October 18 Today in OPC History

On October 18, 1990, the Orlando Sentinel printed a story about the painting of a mural by the high school Sunday school class at Lake Sherwood OPC. Jerry Owens, teacher of the class, drove everyday to work by a wall covered with graffiti put up by rival gangs. He and the class members decided to paint the wall with a biblical message as a way to witness to others about Christ. Underneath the opening words of Romans 12:2, "Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed . . . " the class painted a school of mean looking fish going in one direction and a lone fish going in the other direction.

The owner of the wall gave permission to paint it as she stated that she had just about given up repainting the wall to cover the vulgar language and graffiti. It cost $300 to power wash about six layers of paint off the wall and then the teens spent six weeks meeting in the evenings using an overhead projector to etch the design into the wall.

Picture: Left to right, Jerry Owens, Rhoda Treible, Linda Mininger, Hugh Kincaid, Renee Pruim, Marcus Mininger and Rick Pruim.