We all know how children are; they can’t sit still,  interject every statement made, laugh at the most inopportune moments and demand candy rewards. Often times they think you are boring and have nothing worthwhile to say if you do not make them laugh constantly. While the Bible is exciting and lively for me, I haven’t figured out the perfect way to present it to children. I dreaded the first week of teaching the kids about Worship. The best way I know to teach about worship is to actually experience it; to become entangled in God’s presence. But, how could I get the children to sit still or stay silent long enough? I put this lesson off for quite a while because I knew failure would follow. However, God reminded me, He is bigger than any distraction and He is the ultimate teacher. So, we had the children experience worship themselves.

As the children poured out their hearts through song, poems, prayers and pictures, they surprised me. All this time I thought they had not been soaking in any of the information we had been putting into them, yet at a time like this, their hearts came alive. God is working in these children and they are growing spiritually. I can’t take credit for “teaching” them as they have taught me so much more than I could ever imagine putting into them.

Never underestimate the power of a child. Their minds are sponges: soaking in information at every word.

————————————————————————————————————————

November 2, 2010 — Kids’ Worship

“God Is” by David Small, 10
God, you are the light of my life that keeps me from dying,
The teacher of earth that keeps people striving.
The one like a friend that makes me enthusiastic,
I know you’re the one that’s not cheap like plastic.
You remind me to pray at night, in the morning and even in the car,
I know you are because you brought me this far.

Poem: Faith Mosley, 8
God and Jesus are in my soul
All the time long as my heart beats
The heavens can hear me
The angels come down and protect me.

“God=Love” by Maggie Kelly, 10
God is love.
He created day, night, animals, life,
Humans, water, plants, a dove.
He lives up above. 
Families, children, husband and wife.
We thank him for all he made,
Even orange juice and lemonade.

“Love You” by Maggie Kelly, 10
God, I love you! 
Never want to leave you!
Stay with me forever! 
You don’t have any hate! 
I love you and you love 
Me for who I am!
I thank you! 
Love times infinity!

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” -1 Samuel 16:7

God saw in us a beautiful, pure heart willing to do His call without hesitation. God has called me to do a number of things and each time I put up a fight as if I don’t trust God.

Being from Ohio, it was a major adjustment as well as a major commitment to spend the Summer in the humidity of Florida and this decision was definitely something I hesitated about. However, it was something I had to do as God had called me to give Him my summer. The sounds of giving up a time that is usually set aside for relaxing and lounging was not very appealing, but little did I know, I wouldn’t be doing it alone.

I was called to love on others, there was no doubt that that was my calling for the summer. God laid it upon my heart to teach Missions which, ironic enough, can be defined as loving on others. So, as a group, we pledged to learn about Missions and in doing so, we were able to touch those around us. As I expressed my heart for Missions, the children were encouraged and motivated to do the same. Each month, we raised money  through a Lemonade Stand, Car Wash, Hoagie Sale and even collecting coins from around the house. Together, we raised over $500. At the end of the summer, we were able to put together over 50 bags loaded with paper, pencils, crayons, markers, folders, etc to bless children going back to school.

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” -1 Timothy 4:12

Although we look like a young, powerless bunch, God used us for His kingdom, during the Summer 2010. It has been so encouraging to see that the Children of Genesis Church are on board for Missions! Being a “Missional Church”, it is important to have a Missions-minded congregation and we are able to say that, as a Children’s Ministry, we are praying for and giving to our Missionaries as well as doing our own Missions right here in Highland City, without any motives other than loving our neighbors.

-Miss Katie

Wow! Yesterday, I was reading Exodus 16. It was so beautiful to see the way that God provided for His people thousands of years ago in the wilderness as He led them from Egypt to the land that He promised. Even though God’s people were complaining about traveling through the wilderness and saying they would rather go back to slavery in Egypt, God still provided for them. He was still faithful to His people.

Not only was God faithful to His people despite their grumbling, He made sure that their needs were met each day. And on the sixth day, He gave them extra food so that they could rest on the seventh day. It is so incredible to me that God gave them food each day. He told them to take what they needed and that they did not need to keep it, because He would provide the next day.

While it is awesome to read this and marvel at the beauty of God’s provision for His people day by day, it is not so easy when I try to apply this to my life. It is amazing to me to realize that God desires us to live our lives day by day. He wants us to live for Him today AND He wants us to make time to rest each week. This can be quite the challenge for me as I get so caught up in thinking about and preparing for my future. What will I do when I graduate? Where will I live? How am I going to get my homework done that’s due next month? When will I see my family next? So many questions that deal with my future. But, God is calling me to trust Him with tomorrow and live for Him today. We need to take full advantage of what He’s doing today. It is kind of hard to do that when we are so focused on tomorrow. Of course we should plan and prepare for tomorrow. But we are in the present, so we need to live in the present.

God has so much for us today. He desires to meet our needs today. He desires to bless us today, to love on us today. He desires to speak to us today. He desires to give us rest today. So why not embrace the day? He is with us today and He is going to use us today. Let’s open up our world to Him today.

“This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” –Psalm 118:24

In His grace,

Mister Lance

In Pioneer Club, I have challenged the children to give to missions. As we are learning about loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves (which most of the kids have admitted to loving themselves quite a bit), we are starting to love on our neighbors on a large scale, monetarily. Given the options of helping orphans, building a church, teaching literacy, providing clean water and providing shelter, we had to revote numerous times because the children wanted to vote for each project. When we finally weeded through the options and decided which project was most important to us, as a club, we decided to raise money to provide clean fresh water to those who do not have this luxury.

