"Nurturing Children"
Blanche Elva Segar Svendsen

Blanche Elva Segar Svendsen (1917-1985) was Liz DeBraber's Sunday School teacher at Hope Reformed Church in South Central Los Angeles. Written on the back of the photo on which this painting is based is:"Elizabeth with Auntie Blanche, the Sunday School Teacher whom she loves." Blanche is one of the entries in the book Hands, Hearts and Voices: Women Who Followed God's Call by Una Ratmeyer featuring Reformed Church Women who made an impact on the church. Here is an excerpt from that work:

Blanche treated her ministry to preschoolers at the Sunday School hour as a vocation, second only to her responsibilities in the home. A portion of her time was dedicated every week to planning activities and scheduling and training helpers to ensure a productive hour on Sunday mornings. She was always on the lookout for innovative teaching methods or materials to make her time withthe children meaningful to them. Sunday mornings were a joint effort by the family to set up for the children so that they would enter with a feeling of comfort and entuhsiasm. ...In an era when most church training consisted of developmentally inappropriate teaching, and babysitting at worst, many children learned at a young age to turn a negative ear to anything connected with the church. Blanche, on the other hand, met each child at his or her own level, communicating her personal joy and love of the Lord.

As a child, Liz intuitively picked up on this joy and love and can still remember that feeling, if not the details of Blanche's Sunday School class.