[i][b]"...do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."
Hi everybody,
I hope to keep this up to date with my witnessing encounters. I also hope it will be an encouragement to you all.
Adam
A while ago I lived in Hawaii (I was part of a Salvation Army missions and discipleship school, called [url=http://revolutionhawaii.com/]Revolution Hawaii
Let's just say it is serious business to work with children...!"Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5\t"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Well, to make a long story short, about ten years ago when I was in fifth grade in a Sunday School class, an old man named Mr. Glazener said to everybody, "I am going to take your pictures this week. Next week I will tell you what you are going to be when you grow up." And the following week he came and said, "Adam, you are going to be an evangelist." And, "James, you are going to be an engineer." I forgot about this until about three years ago. I don't know what happened to my buddy James, but I bet you he is an engineer. Well, like Jonah, I had been running from this call to preach the gospel for a long time, but by the grace of God-- I quit running. (Looking back, this is all very strange, considering that Mr. Glazener I do not think is much of a charismatic, and neither am I, and this kind of stuff does not happen very often to me...)
One night while I was wrestling with the call to preach, I realized I had been running from the call. I knew it deep down, but this time I finally realized it, and so [url=http://www.yoadam.com/2009/02/i-repent-of-being-unbelieving.html]I repented[i][Currently, I am considering applying to the [url=http://www.tnars.net]North American Reformed Seminary
Preaching is such a humiliating work. I'm reminded of the words of Leonard Ravenhill, "Anyone who chooses to become a preacher is an idiot." It sounds extreme, but it's really true. There is not a more disagreeable job on earth! Also as the Apostle Paul said, [b]"Who is sufficient for these things?"[i] I am not sufficient in myself[b]"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God"
About one month ago, as a mark of repentance, my friend Stephan and I began to preach the gospel every week to all of the kids, (approx. 15-30 in number & between 1st-8th grade), who come to our local Salvation Army After-school program. [i][Please keep in mind that 90% of these kids belong to unsaved parents and are completely unchurched; also about 50% of the kids live in broken homes with a single parent; and also about 75% of them have been diagnosed with ADD, ADHD or whatever... The neighborhood of our afterschool program is some-what of a "ghetto". And Coos County is the most meth infested county in the state of Oregon, which also I believe is the state with the highest meth per capita and the most liberal state in the USA...]
Not only have I been changed, but also many of the kids are beginning to demonstrate much interest in Jesus. Now they often will grab the church's Bibles from the library and come to myself or our volunteers and ask us to read it with them. The kids have began to draw pictures of the cross and write things like "I love God" or "I love Jesus". (However, they also write other legalistic things, like, "Do not cuss! Do not punch!" and things of that nature-- it is hard for children to understand abstract things...) Recently, after preaching on John 3, one little girl asked the supervisor, "Do I really need to be born again?" "Yes,..." she replied. But we are not following the typical sinners prayer method, but are trying to avoid that false assurance ideology. We make it clear they all must turn to God in prayer and believe in Jesus and ask to be forgiven for their sins and to save them from sin and hell. We also stress that if they [i]really believe
About 3 weeks ago, I gave away 30 ESV Gospel of John's to about 15 kids. One for each child, and one for their parent(s). They were all so happy to receive them!
Also 3 weeks ago, I bought a [url=http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/4719/nm/The_Jesus_Storybook_Bible_Every_Story_Whispers_His_Name_Hardcover_]Jesus StoryBook Bible
[image][img]http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l201/adamschae/2354319335_3e21d63ffa.jpg
Now, here's the cool part, around this time I also began to pray that God would provide the money (through our local Salvation Army church, of which the afterschool program is an off-shoot...) to buy each kid their very own Jesus story book Bible. (They are about $11 each.) Well, two weeks ago, my pastor took an offering in the middle of church to do exactly what I prayed for! Here's the clincher... I NEVER asked him to do it! All I did was pray. Our pastor simply felt that previous saturday night as he read the Bible that he should take an offering to pay to get each kid their own storybook Bible! (For the record, though, he already knew that we were excited about using this book every day with the kids and I had in the past told him that I wished I could get this book for every single kid...) Well then, now in my home I have 20 Jesus Storybook Bibles and this upcoming Friday I believe we are going to give them out as a free gift to the kids with no strings attached.
[image][img]http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l201/adamschae/03-28-09_1713.jpg[b]Praise GOD!
Last Friday we watched the [url=http://www.jesusforchildren.org/languages/index.html]Jesus Movie For Children
[i][[b]Side note[u]So far, the kids have memorized the following Scriptures:
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." - [b]Gen. 1:1
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." - [b]John 1:1
"In him was life, and the life was the light of men." - [b]John 1:4
""For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." - [b]John 3:16-18
Lastly, we have been watching the [url=http://www.chitorch.org/index.php/torchlighters/]Torchlighters Voice of the Martyrs Cartoon[b]story of Jim Elliot[b]Richard Wurmbrand, Perpetua, Gladys Aylward, William Tyndale, John Bunyan, and Eric Liddel[b]the story keepers cartoons[b]Chronicles of Narnia
Please PRAY for the kids' salvation and also for the few kids that insist on rebellion and seek to distract others from the gospel message. Other than school, in some of these kids' lives we are the only stable thing that is available from Mon-Fri at the same time and same place. So please pray for Stephan, Myself, and the other Supervisors & Volunteers at the Salvation Army Afterschool Program in Coos Bay!
God Bless.
Adam
-=Afterschool Program=-
Over the past 2 months, we covered the following 15 stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible with the kids at the Afterschool Program thus far:
The format is that while the children eat their snacks, we read the story from the book to them, then we dialogue about the story (and refresh previous stories), and then finally we close and pray.
[b]1. The Story & the Song.
[b]2. The beginning: a perfect home.
[b]3. The terrible lie.
[b]4. A new beginning.
[b]5. A giant staircase to heaven.
[b]6. Son of Laughter.
[b]7. The present.
[b]8. The girl no one wanted.
[b]9. The forgiving prince.
[b]10 & 11. God to the rescue.
[b]12. Ten ways to be perfect.
[b]13. The warrior leader.
[b]14. The teeny weenie... true king
[b]15. The young hero and the horrible giant.
[b]After School Program Week In Review (3/30 - 4/03)
[b]FRIDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:[i][Friday's are always the highlight of our week...]
First we distributed the Jesus Storybook Bibles to the kids. (Ages 7-10.) We will continue to distribute them on Friday's so that those who were absent will get their own Storybook in the future... We wrote their names in the front of the books, and they were all happy and said they would read it! :-)
Second we walked the kids into the library, and we watched the scene from the Jesus Movie when the sinful woman anointed Jesus' feet with alabaster oil, tears, and wiped His feet with her hair. I told the kids that she loves him so much because she was forgiven so much, but the kids still had a lot of unanswered questions.
Third we walked back into the main room and sat down with the new Jesus Storybook Bible's and we all turned the pages to the same story that we just watched on the Movie Screen. Now we read the story together, out loud. They were starting to understand more about what and why it was happening, but there was still much to be realized.
We explained how their story Bible's are re-written in story language that is easy to understand, and how it comes from our Holy Bibles... We told them that one day, we pray and hope they will also read the full version of the stories from the Holy Bible like we do. However, I also admitted to them that I LIKE their storybook Bible's and I often sneak a peak into my story book Bible so that I can look at the pictures, too! (They laughed.)
Lastly, Stephan and I read the same passage from the Gospel of Luke (ESV) out loud to the kids. After we prayed for the right words and that we would all have understanding from God, Stephan was first up. He summarized the story and spoke on the main points. He asked if we were "ever so happy to see somebody that you cried?" Well we should feel that way, too, especially about Jesus.