As we presented these ideas to the children, the looks on their faces said enough. They could not believe what some people are forced to live with; kids without homes while we have our regular home, a vacation home and a home on wheels? Some people don’t have clean water to drink while we have clean water to drink, cook with, bathe in and even enough to fill our swimming pool? The kids were amazed at the amount of need in the World and were delighted to be a part of something greater than themselves.

We have devoted the Summer of 2010 to Missions. We are praying for our fellow missionaries that God will meet their needs, we are doing our own missions within the community and our biggest challenge–giving money to missions. Each month we are doing at least one fundraiser in which all the proceeds will go toward our Mission’s budget and at the end of the summer, we will make a donation to Nuru, a fund that provides fresh water over seas.

Our first (and only so far) fundraiser was selling Lemonade, a tactic the kids begged to do. As the kids and I sat in the blistering hot sun for 2 hours, we raised our first $30 for missions! This Saturday, we will be washing cars.

During church on Sunday, Pastor called for the offering to be taken. One of the boys sitting next to me asked for a dollar, although I wasn’t sure what he wanted the dollar for, I had a good idea. He took that dollar and placed it in the offering plate with a huge smile and sense of pride in his heart then leaned over to me and asked, “Why do we give offering?” In that minute I knew, I had given a boy a dollar and he could have saved it and spent it on candy and gum later, but he gave it to a plate passed in front of him at church, not knowing what it was for, but following the example of others. I quietly whispered back, “God blesses us with so many awesome things, one of those things being money. He asks us to give 10% of our money back to Him, out of obedience to His word. He sees our heart when we give back and blesses us even more.” He had a puzzled look on his face, “But I’m only 6. I have any money!” I could hear the concern in His voice at the thought of disappointing Jesus. “You have hands don’t you? God doesn’t just want our money, he wants to use us and use our bodies.” He smiled because he knew he could be obedient to God.

It seems like such a simple concept–giving–but we find it difficult (even I find it difficult), and this is something we are learning at Pioneer Club. It is encouraging to see the hearts of these children and the smiles on their faces knowing that their efforts are going to help someone in need.

Adults, be encouraged and even motivated by the work of a child; love with all of your heart and give all you have to be that example of a giver to upcoming generations.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” -John Elliot

——————————–
Author: Katie Maurer

Wow! Words truly cannot describe my African Adventure. On May 9th, 2010 I flew from Florida to Washington D.C. to Johannesburg, South Africa with a team of 21 other people to spend a week in the rural villages of Zambia. It was truly the most incredible trip of my life. It came so quickly. We got to South Africa on May 10th and the next day we flew to Zambia. God spoke so clearly in the nation of Zambia. I saw beauty there. I saw the Lord’s beauty shine so much more brightly than I ever have. I saw His glory fill people as He saved them and He healed them. I saw His grace as I realized that I am saved completely by His grace.

God had definitely been preparing my heart for a long time for this trip. It was during my senior year of high school that I was going on my second mission trip. That trip was to Poland. My youth pastor’s wife kept telling me that we were going to be taking bucket showers and that we wouldn’t have bathrooms. She was only joking, but I was sure that if she was telling the truth, I would NOT be going to Poland. I went, of course, and we had bathrooms and semi-nice showers and beds. The Lord did beautiful things there. I remember the speaker telling us about another trip that we could go on to Africa. He explained that the conditions were much more rough. I wanted to go, but I was too afraid to go on a trip that wouldn’t have my nice western world comforts.

Fast forward to this past year at Southeastern University. I am sitting in Religion Chapel on Friday morning. It is in the Fall and there is a team speaking about Cambodia. They had been to Cambodia over the summer and I saw how the Lord had broken their hearts for the people that they ministered to. It was beautiful. And it was in that moment that I heard the Lord say, “You need to go on a mission trip this summer.” And so, I hooked up with the Zambia team and I knew that I would be sacrificing some comforts, but not all comforts.

However, we switched plans halfway through the semester and we ended up going with Overland Missions (www.overlandmissions.com), which is an incredible organization. They believe in roughin’ it! Once we got to the Missions Base in Zambia, we experienced beauty. We got to see the gorge that separates Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was beautiful!!!

We went out to the rural villages on our third day in Zambia. We left that morning and drove 6 hours. Most of the driving was on roads that were more like trails and there was so much dust. And our truck got stuck when we were about 15 minutes away from our final destination. We set up camp on the side of the road and the Lord gave us a time of working together and bonding.

The next day we reached the villages and we were greeted by curious kids. We got to preach the gospel that night and we were blessed to watch people respond. The next day we got to play football (aka soccer) with them and preach and watch the Lord come touch their bodies. Sunday was also an incredible day. We split up and went to different churches. At one church, the Zionist Church, there were some demons that manifested and were cast out of that place! We also had a men’s and women’s conference that afternoon. We were able to offer them God’s amazing counter-cultural message for families.

Monday was my favorite day out in the villages! I went with two other people, a guide, and a translator to a village that we had to walk an hour and a half to get to. It was the village of Changa. Immediately after arriving we were taken to the Head Man’s house and we were all asked to preach and then we gave the locals the opportunity to ask any questions they wanted. And then we prayed for the sick and Jesus healed almost all of them!

Tuesday was our last day in the villages and we were able to play more football with the locals and have a meal with them. God spoke so much to me about His grace in this time. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the translators. We had five amazing translators–Beauty, Veronica, Biton, Aaron, and Matthews.

God’s grace is truly sufficient. He has saved us entirely by His grace. It is nothing that we do. He finished the work of our salvation almost 2,000 years ago on the cross. So I don’t have to keep trying to earn my salvation and neither do you! We are free in Him. Nothing can separate us from His love. We are the treasure of His creation.

In His Grace,

Mr. Lance

Ephesians 2:8-10