Return to the Bible Room

Lucy finally tracks down Jack Davis in the Bible Room at Whit's End, where he's poking at the armor of God, a talking mirror, and a giant fish - even though the two of them promised to help with cleanup day at church. When Whit offers to tell the story of Jonah, one good round of imagining drops the kids onto the deck of a storm-tossed ship, where terrified sailors cast lots and heave a runaway prophet into the sea. Next stop: the smelly belly of a great fish, where Jonah asks Jack a squirmy question - if disobeying your parents is disobeying God, what was that about skipping cleanup day? Three days later the fish spits Jonah out, Nineveh repents at his preaching, and the sulking prophet gets a lesson from God about a vine, a worm, and a city full of people worth saving. Back in the Bible Room, Jack and Lucy discover they've missed cleanup day completely... until Whit reveals it's been postponed a week, giving them a second chance just like Jonah's. All that's left is to join Whit on his afternoon outing - which, he mentions, is a fishing trip.

Found on The Wildest Summer Ever Album 02 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

0035 V.B.S. Blues A young Sunday school teacher's big theatrical debut is in jeopardy when the three lead roles in his Bible sketch fall to the last kids anyone would trust on a stage.

0036 Kids' Radio When every station on the dial disappoints him, a kid with radio in his blood convinces Whit to help launch Odyssey's first station run by kids, for kids.

1 of 2 0037 Camp What-A-Nut A small-for-his-age boy hoping to escape his tormentor's nickname arrives at summer camp only to find the bully in his own cabin - and the wilderness holds bigger dangers than either of them.

2 of 2 0038 Camp What-A-Nut While Mr. Whittaker helps young Donny cope with being the smallest kid at Camp What-A-Nut, a walk in the woods turns into a wilderness ordeal - and back at camp, a skunk, a mysterious carved heart, and a boy bent on revenge stir up trouble of their own.

1 of 2 0039 The Case of the Secret Room A dropped transistor at Whit's End reveals a hidden basement door - and behind it, a forty-year-old mystery someone would rather stay buried.

2 of 2 0040 The Case of the Secret Room When a skeleton and a decades-old bank robbery surface behind his basement wall, Whit refuses to let a forty-year-old case stay closed - even as someone tries to scare him off the trail.

0041 Return to the Bible Room A quick detour into the Bible Room at Whit's End sweeps two children off their feet and into the storm-tossed story of a prophet who thought he could outrun God.

0042 The Last Great Adventure of the Summer When a mysterious stranger corners a boy and his boring shoe-salesman father outside Whit's End, a dull summer's final weekend erupts into a chase that reveals his dad is not who he claimed to be.

0043 Back to School When the first week back at school goes hilariously wrong, a girl prone to tall tales must face the real reason it felt so terrible.

0044 It Sure Seems Like It to Me Nobody believes Leslie's outlandish tale about giving her mother's new umbrella to a cowboy in a purple fire engine - so she sets out to prove it really happened.

0045 What are we Going to do about Halloween? A church controversy over Halloween sends the kids of Odyssey digging into the holiday's surprising history - and dreaming up a celebration all their own.

0046 The Shepherd and the Giant When Whit's new invention drops a skeptical Connie into a Bible story, she finds herself walking alongside a young shepherd whose courage is about to be tested against impossible odds.

0047 A Single Vote A bored Connie dismisses class elections as meaningless popularity contests, so Whit spins a tale reaching back through American history to show just how much one ordinary vote can matter.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 10 more roles

10 supporting roles

Bible Verse Mirror Phil Lollar Jonah Will Ryan Captain Walker Edmiston Art Museum Curator Bob Luttrell King of Ninevah Walker Edmiston Imagnun Steve Wunch Guard (a) Hal Smith Herald (a) Chuck Bolte Sailor (a) Will Ryan Sailor (b) Hal Smith

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Paul McCusker Writer Phil Lollar Director Bob Luttrell Sound Designer · Producer Steve Harris Producer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 4 min

Lucy Cunningham-Schultz has searched all over Whit's End before she finally finds Jack Davis upstairs in the Bible Room. He promised her he was only going downstairs for a quick drink, but Jack has wandered off to look at John Avery Whittaker's displays instead. Lucy reminds him that they told their parents they would be at the church helping with cleanup day. Jack tells her not to be such a nag.

Whit comes in and finds them there, and Jack immediately starts asking questions. A suit of armor turns out not to belong to King David at all - every piece is labeled, from the belt of truth to the shield of faith, because it illustrates the armor of God from Ephesians 6. A strange dark mirror refuses to show Jack his reflection until he recites a Bible verse, and when he offers John 3:16 the glass clears and a voice answers him back. Whit will not say how the mirror works. Beyond it stand the wall of Jericho, a space that will someday be Noah's ark, and an enormous fish that Whit says belongs to Jonah. Jack calls it a whale. Whit gently points out that the Bible only says a great fish.

Jack begs for the story, and Lucy, who wants to hear it too but keeps trying to remind Jack about the church, gives in and sits down. Whit tells them to close their eyes and imagine hard, because a good imagination can make it feel as though you were really there.

It works better than either of them expects. Jack and Lucy land on the deck of a ship in a howling storm, where a frantic crew hauls them below and puts them to work throwing cargo overboard. The sailors pray to every god they can name, and nothing helps. When someone suggests tossing the two stowaways into the sea, the captain refuses, insisting he will not be responsible for anyone's death. The crew casts lots instead, and the lot falls on a man they discover sleeping through the whole disaster. His name is Jonah, and he admits he is running from the God of Israel because he was told to go to Nineveh and did not want to. Jonah tells them to throw him overboard. The captain tries rowing for shore first, until exhaustion and the storm make it impossible, and at last the sailors do as Jonah asked. The sea goes quiet, and the two stowaways are nowhere to be found.

Jack and Lucy wake in the dark, in a place that smells strongly of fish, with a grumpy Jonah who would like some peace and quiet. Their conversation turns serious. Jonah asks whether they have ever tried to hide something from God, and when Jack says he would surely listen if God spoke out loud, Jonah asks whether Jack always listens to his parents. Since God commands children to obey their parents, disobeying them is disobeying God. Jack admits he should have gone to cleanup day, Lucy decides she should stop listening to Jack, and Jonah excuses himself to pray for forgiveness.

Three days later the fish delivers Jonah back to dry land, and God sends him to Nineveh after all. The children turn up next in the court of the king of Assyria, arrested as spies and unable to explain themselves or the fish juice they are covered in. Before they can be thrown in the dungeon, word arrives of a man shouting in the streets that the city must repent or be destroyed within forty days. It is Jonah. The king, who knows the reputation of the God of Israel, asks the prophet what his people must do, and Nineveh turns from its evil ways and is spared.

That is not quite the end. Whit explains that Jonah sulks, angry that the city was saved, and sits outside Nineveh hoping to see it fall. God grows a leafy vine to shade him and then lets a worm destroy it, and when Jonah complains bitterly about losing his shade, God asks why he should care more about a plant he did not grow than about a city of more than a hundred and twenty thousand people.

Back in the Bible Room, Jack and Lucy realize with a sinking feeling that they have missed the church cleanup day entirely. Then Whit mentions that the pastor called just before he came upstairs. Cleanup day has been postponed until next Saturday, which means the two of them get a second chance, exactly like Jonah did. With a free afternoon and no ideas, they accept Whit's offer to come along on his next outing - right up until he mentions that he is going fishing.