I was up next, for round two... I dialogued with the kids and we talked out loud through the entire story. (In getting them to explain it back to me, it is my prayer that God will give them understanding and also future remembrance of the story.) I also asked the kids, "What is the correct way to meet a king?" I demonstrated the answer as I prostrated myself on the ground before them. "Knees bowed, Face-down, in the dirt-- that's how we meet a king." As I got up I showed the kids the picture of the woman doing the same thing in the storybook Bible. Then I preached to them how Jesus is the KING OF KINGS. I also preached on how there are two groups of people in this story. There is the woman, who WASTED the precious perfume and there was the group of people who complained that she should not have wasted it, but they did not realize who Jesus was-- the KING OF KINGS. I explained in simple terms and great detail how if they do not see themselves as being like the sinful woman, then they missed the point and DO NOT UNDERSTAND the story. (This suprised the kids.) I preached that we all are either going to be like the woman who worshiped Jesus, and wasted her life for Jesus, giving him everything (our hearts, our thoughts, our time, our money, everything we care about...) -- or we will be like the men who complained and did not worship Jesus. Then I challenged the kids... I told them that people are going to ask them, "Why should you waste your life for Jesus, for God that you cannot even see!?" I made them think, "What are you going to say to those people?" ... (They did not know) ... With a big smile we preached, "BECAUSE HE'S WORTH IT!" ... Towards the end a few kids had some questions, like "When is Jesus coming back?" "SOON. We replied, but the Bible says that nobody knows the day or the hour. So we must BE READY." Then we explained what we all must do to be ready for when Jesus comes back... At the end of the message, I begged the kids to live only for Jesus and to be like the woman we preached about. In closing we led a simple, yet serious, prayer-- I encouraged the kids to pray with me if they really meant it. It was a simple and slow, but very deep prayer of thankfulness and plea for forgiveness of sins and salvation.
"AMEN."
That very next minute the first parent walked into the room to pick up her child. It was perfect timing, as it is always frustrating when parents come in and take their children home before the end of the message or when they come and interrupt the meeting. The kids were very happy to carry their own Jesus Storybook Bible's out the door as the went home today!
Well, it was a great day today. I really believe some of these young kids are starting to "get it!" Thank God. Amen.
[b]DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:[b]Monday's Story:
Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd...
We read the story from the Jesus Story Book Bible and we talked about how if we are saved by Jesus, then we are God's sheep and Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Then we talked about how great it is that God is our Shepherd and about the various roles He plays in our lives. After the closing prayer, one child was able to quote the entire Psalm 23 for all of us to hear. It was powerful.
[b]Tuesday's Story:
A little servant girl and the proud general. We talked about Namaan from 2 Kings 5. Namaan had leprosy and God used a little slave girl and Elisha to heal him. Elisha tells him to go wash in the river to be healed. He did it and was healed by God, (not the river!) We read about how we have a sinful, diseased heart-- which is worse than outward leprosy. And how God can cleanse us of that, too! ([i]note to self: I wish I would have talked more about our inward sin-problem and the cleansing work of Christ...! Help me God
[b]Wednesday Story:
Operation: "No More Tears!" We talked about Isaiah and how he wrote a book of the Bible. We talked about his message that we all like sheep have gone astray. We illustrated this using an art picture that we drew during art time. We also illustrated it with many examples such as the question, "how many of you have ever had a pet cat or dog that ran away from home? Well,
like that, we all have run away from God..." And the whole message climaxed at how Jesus is the Good Shepherd and how he came to seek and save those who were lost. We all must go to Jesus to be forgiven of the leprosy, disease, SIN which is in our hearts, and Jesus will cleanse our hearts, too. The kids really enjoyed the story and were hanging on to every word which was
spoken.
[i][Side note: We are beginning to see more fruit (possibly?)... One child brought some printed papers that he made on the computer at school this earlier in the day. It was an acrostic poem based on the words "SPRING" and for "S" he used Shepherd (the Lord is our shepherd) and for "G" he wrote "God is great." He also had typed out on another paper, "Obey God." This particular boy did not come running in showing his completed papers to us, we found it laying around later... So it appears he did not even have a hidden motive to impress us, but that he simply did part of his homework about God, on his own, regardless of what others think!]
[b]Thursday Story
Daniel and the scary sleepover (lion's den)... The kids LOVED this story. It was their favorite one so far. They were laughing, smiling, and empathising with Daniel throughout the entire story. We related how it would be wrong for Daniel to pray to King Darious, and it would be like us praying to Obama-- all the kids agreed. Darious was crazy and we should only pray to Jesus, the KING OF KINGS. We also talked about prayer and how important it is. After the story all of the kids were clapping! (unusual!)... Also, after the closing prayer, one of the girls looked up at me with an excited smile and said, "I just prayed ALL BY MYSELF at the same you did!" Lol! Praise God! It is so amazing to see kids get excited about stories that are from the BIBLE. (Assuming the Lord genuinely works in the hearts' of these kids, God is going to do some amazing things through
these kids!) I hope the Lord raises up a new generation of missionaries and godly men and women from this poor area within the small town of Coos Bay, Oregon!
[b]Friday Story:
God's Messenger. During snack we talked about Jonah. We talked about how God told him to go to Ninevah and tell the people to repent. Jonah said no and disobeyed. God sent a storm and he ended up in the belly of a big fish for THREE DAYS. Then Jonah repented while he was in the belly of the big fish, and so God had the whale spit him back up on the dry land. Then Jonah went and preached the gospel to the people. Not only did they enjoy a fun story, but we also talked about how this is a just like how Jesus died, and his body was in the grave for three days, then he came back to life. We also talked about how when God tells us to do something, (like, for example, to tell our friends about Jesus... and we are scared...) we must obey, otherwise God may just do something like he did to Jonah. So we should obey the first time!
Follow-up from yesterday:
Today Jeremy came and visited me at the after-school program! It was amazing and God is so good. We talked for quite a while. I told him a lot about my life and some stories of what God's been doing in my life over the last couple years. He also talked to me about his school situation. We had a good time. When he left I gave him some ice cream and offered him a Bible, but he said he already had a Bible... I also offered to take him to a Christian rock concert that some friends of mine were going to tonight, but he already had plans to go to another local church's youth group, so... I have no complaints there! Interesting, to say the least...
Keep praying for Jeremy!
[b]After School Program Week In Review (3/30 - 4/03)
[b]FRIDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:[i][Fridays are always the highlight of our week...]
First we distributed the Jesus Storybook Bibles to the kids. (Ages 7-10.) We will continue to distribute them on Fridays so that those who were absent will get their own Storybook in the future... We wrote their names in the front of the books, and they were all happy and said they would read it! :-)
Second we walked the kids into the library, and we watched the scene from the Jesus Movie when the sinful woman anointed Jesus' feet with alabaster oil, tears, and wiped His feet with her hair. I told the kids that she loves him so much because she was forgiven so much, but the kids still had a lot of unanswered questions.
Third we walked back into the main room and sat down with the new Jesus Storybook Bible's and we all turned the pages to the same story that we just watched on the Movie Screen. Now we read the story together, out loud. They were starting to understand more about what and why it was happening, but there was still much to be realized.
We explained how their story Bible's are re-written in story language that is easy to understand, and how it comes from our Holy Bibles... We told them that one day, we pray and hope they will also read the full version of the stories from the Holy Bible like we do. However, I also admitted to them that I LIKE their storybook Bible's and I often sneak a peak into my story book Bible so that I can look at the pictures, too! (They laughed.)
