With rickshaw rallies, Australian expeditions and other adventurous themes, Vacation Bible School (VBS) always appeals to children’s sense of wonder.
But it resonates with one VBS teacher, too, one who has given the themes a run for their money with her own real-life coast-to-coast odyssey.
“Mrs. Edith,” as Edith Snider is affectionately known across Pickens Baptist Association, has been a lifelong advocate of both VBS and Sunday School and has taught children in seven states stretching from California to Maine.
Born in 1920 in Mount Pleasant, Texas, Snider moved to Reform during her teen years. She fondly recalls the faith and compassion of her childhood home and credits her father for her enthusiasm for ministry.
“My daddy was an orphan … , so he was especially interested in helping children who were in the same situation,” Snider said.
She remembers him spearheading an annual collection for the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes (ABCH), then located in Troy.
“We would go around in a wagon to pick up food — potatoes, corn, whatever people could spare — and then we would load it onto a boxcar to send down to Troy,” Snider said. “I can still see my brothers loading those railroad cars in their bare feet. We were poor, too, but my daddy loved to help those children.”
At age 23, she married Elton Snider, a boilermaker in the Navy. Their first duty station after World War II was in San Diego. It was there that she received her first assignment as a children’s Sunday School teacher and VBS director.
Several months later, the Navy moved the Sniders to Brunswick, Maine, but it didn’t take Snider long to pick up her work with children once again.
Next the couple were stationed in New York, where she worked with families through the Red Cross. From there, it was on to Wickford, R.I., and for her, back to VBS and Sunday School work at a local church. While in Rhode Island, the Sniders’ daughter was born. It should come as no surprise that just prior to going into labor, Snider was teaching her Sunday School class.
The couple went on to serve in Boston; Norfolk, Va.; and Jacksonville, Fla., but wherever they were, Snider’s love for children and commitment to teach them the Bible remained strong. After her husband retired from the Navy, the Sniders returned to Reform and their home church, Fellowship Baptist, where they assumed the role of ambassadors for the ABCH — a role her father had once held.
And, of course, she continued to teach.
“I just love children and I love Bible school — I always have,” Snider said.
She remembers a year when her church struggled to staff its VBS. “At that time, our preacher drove a big station wagon, so I loaned him my car and borrowed his, and I drove our children to another church for Bible school. It’s important for them to go so I took them.”
Gary Farley, director of missions for Pickens Association, called Snider’s work with children and advocacy for the ABCH “inspiring.”
“Mrs. Edith is just a good, solid, down-to-earth Christian lady,” he said. “She’s been a blessing to me personally, and the Lord has used her to stir up many to be James 1:27 Christians.”
The association recently recognized Snider with a special section in its annual report, an honor that left her “speechless,” she said.
Snider is not used to a lot of fuss; she just enjoys serving. In fact, she said, “I’ve already got my material for this year’s VBS. I’m teaching fifth- and sixth-grade preteens. It’s going to be great.”
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