Source: Chicago Tribune
Wire Service: AP
As dozens of sleepy-eyed kids make their way to a rural public school, 20 of their peers are already in the gym for a Bible-study club, learning about the fall of Adam and Eve.
It's a Sunday-school lesson on a Tuesday, where the kids play a game in which two teams compete to burst red and blue balloons, each containing part of a Bible verse on a scrap of paper.
After 30 minutes, the before-school religious instruction ends with a bell for first-period at the Ryal School, 60 miles south of Tulsa.
Bob Heath dreams of having such a Bible-study club in every elementary school in America.
The 43-year-old former electronics salesman, who sometimes quotes evangelist Billy Graham, founded the non-profit Kids For Christ USA nearly six years ago. The Broken Arrow-based group sponsors about 50 clubs across the country, in states including California, Kansas, Oklahoma and Massachusetts, and it is looking to expand into New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.