Lastly, Stephan and I read the same passage from the Gospel of Luke (ESV) out loud to the kids. After we prayed for the right words and understathat we would all have understanding from God. Stephan was first up. He summarized the story and spoke on the main points. He asked if we were "ever so happy to see somebody that you cried?" Well we should feel that way, too, especially about Jesus.
I was up next, for round two... I dialogued with the kids and we talked out loud through the entire story. (In getting them to explain it back to me, it is my prayer that God will give them understanding and also future remembrance of the story.) I also asked the kids, "What is the correct way to meet a king?" I demonstrated the answer as I prostrated myself on the ground before them. "Knees bowed, Face-down, in the dirt-- that's how we meet a king." As I got up I showed the kids the picture of the woman doing the same thing in the storybook Bible. Then I preached to them how Jesus is the KING OF KINGS. I also preached on how there are two groups of people in this story. There is the woman, who WASTED the precious perfume and there was the group of people who complained that she should not have wasted it, but they did not realize who Jesus was-- the KING OF KINGS. I explained in simple terms and great detail how if they do not see themselves as being like the sinful woman, then they missed the point and DO NOT UNDERSTAND the story. (This suprised the kids.) I preached that we all are either going to be like the woman who worshiped Jesus, and wasted her life for Jesus, giving him everything (our hearts, our thoughts, our time, our money, everything we care about...) -- or we will be like the men who complained and did not worship Jesus. Then I challenged the kids... I told them that people are going to ask them, "Why should you waste your life for Jesus, for God that you cannot even see!?" I made them think, "What are you going to say to those people?" ... (They did not know) ... With a big smile we preached, "BECAUSE HE'S WORTH IT!" ... Towards the end a few kids had some questions, like "When is Jesus coming back?" "SOON. We replied, but the Bible says that nobody knows the day or the hour. So we must BE READY." Then we explained what we all must do to be ready for when Jesus comes back... At the end of the message, I
begged the kids to live only for Jesus and to be like the woman we preached about. In closing we led a simple, yet serious, prayer-- I encouraged the kids to pray with me if they really meant it. It was a simple and slow, but very deep prayer of thankfulness and plea for forgiveness of sins and salvation. During the prayer, several of the kids got off of their chairs, and bowed down on both knees, face down to the ground-- they did this on their own, without my own instruction. PRAISE JESUS!
"AMEN."
That very next minute the first parent walked into the room to pick up her child. It was perfect timing, as it is always frustrating when parents come in and take their children home before the end of the message or when they come and interrupt the meeting. The kids were very happy to carry their own Jesus Storybook Bible's out the door as the went home today!
Well, it was a great day today. I really believe some of these young kids are starting to "get it!" Thank God. Amen.
[b]DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:[b]Monday's Story:
Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd...
We read the story from the Jesus Story Book Bible and we talked about how if we are saved by Jesus, then we are God's sheep and Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Then we talked about how great it is that God is our Shepherd and about the various roles He plays in our lives. After the closing prayer, one child was able to quote the entire Psalm 23 for all of us to hear. It was powerful.
[b]Tuesday's Story:
A little servant girl and the proud general. We talked about Namaan from 2 Kings 5. Namaan had leprosy and God used a little slave girl and Elisha to heal him. Elisha tells him to go wash in the river to be healed. He did it and was healed by God, (not the river!) We read about how we have a sinful, diseased heart-- which is worse than outward leprosy. And how God can cleanse us of that, too! ([i]note to self: I wish I would have talked more about our inward sin-problem and the cleansing work of Christ...! Help me God
[b]Wednesday Story:
Operation: "No More Tears!" We talked about Isaiah and how he wrote a book of the Bible. We talked about his message that we all like sheep have gone astray. We illustrated this using an art picture that we drew during art time. We also illustrated it with many examples such as the question, "how many of you have ever had a pet cat or dog that ran away from home? Well,
like that, we all have run away from God..." And the whole message climaxed at how Jesus is the Good Shepherd and how he came to seek and save those who were lost. We all must go to Jesus to be forgiven of the leprosy, disease, SIN which is in our hearts, and Jesus will cleanse our hearts, too. The kids really enjoyed the story and were hanging on to every word which was
spoken.
[i][Side note: We are beginning to see more fruit (possibly?)... One child brought some printed papers that he made on the computer at school this earlier in the day. It was an acrostic poem based on the words "SPRING" and for "S" he used Shepherd (the Lord is our shepherd) and for "G" he wrote "God is great." He also had typed out on another paper, "Obey God." This particular boy did not come running in showing his completed papers to us, we found it laying around later... So it appears he did not even have a hidden motive to impress us, but that he simply did part of his homework about God, on his own, regardless of what others think!]
[b]Thursday Story
Daniel and the scary sleepover (lion's den)... The kids LOVED this story. It was their favorite one so far. They were laughing, smiling, and empathising with Daniel throughout the entire story. We related how it would be wrong for Daniel to pray to King Darious, and it would be like us praying to Obama-- all the kids agreed. Darious was crazy and we should only pray to Jesus, the KING OF KINGS. We also talked about prayer and how important it is. After the story all of the kids were clapping! (unusual!)... Also, after the closing prayer, one of the girls looked up at me with an excited smile and said, "I just prayed ALL BY MYSELF at the same you did!" Lol! Praise God! It is so amazing to see kids get excited about stories that are from the BIBLE. (Assuming the Lord genuinely works in the hearts' of these kids, God is going to do some amazing things through
these kids!) I hope the Lord raises up a new generation of missionaries and godly men and women from this poor area within the small town of Coos Bay, Oregon!
[b]Friday Story:
God's Messenger. During snack we talked about Jonah. We talked about how God told him to go to Ninevah and tell the people to repent. Jonah said no and disobeyed. God sent a storm and he ended up in the belly of a big fish for THREE DAYS. Then Jonah repented while he was in the belly of the big fish, and so God had the whale spit him back up on the dry land. Then Jonah went and preached the gospel to the people. Not only did they enjoy a fun story, but we also talked about how this is a just like how Jesus died, and his body was in the grave for three days, then he came back to life. We also talked about how when God tells us to do something, (like, for example, to tell our friends about Jesus... and we are scared...) we must obey, otherwise God may just do something like he did to Jonah. So we should obey the first time!
[b]After School Program Week In Review (3/30 - 4/03)
[b]FRIDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:[i][Fridays are always the highlight of our week...]
First we distributed the Jesus Storybook Bibles to the kids. (Ages 7-10.) We will continue to distribute them on Fridays so that those who were absent will get their own Storybook in the future... We wrote their names in the front of the books, and they were all happy and said they would read it! :-)
Second we walked the kids into the library, and we watched the scene from the Jesus Movie when the sinful woman anointed Jesus' feet with alabaster oil, tears, and wiped His feet with her hair. I told the kids that she loves him so much because she was forgiven so much, but the kids still had a lot of unanswered questions.
Third we walked back into the main room and sat down with the new Jesus Storybook Bible's and we all turned the pages to the same story that we just watched on the Movie Screen. Now we read the story together, out loud. They were starting to understand more about what and why it was happening, but there was still much to be realized.
We explained how their story Bible's are re-written in story language that is easy to understand, and how it comes from our Holy Bibles... We told them that one day, we pray and hope they will also read the full version of the stories from the Holy Bible like we do. However, I also admitted to them that I LIKE their storybook Bible's and I often sneak a peak into my story book Bible so that I can look at the pictures, too! (They laughed.)
Lastly, Stephan and I read the same passage from the Gospel of Luke (ESV) out loud to the kids. After we prayed for the right words and understathat we would all have understanding from God. Stephan was first up. He summarized the story and spoke on the main points. He asked if we were "ever so happy to see somebody that you cried?" Well we should feel that way, too, especially about Jesus.
