It was an odd question from a fourth-grader. But Robert Humanick asked
his Sunday school teacher if he could flunk. "She made it fun to learn.
She was always smiling," the boy says.
He thought losing Janis
Charvala — a Sunday school teacher for more than 25 years at Holy
Trinity Memorial Lutheran Church in Catasauqua, Pa., — would be worse
than failing.
Charvala's popularity, dedication, spirituality
and ability to relate to children earned her national recognition last
year as one of 10 finalists for the Henrietta Mears Sunday School
Teacher of the Year Award sponsored by Gospel Light Publications. She
was the only Lutheran among the finalists.
Parent Diane Czar
nominated Charvala after catching her 11-year-old daughter, Katie,
reading the Bible before bedtime. "Althou gh it may have been Janis'
homemade cookie rewards that got my daughter to take her Bible to
church, I believe it was Janis' spiritual essence that influenced this
spiritual hunger in my daughter," Czar wrote on a contest entry form.
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