Bill Evans of Rose Hill Farm teaches kids about beekeeping as the guest speaker during the opening event of the God’s World program on Tuesday at Clanton First United Methodist Church. (Photo by Anthony Richards)

June is a busy month for the children’s ministry of Clanton First United Methodist Church.

The church hosts the God’s World program each Tuesday and Thursday from June 7 to June 23.

The first event was held Tuesday at the church and educated

Christi Mitchell heads the program after volunteering for two years prior to taking over in 2012.

According to Mitchell, Helen Parrish started the God’s World program 40 years ago with the idea of expressing God’s creation through the use of nature.

“We make sure we talk about God’s purpose in making whatever we are studying and perhaps the reasons behind it,” Mitchell said.

Beekeeper Bill Evans of Rose Hill Farm was the guest speaker on Tuesday and demonstrated the process involved with beekeeping and shared some fun facts about bees in general.

“It is a lot better when we have a special guest, because it’s someone that they have not heard teach about a specific topic,” Mitchell said.

Popular questions included whether Evans had ever been stung and how honey is made.

“I learned about the queen and how important she is,” attendee Tanner Vana said. “It makes me want to go to the library and get a book about bees.”

Three field trips are planned as part of this year’s program and will include visits to Peach Park, Moundville Archeological Park in Moundville and the Alabama Nature Center at Lanark in Millbrook.

“The focus is to get them outside and learning about something new,” Mitchell said. “I have a degree in biology, so I am all over this.”

An average numbers of kids at an event ranges from 30 to 45 and consists of kids in preschool to the sixth grade.

“Anybody from the county is welcome to be part of it,” Mitchell said. “Over the years it has become more of a community thing than just within our church.”

Previous events over the years have included interactive topics such as cave trips and fisheries.

“It’s very important to the church to maintain, because we don’t know of anybody else who is doing something like this,” Mitchell said.