I was up next, for round two... I dialogued with the kids and we talked out loud through the entire story. (In getting them to explain it back to me, it is my prayer that God will give them understanding and also future remembrance of the story.) I also asked the kids, "What is the correct way to meet a king?" I demonstrated the answer as I prostrated myself on the ground before them. "Knees bowed, Face-down, in the dirt-- that's how we meet a king." As I got up I showed the kids the picture of the woman doing the same thing in the storybook Bible. Then I preached to them how Jesus is the KING OF KINGS. I also preached on how there are two groups of people in this story. There is the woman, who WASTED the precious perfume and there was the group of people who complained that she should not have wasted it, but they did not realize who Jesus was-- the KING OF KINGS. I explained in simple terms and great detail how if they do not see themselves as being like the sinful woman, then they missed the point and DO NOT UNDERSTAND the story. (This suprised the kids.) I preached that we all are either going to be like the woman who worshiped Jesus, and wasted her life for Jesus, giving him everything (our hearts, our thoughts, our time, our money, everything we care about...) -- or we will be like the men who complained and did not worship Jesus. Then I challenged the kids... I told them that people are going to ask them, "Why should you waste your life for Jesus, for God that you cannot even see!?" I made them think, "What are you going to say to those people?" ... (They did not know) ... With a big smile we preached, "BECAUSE HE'S WORTH IT!" ... Towards the end a few kids had some questions, like "When is Jesus coming back?" "SOON. We replied, but the Bible says that nobody knows the day or the hour. So we must BE READY." Then we explained what we all must do to be ready for when Jesus comes back... At the end of the message, I
begged the kids to live only for Jesus and to be like the woman we preached about. In closing we led a simple, yet serious, prayer-- I encouraged the kids to pray with me if they really meant it. It was a simple and slow, but very deep prayer of thankfulness and plea for forgiveness of sins and salvation. During the prayer, several of the kids got off of their chairs, and bowed down on both knees, face down to the ground-- they did this on their own, without my own instruction. PRAISE JESUS!
"AMEN."
That very next minute the first parent walked into the room to pick up her child. It was perfect timing, as it is always frustrating when parents come in and take their children home before the end of the message or when they come and interrupt the meeting. The kids were very happy to carry their own Jesus Storybook Bible's out the door as the went home today!
Well, it was a great day today. I really believe some of these young kids are starting to "get it!" Thank God. Amen.
[b]DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:[b]Monday's Story:
Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd...
We read the story from the Jesus Story Book Bible and we talked about how if we are saved by Jesus, then we are God's sheep and Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Then we talked about how great it is that God is our Shepherd and about the various roles He plays in our lives. After the closing prayer, one child was able to quote the entire Psalm 23 for all of us to hear. It was powerful.
[b]Tuesday's Story:
A little servant girl and the proud general. We talked about Namaan from 2 Kings 5. Namaan had leprosy and God used a little slave girl and Elisha to heal him. Elisha tells him to go wash in the river to be healed. He did it and was healed by God, (not the river!) We read about how we have a sinful, diseased heart-- which is worse than outward leprosy. And how God can cleanse us of that, too! ([i]note to self: I wish I would have talked more about our inward sin-problem and the cleansing work of Christ...! Help me God
[b]Wednesday Story:
Operation: "No More Tears!" We talked about Isaiah and how he wrote a book of the Bible. We talked about his message that we all like sheep have gone astray. We illustrated this using an art picture that we drew during art time. We also illustrated it with many examples such as the question, "how many of you have ever had a pet cat or dog that ran away from home? Well,
like that, we all have run away from God..." And the whole message climaxed at how Jesus is the Good Shepherd and how he came to seek and save those who were lost. We all must go to Jesus to be forgiven of the leprosy, disease, SIN which is in our hearts, and Jesus will cleanse our hearts, too. The kids really enjoyed the story and were hanging on to every word which was
spoken.
[i][Side note: We are beginning to see more fruit (possibly?)... One child brought some printed papers that he made on the computer at school this earlier in the day. It was an acrostic poem based on the words "SPRING" and for "S" he used Shepherd (the Lord is our shepherd) and for "G" he wrote "God is great." He also had typed out on another paper, "Obey God." This particular boy did not come running in showing his completed papers to us, we found it laying around later... So it appears he did not even have a hidden motive to impress us, but that he simply did part of his homework about God, on his own, regardless of what others think!]
[b]Thursday Story
Daniel and the scary sleepover (lion's den)... The kids LOVED this story. It was their favorite one so far. They were laughing, smiling, and empathising with Daniel throughout the entire story. We related how it would be wrong for Daniel to pray to King Darious, and it would be like us praying to Obama-- all the kids agreed. Darious was crazy and we should only pray to Jesus, the KING OF KINGS. We also talked about prayer and how important it is. After the story all of the kids were clapping! (unusual!)... Also, after the closing prayer, one of the girls looked up at me with an excited smile and said, "I just prayed ALL BY MYSELF at the same you did!" Lol! Praise God! It is so amazing to see kids get excited about stories that are from the BIBLE. (Assuming the Lord genuinely works in the hearts' of these kids, God is going to do some amazing things through
these kids!) I hope the Lord raises up a new generation of missionaries and godly men and women from this poor area within the small town of Coos Bay, Oregon!
[b]Friday Story:
God's Messenger. During snack we talked about Jonah. We talked about how God told him to go to Ninevah and tell the people to repent. Jonah said no and disobeyed. God sent a storm and he ended up in the belly of a big fish for THREE DAYS. Then Jonah repented while he was in the belly of the big fish, and so God had the whale spit him back up on the dry land. Then Jonah went and preached the gospel to the people. Not only did they enjoy a fun story, but we also talked about how this is a just like how Jesus died, and his body was in the grave for three days, then he came back to life. We also talked about how when God tells us to do something, (like, for example, to tell our friends about Jesus... and we are scared...) we must obey, otherwise God may just do something like he did to Jonah. So we should obey the first time!
15\tMy mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
\t\tof your deeds of salvation all the day,
\t\tfor their number is past my knowledge.
16\tWith the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come;
\t\tI will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
17\tO God, from my youth you have taught me,
\t\tand I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18\tSo even to old age and gray hairs,
\t\tO God, do not forsake me,
\tuntil I proclaim your might to another generation,
\t\tyour power to all those to come.
-Psa. 71:15-18
I think ministry to the children is sorely neglected! And I hope that people who read this blog will get ideas to do in their own communities. The state of our youth today is horrible..! Sometimes I can't help but fall down to my knees and weep for these kids... So many of the kids live in broken homes, and they do not even see their parents except for more than a few hours in the evenings when their parents are home from work-- tired, and cranky! And to top it all off-- the State is raising our kids! They are in large a godless and idolatrous generation that does not know the stories of God and what He has done, and much less to actually [i]know[i]without moral application[i]Our kids need a right theology of God and a God-centered philosophy and world-view to be the foundation of all education.
Sometimes I can't help but wonder if this mess is a judgment of God upon our nation? I suppose the subject is beyond the scope of this blog, but I would say our nation is the biggest sin factory in the world, we even make other godless nations blush-- yet we have no shame. Now I don't think we were a chosen nation like Israel was, but we did have much light from God-- even our public schools were originally Christian schools, teaching from Bible. And the main purpose of our "ivory league" universities was once for the raising up of ministers. I'm praying for God to raise up a remnant of Christian youth with a faith like Daniel had amidst the empire.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
\t\tfools despise wisdom and instruction.
