Raise Up A Generation
The idea of children's ministry began back in the summer of 2015 just after I arrived to my new mission point in Burkina Faso. Since we had summer interns, we put all of our heads together to organize a weekly kids' club in our neighborhood. On that first afternoon, we had about forty kids show up. I have a picture to document it.
I flashed the picture up on the screen so that the small group sitting in front of me could see it. They were a group of 19 men and women from village churches who are leading (or interested in leading) children's ministries in their churches. I continued the picture slideshow and showed them how kids' club has evolved to how it is today - a bunch of 60 to 80 children who come each Wednesday to play, sing, pray, hear a Bible story, learn to apply it to their lives, and practice a memory verse.
The success of kids' club gave us the momentum to carry the ministry to village churches. I showed pictures of all the villages we have visited along over the past year along with snapshots of the children and the ministry in action. The audience enjoyed seeing their villages and even their own faces and their own children in the photos. They especially loved seeing before and after shots. For example, the children's ministry in Yabogane started with 30 kids and has now grown to 150. The same has happened in several other villages, too.
After the slideshow, the participants gave their feedback. It helped them to see that they aren't alone - that God is raising up children's ministries in other villages, too, which gives them courage. They started sharing testimonies. One children's minister said that his ministry started with ten kids and has since doubled and then doubled again. Another said that his group of children is so diverse that he gives the lesson three times in three different languages. One woman shared that she is being persecuted by a mother who doesn't want her children coming to a Protestant gathering.
The last picture was one of a man standing next to a very large log. One man can't carry the log; it's way too heavy. Three women (Charlotte, Rebeca, and I) can't carry the log. But if all the children's teachers in the room came across this log and worked together, we could carry it easily.
The log is children's ministry, and it is not an isolated effort but rather a united work that can only be accomplished by the help and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Like Solomon, we are asking God for wisdom to accomplish a task among a people that he has chosen. May he find us as faithful.
This two-day children's ministry seminar gave these 19 leaders the tools necessary to organize and sustain a village children's ministry in their specific locations. The seminar included subjects such as the importance of children in the church, prayer as the foundation of ministry, how to organize a children's program, and how to prepare and give a lesson. After the teaching, the participants were given ample time to practice, critique, and encourage one another in regard to what they learned. We calculated that these 19 leaders from 14 villages are already touching 950 children, and that number is growing.
The Lord has expanded the ministry that began with a single kids' club, and now he has sent several individuals who are interested in starting children's ministries in their villages. In addition, almost every village church that we visit on any given Sunday has many children, a teacher who wants to direct them, and the beginning buds of a children's program.
Pray for these leaders and the children that are looking to them for spiritual truth. Real spiritual transformation starts with the children, who will be the future of the church. Let's raise up a generation that knows Jesus only and not idols and fetishes!
I flashed the picture up on the screen so that the small group sitting in front of me could see it. They were a group of 19 men and women from village churches who are leading (or interested in leading) children's ministries in their churches. I continued the picture slideshow and showed them how kids' club has evolved to how it is today - a bunch of 60 to 80 children who come each Wednesday to play, sing, pray, hear a Bible story, learn to apply it to their lives, and practice a memory verse.
The success of kids' club gave us the momentum to carry the ministry to village churches. I showed pictures of all the villages we have visited along over the past year along with snapshots of the children and the ministry in action. The audience enjoyed seeing their villages and even their own faces and their own children in the photos. They especially loved seeing before and after shots. For example, the children's ministry in Yabogane started with 30 kids and has now grown to 150. The same has happened in several other villages, too.
After the slideshow, the participants gave their feedback. It helped them to see that they aren't alone - that God is raising up children's ministries in other villages, too, which gives them courage. They started sharing testimonies. One children's minister said that his ministry started with ten kids and has since doubled and then doubled again. Another said that his group of children is so diverse that he gives the lesson three times in three different languages. One woman shared that she is being persecuted by a mother who doesn't want her children coming to a Protestant gathering.
The last picture was one of a man standing next to a very large log. One man can't carry the log; it's way too heavy. Three women (Charlotte, Rebeca, and I) can't carry the log. But if all the children's teachers in the room came across this log and worked together, we could carry it easily.
The log is children's ministry, and it is not an isolated effort but rather a united work that can only be accomplished by the help and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Like Solomon, we are asking God for wisdom to accomplish a task among a people that he has chosen. May he find us as faithful.
This two-day children's ministry seminar gave these 19 leaders the tools necessary to organize and sustain a village children's ministry in their specific locations. The seminar included subjects such as the importance of children in the church, prayer as the foundation of ministry, how to organize a children's program, and how to prepare and give a lesson. After the teaching, the participants were given ample time to practice, critique, and encourage one another in regard to what they learned. We calculated that these 19 leaders from 14 villages are already touching 950 children, and that number is growing.
The Lord has expanded the ministry that began with a single kids' club, and now he has sent several individuals who are interested in starting children's ministries in their villages. In addition, almost every village church that we visit on any given Sunday has many children, a teacher who wants to direct them, and the beginning buds of a children's program.
Pray for these leaders and the children that are looking to them for spiritual truth. Real spiritual transformation starts with the children, who will be the future of the church. Let's raise up a generation that knows Jesus only and not idols and fetishes!
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