Grandfather, Ardath and Arthur crossed the footbridge and followed a narrow, single-foot trail into the woods. To avoid overhanging branches and bushes from brushing their faces, they walked one after the other, with Grandfather leading and Arthur last.

Tall trees blocked out the sunlight except in small patches. Ever so gradually, the trail led to higher ground, but there was no hill to climb. It was merely ground rising from the meadow stream.

It was a very quiet walk through the woods. Pine needles carpeted underfoot. Grandfather did not look around to see if the Children were following him. He could hear their soft footfalls close to him.

More sunshine began to stream across the trail because there were fewer trees. Big rocks increased along edges of the trail until they came to a clearing with evergreen trees. They were low in comparison to the surrounding oaks, so the sun flooded the area except from the shade of the trees bordering it.

Grandfather picked a tiny nut from the ground. It was green and hard with a brown cup attached to the stem. "This is an acorn", Grandfather broke the silence of the walk along the trail. "The big oak trees you see over there", Grandfather pointed out the oak trees, "grew from ripe acorns. An acorn is the seed of the oak tree.

"This is not a ripe acorn because it is the beginning of summer. The imperfect ones fall to the ground early in the season. Only the strong, perfect, ripe ones grow into oak trees, but only then if small animals as squirrels do not eat them.

The children looked on the ground and found more green acorns. Arthur put some of them in his pocket. He didn't really want them, but he liked things in his pocket.

Grandfather led them across the clearing to some flat stones. "Here are our pews." He bowed indicating they should sit on the stones.

"This is our church." Grandfather said as he extended his arms wide to include all of the evergreens and the big oak trees.

"Is this a church?" Arthur looked about him, turning slowly on his rock.

"Yes, the tall oaks are the church steeples. The evergreen trees are the walls of our church." Grandfather smiled radiating his feeling to the children.

Grandfather got up from his stone seat and the children stood. "Let us pray." Grandfather said as he lifted his arms toward the shy. "Heavenly Father, open Thou our hearts and minds so we may know Thy will for the lives of each of us. Guide us into obedience to Thy Will we may serve Thee and our fellow creatures to make They Kingdom of goodness and justice a reality on earth. Amen, Amen, Amen."

"Now we will have our Church School lesson." Grandfather announced as though he were in a church building.

"Ardath, what is a church?" he asked.

"A church is where you go to learn about God." Ardath answered the question promptly.

"A church is where you go to learn about God." grandfather repeated Ardath's definition, slowly. "It is also a place where you go to worship God.", he added.

"What is the most important thing to know about God?" Grandfather asked another question, giving Arthur a chance to answer if he wished to do so.

"That god loves us." Ardath answered again. She enjoyed Church School at home, in Phoenix and knew many right answers to catechism questions. Ardath was beginning to like church in the woods even more than church in a building.

"It is important that God loves us, but it is also important that we love God." Grandfather preached. "God loves us so much that he gave us a complete set of universal laws, natural laws and Divine laws, to follow so we may be healthy and happy, while we are on earth.

""We go to church to learn about God. We come here to this grove of trees to learn about God. God loves us so much that he will teach us wherever we are, if we open our hearts and minds and listen to his voice. We can only hear his voice when our senses are silent. Here we can be silent and listen.

Grandfather was silent. The children sat silently on their stones. There was no persons to look at them. There were no persons for them to look at them. There were no persons for them to look at or greet. Grandfather and the children were alone, in the beautiful woodland, with God. Even the bird's songs were muted as though in respect for an hour of worship and devotion to the great Creator of heaven and earth.

When Grandfather smiled to let them know the worship service had ended, Arthur said, "I like church in the woods the best of all."

Grandfather, Ardath and Arthur walked across the clearing and followed the trail in the woods as silently as they had come to the woodland church. They crossed the footbridge and the meadow to the big stone house.
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