-Pro. 1:7
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
\t\tand the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
-Pro. 9:10
[b]After School Program Week In Review (4/06 - 4/10)
THURSDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:
Before preaching, we distributed 7 more Jesus Storybook's to the kids, which means that we have distributed a total of 14 so far to our regular children that come weekly. We still have a few regulars who have missed the last two weekly preaches, so hopefully we will distribute those next week! :-)
Thursday was extremely challenging as the kids were excited about the 4-day weekend coming up, easter Sunday (w/ lots of candy), and a family fun night at school that same night. It was impossible to get the kids to keep still, but that's ok-- I was just trying to keep them engaged. I find that the two most important things that must be done while evangelizing kids are 1. [i]Keep it simple and understandable.[i]Fast transitions
We started out with prayer.
First we talked about Easter. I asked the kids to tell me the first things that they think of when I say, "Easter!" They said the usual, "Candy, Birds, Bunnies, Eggs, etc..." I explained to them how the true meaning of easter is the resurrection of Jesus. Many of them did not know what the word resurrection meant, so quickly I explained it and then had them repeat, "resurrection" out loud with me a couple of times.
The text for the day was from John 11,[b]Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
I told the kids, "You know, I'm going to tell you something true today that probably none of your teachers has told you before. But I'm going to tell you the truth. Are you ready?" Once I had all of the kids' attention, I dropped the line, "You're all going to die." Many of them were very surprised, an older girl was a shocked, but I told them, "I have to speak the truth to you kids, and this is very important. We are all going to die. I know one thing that I can absolutely prove to you all, and that is that 10 out 10 of you are all going to die."
"[b]BUT I HAVE HOPE!
I read the Bible Verse again and again, Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life."
"[b]JESUS CAME BACK TO LIFE!
"Did He?"
"Yes." They replied.
Then I explained how that [i]since Jesus came back to life, we can trust that even though we will die, that God will raise us back up from the grave, too.
I also explained how that one day the dead will be raised back to life-- those who believed in Jesus, and those who did not believe. I explained how we will all stand before God and we will be judged. Those who believed will be with Jesus forever, in the new heavens and the new earth; those who did not believe in Jesus will be in hell. "...Please don't go there." I said.
Lastly, I pulled out the Jesus Story Book Bible and read to them all of the stories about Jesus' arrest, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. This took about 15-20 minutes to complete. A few of them had trouble paying attention, but the majority loved the story. They even corrected the storybook by adding details at certain points ie. the spear that pierced Jesus.
Afterwards I asked the kids how many of them had [i]never
In conclusion I recapped the main points of the story and pleaded with them to believe and trust in Jesus so that they will live forever with Him.
[We also had a brief discussion about [i]"how do we know that the story of Jesus is true?"
Finally, we practiced what has been the scripture memorization over the last few weeks,
John 3
16\t"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
The kids know the majority of it and a few have it completely memorized. The last verse is the hardest.
We gave the kids easter candy and then it was time to go home.
[b]DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:[b]Monday's Story:
Before the new stories today, we briefly recapped the past 5 stories, (using pictures), to remind the children of the stories and lessons they have already learned.
Today we covered two stories, "Get Ready & "He's Here!"
From "Get Ready" we read about Ezra and Nehemiah, and how that once Israel been set free from slavery, again; they read the law of Moses to the people... We read about how this law shows us that we are all sinners and bad people, and we also read about how they threw a party for a week, to celebrate the wonderful things that God had done for his people.
From "He's Here" we talked about the Nativity and how God chose to enter the world through Mary. We talked about how she was a virgin and had not yet married Joseph, who was Jesus' dad. We talked about how the angel spoke to Mary to tell her what was happening and how the Holy Spirit (God) is the one who made Mary pregnant-- it was a miracle. We talked about how Joseph was righteous and was going to change his mind and not get married to Mary, but an angel explained the situation to him and so they still got married. We prayed and went outside to play freeze tag!
[b]Tuesday's Story:
The Light of the Whole World & The King of All Kings. We reviewed yesterday's story, & covered the rest of the beginnings of Jesus' life-- the visiting shepherds and the later coming wise men... Afterwards we talked about how this is the story of GOD coming down to earth, to rescue His people. Jesus is the God-man, He is Immanuel, which means God with us. Jesus is God with skin on, yet he is still a real person! We briefly discussed BC and AD (Before Christ & In the Year of Our Lord) and simultaneously debunked "BCE and CE." ("Before common era" and "common era"-- it's an absolutely ridiculous teaching, and ironic that textbooks still divide history at the coming of Christ 2000 years ago-- they have only tried to remove Christ's name! We also talked about how Jesus was humble & poor, being practically born in a barn with animals.
[b]Wednesday's Story:
At snack time I had one of the kids pray. I wish you could have seen it-- she spontaneously prayed something like this, "Dear Jesus, Thank you for this snack... Thank you for everybody here... I LOVE YOU! Amen." It was extremely cute and gushy while remaining extraordinarily genuine. Praise God.
While they were eating I had a "show & tell" with the kids. I showed them my foreign language Bible collection. I told them about how the Bible is the most popular book in the world because it is the only book we have that is from God. I explained how it is the most translated book the world and that people have died to read it and translate it for people to read in their own languages. I showed them the following translations: German, French, Spanish, Swahili, Marshallese, Russian, & Korean. The kids digged it and I hope they will come to realize how universal our faith is and how it is not merely a "white mans religion."
Further during snack we reviewed yesterday's story, and then we quized them on the true meanings of B.C. and A.D. (Let's just say they got an A+!) Then we talked about today's story, "Heaven breaks through." We told them about John the Baptist and his baptism of repenance, ending at the baptism of Jesus and dove falling upon Jesus with God's audible confirmation.
We prayed and then the girls had a special "sunbeams" class with a lady from our church who is training to become a teacher-- so as usual, the boys and I sat in the computer lab, ate corndogs, pie, and watched cartoons. We watched "God's Prisoner", the story of Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs. Afterwards we talked a little bit about persecution. I handed them my Korean Bible and told them how if they were caught holding the Bible in North Korea they would most likely be arrested and put in prison! We talked about Wurmbrand's example of courage and standing strong in faith. Afterwards, we played with lego's and paper airplanes... I love this job!
[b]Thursday's Story:
The same girl prayed for snack time as on Wednesday. It was another cute, genuine prayer. We talked about how after Jesus was baptized, he went into the desert and was tempted by satan. We talked about fasting, prayer, and how Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Then we talked about how after Jesus left the desert, he went and chose his first followers to help him in the rescue plan. We talked about how the disciples were ordinary people just like us and we talked about how the disciples left everything they had and immediately followed Jesus. Afterwards we prayed.
[b]Friday's Story:
No School, No After-School Prog.
[b]After School Program Week In Review (4/13 - 4/17)
THURSDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:
As the kids sat down in their chairs, Stephan and I walked into the room with a bucket of water and some towels and set it down in front of the pulpit. The kids knew somebody was going to get their feet washed and were interested in todays' message.
The kids were very goofy today and had a hard time focusing throughout the message. But I believe God was still able to get through to them. The minute before we started, a new, middle-school aged friend of mine walked into the room-- so I invited him to come in and sit down with us.
I stood behind the pulpit and we bowed our heads to pray and ask God for help.
As I read the story of when Jesus washed the disciples' feet from John chapter 14, I also explained each verse by verse using easy to understand language. The kids were following along quite nicely, I could tell by the looks on their faces that they understood what was happening.
