Darcy Miller leads children from Iroquois Trinity and De Smet UMCs. (photo by Denae Tordoff)

"I love to tell the story, twill be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love."
~"I Love to Tell the Story" UM hymnal p. 156

Across the Dakotas Conference, dedicated United Methodists give of their time, energy, and love to serve the children and youth of the Dakotas - baptized members of the church, and other children from the community - to teach them the stories of faith and their part in God's story. Part of that time and energy goes into finding or developing creative activities to help these young people grow in discipleship.

For Darcy Miller, who volunteers to lead this ministry at Trinity United Methodist Church in Iroquois, S.D., the goal of creating a fun, end-of-year activity triggered a rebirth of an old idea.

"I was thinking, 'What can we do to end the year with a bang?'" said Miller. The SonShine Gang, which averages 25-32 Kindergarten through 5th graders, meets at the church after school once a month. A large portion of the attendees are unchurched.

The thought of going on some sort of field trip sparked an idea in Darcy—a visit to the American Lutheran Church in De Smet, S.D., to learn about the stained-glass windows.

"It's my home church, where I grew up going to church, so I grew up staring at those [windows] every Sunday, and they're just beautiful," shared Miller.

But the tour wouldn't just be an opportunity to reflect on the beauty of these windows. Much like it was used for many centuries, Miller hoped the stained glass windows would be another way to teach the stories from scripture to these young people.

Evidence of stained glass windows in churches dates back to the 7^th century but it grew in popularity during the Middle Ages due to its illustrative portrayal of the Bible to a population which was mostly illiterate. 

A resource from the American Lutheran Church in DeSmet, S.D. (courtesy of Darcy Miller)

Miller recalled a packet of materials from her childhood that contained information about the 16 windows that tell the salvation story or an aspect of worship. Fortunately, her mom had saved a copy, and so the plan was put into motion.

Miller also saw this as an opportunity for connection and contacted Denae Tordoff, who leads the after-school ministry at De Smet UMC, Iroquois' parish partner. "Darcy is really big on trying to join all these small groups together," shared Pastor Tia Felberg, who serves De Smet and Iroquois, as well as Carpenter UMC, and went along to help supervise the kids.

"I think it's important for these kids to be with other kids, meet other kids, and see that there are other churches," said Miller. With some additional chaperoning help, the two women shuttled nearly 40 kids on the outing. 

"I had them all walk around and look at all of [the windows] first. I said, 'Just walk slowly, take your time, ponder, look, study," said Miller. After they had a chance to take in the whole of it, Miller livened things up with some "scavenger hunt" questions.

"I said, 'Now let's see how many of these have a dove in them,' and then they would quickly look around," said Miller. "A few of them had the Chi Rho symbol, so we talked about that and explained what it meant. I had them see if they could count how many colors were in one of the windows, and I had anything from 18 to 4000! In one of the windows, there are 27 colors, but if you actually look at the stained glass in one section, there are different hues."

Miller remarked that the kids were particularly intrigued as she shared the story of a fire that burned down the entire church in the 1960s. A particular portion of stained glass that was salvaged from the fire was a significant message for the kids.

Windows in the balcony tell the story of Holy Week. (photo by Denae Tordoff)

"In the bottom pane of the Holy Week windows, there are words that say 'Thy will be done,' words that survived the fire and are kind of charred, but they inlayed them into new stained glass," shared Darcy.

The Holy Week windows are in the balcony. The six windows depict the Passion of Jesus from Palm Sunday through the Ascension. Miller added, "We really concentrated on those because Easter is coming up."

As hoped for, the event was a great way to end the year.

"I went in thinking I was just going to have to corral kids the whole time," shared Pastor Tia. "There were a few, but there were so many kids who were so engaged. You know when something clicks for a little kid—there was just that happening the whole time."

"And there were so many people that reached out to Darcy and said how their kids talked about it all night, so I thought that was really great," added Pastor Tia.

"It was just really cool to see what Bible stories they remembered, even from past years," said Miller. "We're planting seeds, and if one seed dug a little root and they remembered something, then that makes it all worth it."