Embarking on Bible Adventure

By KARA KOCZUR, Globe staff reporter
May 22, 2008

As a woman next to her was suggesting what to do following a women's function one evening, Debbie Bond told her that she couldn't come. She had to get home because she was in the middle of a good book.

When the lady asked her what book, she responded: "The Bible."

"I'm like, 'I can't wait!'" Bond said.

Her excitement for Scripture was due to The Great Adventure: A Journey Through the Bible study program she and 13 other women from Sacred Heart Parish in Sioux City recently completed. Although a women's Bible study had been held at the parish for the past nine years, this one was different.

Gathered around the kitchen island in Connie Chapman's home May 15 for a brunch marking their completion of the Bible study, the eight women present described the program as awesome, amazing and awe-inspiring.

"This one especially taught us a lot about the history of our faith, the history of the church," said Debbie McCalla, who has been instrumental in leading the group throughout the years. "Even those of us who have been Catholic our whole lives, we learned things that we never understood or knew."

According to its Web site, The Great Adventure is a "Catholic Bible learning system" developed by Jeff Cavins, a national and international speaker and former host of EWTN's Life on the Rock. The Bible study program is designed to "introduce Catholics to Scripture and provide them with basic biblical literacy."

The women, whose ages range from mid-20s to mid-60s, gathered Thursday mornings at the church, with usually 10 of them at any given session. Those involved, Bond stressed, were women busy with running businesses, organizing church functions and raising kids. Yet, that didn't stop them from participating.

"It's coming to be fed," said Cindy Murphy, one of the members. "You're nourishing your spirituality and you're strengthening it."

The Great Adventure has many studies to pick from, and the women from Sacred Heart decided to go with the first one, which is The Bible Timeline. The timeline, which has 24 lessons, covers Jesus' genealogy from Adam and Eve to his birth, death, resurrection and Pentecost.

The Bible Timeline is the perfect place to start, said Janet Plathe, another participant.

"It gives you a foundation for reading the whole Bible because it puts it in a context of what other books were written at that time [and] what was going on in the world at that time," Plathe said.

How The Great Adventure study works is that members have prep work and reading prior to meeting together. Once they have gathered there are questions to answer and then either a DVD or CD session of Cavins explaining the lesson even more.

Watching and listening to Cavins gave Bond "goosebumps" as he connected things she and the other women wouldn't have thought of, she said.

"If you ever had the question, 'Why doesn't the Catholic Church just change and go with the times and do this?' This basically tells you why," Bond said.

Cavins, who grew up Catholic and then left the church and became a Protestant minister for 12 years before reverting back to the faith, includes references from the Catechism of the Catholic Church throughout his studies. For Chapman, Cavins' knowledge and background helped her know she wasn't just getting an opinion on Scripture.

"To me, this one was led by someone who was authentic in his knowledge of our faith and so you could believe and trust because he always had the reasons," she said.

The other women agreed. Some of them didn't grow up Catholic and they said having the reasons why the church does certain things helped them delve deeper into their faith. Plathe's mom and husband even told her they noticed a difference in her.

"My husband and mom both commented that it really deepened my commitment to the Catholic Church and gave me an understanding that wasn't there before," said Plathe, who converted to Catholicism when she was 30.

Sacred Heart isn't the only parish who has used The Great Adventure. Carol Barber and her husband have been involved with the study at Holy Trinity Parish in Fort Dodge for about the past five years. They have done The Bible Timeline, Adventures in Matthew, Adventures in Acts and most recently, Adventures in Revelation. She agreed that Cavins is able to explain things in a way that makes sense.

"He's so knowledgeable that he made so many connections between Old Testament and New Testament and he just made the readings for Mass come alive for us," Barber said.

Learning the background of the readings helped Barber to understand the circumstances of the people during biblical times, she said, allowing her to relate it to her own life.

"You see it as not something from the past that's dead, you see the life in it," she added.

Barber recently was a Confirmation sponsor for a young woman and as they were discussing Mass readings in Acts, things she learned came back to Barber allowing her to share and express the meaning of Confirmation.

"I don't know if without those Bible studies I would really have had the words and be able to explain it to her," Barber said. "You don't know really how much you learn until you have to put it into use."

Mary Salocker, another member of the Holy Trinity Bible study, began the study after an invitation from her husband. She joined the study in the middle of Acts and also finished Revelation. Twenty-five to 40 people, including high school students all the way to people in their 80s and 90s, attended the sessions on Sunday evenings beginning last January.

"Many of the Bible studies I've done were not of the Catholic faith origin and this just helped magnify why we do what we do as far as the sacraments and the rituals," Salocker said. "It really enriched my understanding of the Catholic faith."

Particularly Salocker's study of Revelation gave her a "greater appreciation for Mass and how it is a vision of the heavenly celebration we will enjoy and partake of once we are taken into eternity."

It helped her worship in a more holy and reverent way, she added, as well as realize the importance of daily Mass, which she gained a greater desire to attend.

The Great Adventure also has a teen track called The Teen Timeline. Deacon Tim Murphy, director of religious education for the Carroll parishes of St. Lawrence and Holy Spirit, has used The Teen Timeline for one year with sixth graders and sophomores. With teens, he finds it's not so much that they're intimidated by reading Scripture than that it wasn't part of how they grew up.

"I think it is about changing the Catholic Culture they grow up in," Deacon Murphy said. "Our heritage has not included the habit of turning to Scripture for personal use."

The Teen Timeline is eight lessons long and also includes DVDs, which help the students learn.

"They learn best visually," Deacon Murphy added. "Mark Hart, the self-proclaimed Bible geek that does the instruction, is energetic, knowledgeable, funny and does a good job applying passages to teens' common experiences."

The religious education director at St. Rose Parish in Denison, Carolyn Von Tersch, is also planning to use The Teen Timeline for her confirmation students next year. Mark Hart, the DVD presenter, is able to connect with students because he "tells it like it is," she said.

"You can feel him looking at you through the TV saying, 'You need to hear this. This is important,'" Von Tersch said. "The message goes to the heart."

Adults from St. Rose Parish also did A Quick Trip Through the Bible this past Lent. Eight lessons long, it's a shorter version of The Bible Timeline. However, the people liked it so much, Von Tersch said, that they want to do the full 24 lessons next.

People should not be discouraged from doing this Bible study, Chapman said. Murphy also added that a person doesn't have to be knowledgeable about the Bible to lead the study.

"If we can do it, anybody can do it," Bond agreed.

Next for the ladies of Sacred Heart is Adventures in Matthew, but Cindy Murphy said the timeline was so good she wouldn't mind repeating it.

"I would do this exact same Bible study - right now - over," she said. "There's so much to learn."