Next I preached passionately about the good news of Jesus in that He died and rose again from the grave-- but He didn't die for no reason... Then I tried to explain substitutionary atonement, (of course I would never use those complicated terms with the kids...) Jesus died in our place. We all have sinned and deserve to punished, but Jesus was punished by God instead of us. I explained how the call is to repent and believe in the gospel. We all must stop running away from God and instead turn away from our sins and run back to God-- we must let Jesus forgive us for our sin. And we also must let Jesus clean our dirty, sinful hearts-- just like Jesus washed His disciples' feet. Now for those of us who believe in Jesus Christ as our savior and who believe in this good news, the gospel-- we are saved. We are not going to go to hell after we die. We are friends of God! This is good news! They agreed. Furthermore, Stephan explained how Jesus said that we also are to wash others' feet. He explained how as Christians we are called to be servants just like Jesus was. He then applied it and gave practical examples that we all can do. I also jumped in and explained how this teaching is the answer to all of the problems in the world! This really is good news!
Midway through the message, Stephan and I sat down and began to wash each others' feet in front of the kids. They thought it was really funny-- especially because my feet really did stink! As we washed each others' feet, Stephan and I talked about the message. We kept talking about the two concepts over and over again and gave lots of examples.
Finally, Stephan and I gave a final recap, then we prayed (...a couple of the kids voluntarily got down on their knees again...) and the kids were dismissed from the preaching area...
Afterwards, I had a good one on one conversation with the boy who came for the first time during the preaching today. I told him that some of my grandparents don't believe in God. He replied, "Yeah, neither does my Dad..." We talked about why some people say they don't believe in God, but the fact is that really they are just running from God because they don't want to be in trouble. I told him how it is like that if he were to punch a kid in the nose, the principal at school would come looking for him, then he would probably run and hide from the principal. But the fact is that God is love and He will forgive the sins of people who will come back to Him. I explained how just about everybody on the planet believes in God and atheists are a minority group. Then I briefly tried to explain how other religions are false, but we can trust in our God. I quoted how Jesus, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except through Me." Then we played a game of monopoly. The boy was happy to go home with the very last Jesus Storybook Bible that we had. I also gave him an "adventure Bible." (Unfortunately NIV, but it was the only version I had...)
What a day!
God is good. All the time. Amen.
[b]DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:
Monday's Story:[i]No School, No After-School Program
[b]Tuesday's Story:
Today we distributed four more Jesus Storybook Bibles and now we only have two left! That makes for a total of eighteen storybooks we have given away already. The kids were excited to have their own Jesus Storybooks. It's our hope and prayer that the Lord will use these books to build the spiritual foundation of Christ in the lives of these children! We wish it was as simple as giving a full-on "Holy Bible" to the children and that their parents would read and teach them from the Bible, but the harsh reality for the majority of our kids is that their parents are not Christians. The Bible is such a large and peculiar book that it even overwhelms many adults. And with all of that said, we still must regularly incorporate readings from the actual Holy Bible to our kids. We want to inductively introduce the Bible to the children, so that when they are more able to read at length with understanding, they then will hunger and crave to read the Word of God in entirety and purity (as opposed to a paraphrased storybook...)
Today's story was "A little girl and a poor frail lady." Specifically it was about Jairus' daughter that was raised from the dead and also the woman that reached out and touched Jesus to be healed. We read the stories from the Jesus storybook and then I quizzed the group of kids about the story and had them re-explain it back to me. The cool part about today was that one of our kids, (who has some minor learning disabilities), was answering the most questions and explaining the story in the group. After all of this I then taught them that we should be like the lady that reached out to Jesus. We can pray and and ask Jesus to help us with our problems just like the lady that touched Jesus and was healed. I also taught them that we should trust Jesus and believe that he really raised up Jairus' daughter back to life. Then I talked once again about the true meaning of easter. Finally, I linked the fact of Christ's resurrection to the fact that the Bible teaches that one day all Christians will be raised back to life and there will be new heavens and new earth full of righteousness. There will be no war, pain, suffering, sin, or death. It will be a completely new and amazing world. This is all because Jesus will be the King of it all. This resurrection is our hope. This teaching surprised a young girl who has been with our group over the last couple of weeks. "Really?" She said. It was cool! She smiled and I could tell thoughts were stirring inside of her head...
[b]Wednesday's Story:
There were about twenty kids today. The story was titled "How to pray." It was a paraphrase of Jesus' teaching's from the sermon on the mount & "The Lord's Prayer." We talked about how we must pray first of all because prayer is how we get to know God. We cannot know God apart from prayer. Prayer is extremely important. We also explained who the pharisees were, how their prayers were hypocritical, and we should not be like them when we pray. We strongly stressed that prayer is actually talking to our living God. Towards the end we took prayer requests. Finally, I had everybody bow their heads in prayer and we had a group prayer time. About six or seven kids all prayed a unique prayer of thanks or request to God in one way or another. I really believe that God is teaching many of our kids how to pray! It was really cool.
At the end of the day we gave away a Jesus Storybook. We gave it to a girl who comes from an anti-God, atheistic home. She was happy to receive it (and to have one just like her other best friends do.) This girl already has been here during one or two preaching events, and also has watched the Jesus movie for kids with us. Pray for her salvation and for the strengthening of her faith amidst the trials of her own family! Now we only have one Jesus Storybook left.
[b]Thursday's Story:
On Thursday we read "The Servant King." We read and talked about the time when Jesus washed his disciples' feet and taught them also to do the same for each other. I explained the message from the storybook with a two-fold meaning. 1. Jesus washed the disciples' feet. He does this for all of us who come to Him. Those who come to Jesus He will forgive sins and cleans up sinful hearts. 2. We as Christians must follow Jesus' example and do the same thing for other people-- not only by washing each other's feet, but also by doing acts of serving. After this we prayed and then we had the kids move out of the snack area and into the preaching area... (See above.)
[b]Friday's Story:[i]Stephan is leading Today. I will be out of town and unable to update this blog for a few days. I will post a summary of what took place at a later date.
[b]Last Two Weeks In Review - After School Program
Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I am sad to say that the last two weeks have been very difficult for myself spiritually. I personally struggle with a sort of depression or spiritual depression from time to time and all I can say is that these last two weeks have been very difficult. Also I have been sick. On top of it all, my relationships with family around the house have been... suffering, to say the least. I considered not doing the stories or preaching to the children, but I decided it would be best to continue. So I did not stop from ministering to the children... Though, I could have becuase even though I am employed at the After School program, the stories and preaching I do are optional and completely voluntary... I felt that even if I myself am struggling, these kids are like my hungry sheep, and many of them do not get fed from anywhere else except Mon-Fri at the After School program-- so I was compelled to keep doing ministry amidst my recent depression bouts. However, as a side affect of all these things, I have simply not found the will nor the energy to keep the detailed log of what has been happening as I did in the past. By God's grace, the following posts are the stories we have read to the children, and the last two preaching events (based on what I have recollected from memory)... and by God's grace, I will do a better job in keeping you updated in the future.
Adam Schaefers 5/02/09
[b]After School Program Week In Review (4/27 - 5/01)
FRIDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:
"The Captain of the storm." Stephan and I preached on the story of when Jesus calmed the storm. Stephan did an excellent job on this one. He explained all the key points and climaxed on "who is Jesus?" He kept saying all of the things I was hoping he was going to say... it was great! Lastly, I preached on what it means for us as Christians, that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1 was the verse for the day. We had the children write it down on a piece of paper to take home with them.
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
[b]DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:
Monday's Story:
Jesus is the friend of little children.
[b]Tuesday's Story:
God sends help. (The Holy Spirit)
[b]Wednesday's Story:
A new way to see. (Saul is converted & becomes Paul)
[b]Thursday's Story:
A dream of heaven.
(This completed the entire Jesus Story Book! Many of the kids now have heard all the key stories of the Bible for the first time!)
