyed our class and the class enjoyed her. They liked pretty girls, high heels, and jewelry. The class members were interested in hearing about each new adventure my children had: learning to drive, teaching Sunday School, graduating from high school, etc.

Denise has used the compassion she learned in that class and has applied it through the years. When Stephen, my son, was a student at East Elementary, a boy in special ed brought a Match Box car, which was snatched and taken apart by another boy. When he gave it back, he threw it down. Stephen said, "I remembered Russell, and I fixed the car and gave it back to him; and he just smiled." Where can we get more of this kind of understanding?

Twice, when another class teacher was missing, our class went to teach that class. The instructions from our class were: do not use drugs, don't drink, and don’t shoot people..... but I thought the best thing the other class learned was that we were real people.

Several years ago I was in Des Moines, talking to a sales lady. She told me that she went to church over by Marshalltown and wanted to do something different. I told her about our class and she became more and more excited. She said, "I can't wait until I get home and ask our minister if we can do this. I am so hungry to get started!" Isn't anyone else hungry?

SUNSHINE CLASS