I'll Make A Deal With You
The children's minister told me to expect around fifteen kids on Wednesday night, but I think it ended up being closer to fifty. But that's okay because it just reminded me of Africa; that's what happens every time we do children's outreach. Multiply what you expect by about three and there you have it. In that room of fifty kids, I felt very much at home.
I wrapped my pagne (traditional skirt) around my waist and started telling the children what it is like to be a child in Burkina Faso - the similarities and differences, their hardships and their joy. How school is hard and not a guarantee, how life is hard, how staying healthy is hard, yet how much laughter and happiness they find in playing soccer or jump rope or coloring.
I told them about the kids' club that we host every Wednesday for the children in our neighborhood, and we even did a mini kids' club right then and there. We played some of the same games and sang some of the same songs in French that we do at kids club, and for a moment my heart was back there in Africa in the heat under the shade of the hangar with all those sweet barefooted children who come to play and sing and hear about Jesus.
I told the children a Bible message, just like we do at kids' club every week. I shared with them about how our God is on a mission to tell people all over the world about him so that they will believe in him and worship him. "And you know what, boys and girls?" I say. "God has invited us to be on this mission with him!" At the end when I asked them who in the room was a missionary, they all raised their hands, and I affirmed them and reminded them that they can tell people about Jesus everywhere they go.
"I'll make a deal with you," I say. "I'll go be a missionary and tell people about Jesus in Africa if you will be a missionary and do the same thing right here."
This is why I love kids so much. This is why I believe in investing the truth of the word of God in children. Perhaps it is because the missional seed was planted in me at a young age, and I want to plant that seed in the younger generation as well. Perhaps it is because I believe in our vision statement for children's ministry in Burkina: to raise up a generation that knows Jesus and not idolatry (whether that means the animism of west Africa or the materialism of America). Or perhaps it's just because I see what Jesus means when he says "the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
I am so passionate about this message: that we are all missionaries with the same calling to make disciples, that my calling is no different nor more superior to yours. I work so hard to explain it to adults, yet when I share it in the simplest version to a room full of kindergarten to sixth grade students, they get it, and it makes sense to me as well. It just goes to show you that it's not complicated. It doesn't need to be over explained. God is on a mission to gather worshippers of every tribe, tongue, nation, and people. He has invited us to be on mission with him, and he is calling us to follow him where he leads, whether that is to West Africa, East China, or North Little Rock.
Let us understand and follow with the faith of a child.
I wrapped my pagne (traditional skirt) around my waist and started telling the children what it is like to be a child in Burkina Faso - the similarities and differences, their hardships and their joy. How school is hard and not a guarantee, how life is hard, how staying healthy is hard, yet how much laughter and happiness they find in playing soccer or jump rope or coloring.
I told them about the kids' club that we host every Wednesday for the children in our neighborhood, and we even did a mini kids' club right then and there. We played some of the same games and sang some of the same songs in French that we do at kids club, and for a moment my heart was back there in Africa in the heat under the shade of the hangar with all those sweet barefooted children who come to play and sing and hear about Jesus.
I told the children a Bible message, just like we do at kids' club every week. I shared with them about how our God is on a mission to tell people all over the world about him so that they will believe in him and worship him. "And you know what, boys and girls?" I say. "God has invited us to be on this mission with him!" At the end when I asked them who in the room was a missionary, they all raised their hands, and I affirmed them and reminded them that they can tell people about Jesus everywhere they go.
"I'll make a deal with you," I say. "I'll go be a missionary and tell people about Jesus in Africa if you will be a missionary and do the same thing right here."
This is why I love kids so much. This is why I believe in investing the truth of the word of God in children. Perhaps it is because the missional seed was planted in me at a young age, and I want to plant that seed in the younger generation as well. Perhaps it is because I believe in our vision statement for children's ministry in Burkina: to raise up a generation that knows Jesus and not idolatry (whether that means the animism of west Africa or the materialism of America). Or perhaps it's just because I see what Jesus means when he says "the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
I am so passionate about this message: that we are all missionaries with the same calling to make disciples, that my calling is no different nor more superior to yours. I work so hard to explain it to adults, yet when I share it in the simplest version to a room full of kindergarten to sixth grade students, they get it, and it makes sense to me as well. It just goes to show you that it's not complicated. It doesn't need to be over explained. God is on a mission to gather worshippers of every tribe, tongue, nation, and people. He has invited us to be on mission with him, and he is calling us to follow him where he leads, whether that is to West Africa, East China, or North Little Rock.
Let us understand and follow with the faith of a child.
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