[b]Friday's Story:
The Captain of the storm. (Jesus calms the storm.)
[b]After School Program Week In Review (4/20 - 4/24)
FRIDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:
Stephan and I preached on the prodigal son and also talked about how God is our perfect Dad.
[b]DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:
Monday's Story:
The Captain of the Storm. (Don't be afraid. God is control. Jesus calms the storm...)
[b]Tuesday's Story:
Filled full. (Jesus feeds the 5,000...)
[b]Wednesday's Story:
Treasure Hunt! (Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also... God is our treasure...)
[b]Thursday's Story:
The man who didn't have any friends (Zacheus)
[b]Friday's Story:
Running away. (The prodigal son)
[b]Friday's Story with Stephan (April 17th)
The Singer. (Don't worry. Look at the lilies and the sparrows... from the sermon on the mount)
I love your heart in the Lord. May God bless you so richly. It's late at night, and I read the first part of your testimony on the ministry the Lord Jesus has entrusted you with, and it truly, truly lifted my soul. God's been telling me, "buy a printer", so I can print up various tesimonies, or exhortations, and I'm going to do that tommorrow, so I can spread such out in front of me, to read, deliberate over and then prayer for and over.
I love you brother. Be encouraged and stay strong in Jesus Name, amen.
In His love, neil
Wow, Thanks Neil. I'm very unworthy. Don't get me wrong, I believe God is doing stuff, but it is not because of me-- rather, in spite of me. In fact, I'm sure I could pick apart a few of these logs and show how they probably stink all over with my pride. Pray for me to keep myself humble. God loves these kids!
I love your heart in the Lord. May God bless you so richly. It's late at night, and I read the first part of your testimony on the ministry the Lord Jesus has entrusted you with, and it truly, truly lifted my soul. God's been telling me, "buy a printer", so I can print up various tesimonies, or exhortations, and I'm going to do that tommorrow, so I can spread such out in front of me, to read, deliberate over and then prayer for and over. I love you brother. Be encouraged and stay strong in Jesus Name, amen. In His love, neil
[b]After School Program Week In Review (5/04 - 5/08)
THURSDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:
On Thursday Stephan and I had a great time of prayer for both ourselves and the children before we began preaching. The leaders then had the kids sit down in front of the pulpit and the drawing board. Stephan wrote the memory verse on the drawing board, [b]"but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8
Meanwhile I opened the Bible up to the story of Zacchaeus, which begins with Jesus passing through the town of Jericho... (Keep in mind this is the second time they had heard the story of Zacchaeus on this day, but this time they heard the actual words recorded in the Bible.) Before we read the scriptures we prayed aloud and asked God to help all of us understand the Bible. Then we read the following and simultaneously defined words where it was necessary:
"1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature.4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today."6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold."9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." - Luke 19 (ESV)
Afterward I asked who understood what was happening in the story and the majority of the kids raised their hands! Thank God.
Now preaching is hard to recall from memory, but it went something like the following:
I started off the preaching by reading the text which says, "And he was seeking to see who Jesus was," and from this I preached how the most important question we will ever ask is, "Who is Jesus?" So I asked the group, "WHO IS JESUS? ... Who do you say that He is?" ...several times. They were thinking, and a several of them gave really good answers. I proclaimed to the kids, "We all must be like Zacchaeus and LOOK TO SEE WHO JESUS IS! We must SEEK who Jesus is... we must look to find out WHO IS JESUS. We all must do this by asking God to show Himself to us. We can pray and say something like, 'Jesus, please show me who you really are...;' *short pause*"
Now Stephan also preached a little bit. He spoke over the rest of the text and emphasized how Jesus loves sinners and that is why he went to hang out with Zacchaeus... It is hard to remember what exactly he said, but I think Stephan also recapped how Zacchaeus gave away his stuff in repentance, also I think he spoke on how Jesus loves us and has come to "seek and to save the lost."
When Stephan had finished speaking, he passed the podium back to me. "Now we can say we believe and give the right answers, we can say He is the 'King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Son of the Living God, the Savior, the Rescuer who saves us from our sins... But even the devil knows these things, and he is still going to end up hell. We must have more than to only to know the truth in our heads, but we must actually know God-- our living God... Jesus was perfect and never sinned, died on the cross, came back to life, rose up to heaven, and is coming back to earth. Kids-- we are all in trouble with God and this is very serious. We all are sinners. And the wicked unbelievers are heading for hell. Hell is real place, called the lake of fire, where people will be punished and tortured forever. It will be horrible and people will be screaming..." (At this point, it was dead silent, and every child was staring me in the face with a serious, sad face...)
Next Stephan and I used a bus illustration. We illustrated that I was walking down the street and a bus was coming head to hit me. Instead of me getting hit by the bus, Stephan pushed me out of the way and got hit by the bus instead of me. Stephan died. So I preached, "I should have died, but Stephan died for me. *short pause* In the same way, all of us should die and be punished by God in hell, but for those who believe, JESUS DIED INSTEAD OF US. Because Jesus was punished on the cross, and we who believe will live forever. This is love! This is good news! Jesus is calling you children: to turn away from our sin and to run to God, believe and trust in Jesus to be saved. And in the same way Jesus went inside of Zacchaeus' house to have dinner with him, so Jesus will also come and live inside of each one of us who believe." "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8 (Finally, I read this verse and proclaimed how much God loves the kids more than they can even understand. By now the kids' faces began to light up with relief and with smiles. They really were understanding these things. I wish I could describe it to you, but I believe that many of these kids are beginning to fall in love with the gospel. Thank God!)
Lastly, I led the closing prayer. It was a serious, yet simple prayer to God. We prayed for God give the children faith, to help them believe and trust in Jesus to be saved. Also during part of the prayer I told the children they can also pray the same words with me, that is, for God to help them see who Jesus is, and to forgive their sins, if they wanted to-- but I did not try to force any sort of response. (For I cannot force some mechanical work of God in the children's heart-- as if it is myself who does the saving work... All I can do is call the kids in the name of God to repent toward God and put faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, but God alone will be the one who provides the ability for the kids to actually do this-- by the power of His Holy Spirit-- I cannot force the kids to exercise saving faith-- and I certainly can not attempt to manipulate anyone to jump through some mechanical hoops (ie. "The Sinners Prayer") and thereby declare them children of God-- salvation is FROM GOD. Any person who experiences the miracle of repentance and faith in Jesus to salvation has experienced a sheer miracle-- a resurrection within! ... Now I thank God that I have witnessed this miracle take place in many of our children.)
After the preaching, the group memorized the verse, "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8
One girl in particular actually thanked me for the preaching today. This girl has been paying so much more attention lately! She is very stubborn and has been mostly ignorant about God and distractive to other kids in the past. This really meant a lot! Also the other day when we started over on the Jesus Story Book for the second time, she really started getting into the stories and has been enjoying them a lot! I told her the other day, that we are going through the stories for a second time, and so this is her second chance from God to learn about Him through the Bible. She told me excitedly, "Cool, and maybe we read even through the whole book 3 times!?"
Afterward we all went outside and sat in the sun and ate ICE CREAM! The kids loved it and were very thankful for it. We gave thanks to God for the ice cream and sat down to eat. It was very sweet-- and I'm not talking about the ice cream... At this time myself and all of the volunteers were sitting with the kids eating too. We had a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed sitting and talking and enjoying the moment. Kids really love our attention and we (for the most part!) love to give it to them. By God's grace we at the Salvation Army After School Program are demonstrating the love of Jesus not only in word, but also in deed.
[b]DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:
Monday's Story:
After we gave thanks for the snack we started back at the beginning of the Jesus storybook. This is round two for many of the kids who have been at the After School Program daily. And this is chance two for many of the kids who have not attended or been inattentive to the stories in the past. I began and read from the introduction of the storybook about how the Bible is not first and foremost a book of rules, nor is it a book of heroes, but the Bible is a story-- the story of God coming into the world in Jesus Christ to rescue us. Every story in the Bible whispers His name. Then Stephan read the story of creation to the kids and we talked about how "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The kids who showed up today were very young. All of the kids shared around the table their favorite stories about the beach and other places in creation. Meanwhile, Stephan and I kept trying to emphasize how God made it all. We ended with prayer.
Note: One girl who has been coming every day regularly this year asked me a lot of questions about the Bible today. She also asked me if I had another Bible (like mine) that I could give to her. The funny thing is that I do! I actually two of the Bible that use-- the second one I have been planning to give away for a long time. It has been my goal to give the Bible to my first genuine convert. Now, I am unsure if this girl was actually converted through my ministry here or perhaps the other neighborhood bus-to-church ministry, but regardless I am going to give it to her! She has a very genuine love for the Lord. I am so excited and I just know she is going to love it. I also ended up giving her a mini introduction to the new testament. I showed her how Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are where we read about Jesus; Acts about Peter and Paul and how they went everywhere telling people about Jesus; Romans, Galatians, etc... are the letters to the Christians of Rome and Galatia telling us even more about Jesus. I also showed her Psalms and how they are songs and prayers that we can pray, sing, and trust. We read Psalm 23 together.
[b]Tuesday's Story:
On Tuesday we told the story of Adam and Eve with an emphasis on them 1. Being our first parents, & 2. Being the first sinners by whom we have all inherited a sin nature and now humanity as a whole stands guilty before God as "sinners." We talked about how the first thing Adam and Eve did when they sinned was (trying to) hide from God by running away-- and not only running away, but also they tried to cover-up their shame and guiltiness by making clothes made of fig leaves. We talked about how this is what we all do when we realize that we have run from God. We try to hide from Him and avoid the subject of God, and we try to do lots of "good" works and nice things for people to make ourselves feel better. But this still does not fix the problem in that we have sinned and rebelled against God! Finally I tried to explain how the clothes of animal skins in the garden represents the righteousness of Christ, but it was very hard to do... I explained it by saying that God killed an animal to put the animal skins on Adam and Eve for clothing, just like how Jesus died to forgive us our sins. We need Jesus just like Adam and Eve needed the clothes from God.
Note: Also during this time we had a powerful discussion about creation and evolution. We talked about how in school they teach we are related to monkeys. Several kids told stories of this and how they thought it was silly because they (the children) believe God made us. One little girl said that her teacher asked the entire class, "Do you all believe that you are related to monkeys?" Of course the whole class was supposed to say, "Yes..." We talked about how this is not true, but GOD MADE US. We emphasized that people who do not believe in God, but believe we have all evolved from animals, have a big problem-- they cannot explain how the universe got here.
After all of this, about 20 minutes had gone by, (which is a little bit lengthy for a snack time story and teaching / preaching...) And so toward the end during the closing prayer it was very difficult. A few children would not stop talking and making jokes to each other, which then led the entire group of children astray during this time. I ended up stopping in the middle of the prayer and strongly rebuking the children. Now I did not merely "yell" at them in anger, which would be a mistake... but I was so moved and full of sorrow in this moment that it seemed my face was bursting red in agony. I did raise my voice and I pleaded with the kids that prayer is the most important time of the day. I told them I do not care if they laugh at me, or if they laugh about how silly Adam and Eve can be, but DO NOT laugh while we talk to God! When we pray we are talking to God Himself and He should have our full attention. The kids became silent and so then we ended in prayer. Times like this are not easy, but are also extremely crucial. It is during these times that we are not merely doing "rituals", but are implanting values in to the hearts of children. Perhaps the value which was demonstrated in this instance was that our God is a serious God and so we must take Him seriously!
This all leads up to an important question... How much should we expect of children regarding the things of God? After teaching and preaching to the kids every Mon-Fri over the last few months, I believe kids are much more capable than we give them credit for. Not only do that have gigantic hearts that are full of trust, (and the trust should must be given to God), but also they are more intellectually capable than we think-- however, the kids need somebody to be with them not only to exemplify a godly life, but also to patiently and simply instruct and reprove them in the way they should go.
[b]Wednesday's Story:
On Wednesday we told the story of Noah's Ark. We emphasized how God saved Noah from the flood because Noah believed God. At the end of the story, I asked the kids a lot of questions about the story... I asked questions like, "Why did God save Noah?" (he believed God...) and "What happened to everybody else?" (they died...) and "Why did God destroy the people?" (they were wicked and did not believe God...) As we talked our way through these questions with the children, it really got them all thinking... And so I explained how God is holy and God hates sin, but God is also love and so I preached that we must believe in God and trust Jesus that He will save us, just like Noah trusted God to save him. Lastly we talked about how people would have been making fun of Noah back then for building a big boat, when nobody else believed! But when the flood came and Noah was safe, the people were not laughing any more. Who was laughing? God. But, but, but...?
(Psalm 2, ESV)
1 Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us."[b]4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 "As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill."
7 I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me, "You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
[i]Derision, that is, according to dictionary.com:
DE⋅RI⋅SION
–noun
ridicule; mockery: The inept performance elicited derision from the audience.
So let us "kiss the Son"-- that is, our King Jesus.
"lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him."-- Like Noah.
It's sad, that this God of the Bible sounds so foreign to many of our (naturally) God-hating ears. May God give us the grace to (supernaturally) see Him as He really is. So be it.
[b]Thursday's Story:
On Thursday we told the story of "The man who didn't have any friends (none)"-- that is, Zacchaeus. The kids enjoyed this story so much! Zacchaeus had no friends because he was a tax collector and especially because he was a thief. He didn't only charge the people for taxes, but he also charged them a "fee" on top of it which he kept for himself. The kids understood this. I stopped in the middle of the story and asked the children, "Doesn't Jesus know about Zacchaeus?" Now since we have well established among the kids that Jesus is the "God-Man", (that is, that He is completely 100% God AND that he had come in to the world as completely 100% a real, human Person in a real body...), all of the kids agreed that Jesus did know about how bad of a sinner Zacchaeus really was. So then I asked them, "Why did Jesus go to Zacchaeus' house?" We all agreed because Jesus loved him. Then I asked the group, "Does Jesus love sinners?" One girl, who comes from a sort of sportsy-do-gooder family replied, "No." and the whole group was listening. I quickly corrected her and said, "Yes He does!" I explained to the group how the Bible says that we all have sinned and we are all bad sinners, and that is why it is so amazing that God loves us. "This is good news!" We continued telling the story about how Zacchaeus humbled himself and gave away half of his stuff to the poor and paid back the people that he stole from 4 times as much. The book ends the story like this, [b]"Jesus loved Zacchaeus when nobody else did. He was Zacchaeus' friend, even when no one else was. Because Jesus was showing people what God's love was like-- his wonderful, Never Stopping, Never Giving up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love."
[b]Friday's Story:[i]No School
Awesome man keep it up Isaiah 61:1-
I understand what you mean, about getting wrapped up in fleshly pride, and into the headspace of "what [b]I've
as long as you stay humble, meek, dead to self, and totally dependent on God, you'll be fine.
I just believe that we must and should encourage others while it's still Today, a sort of "Barnabas" ministry, you get me? and that encouragement can take three forms, by voicing or in this case, writing it, by praying for you, and by love offerings that provide the resource you need to keep on, keeping on.
again, God bless you beloved brother, neil
[b]May-June After School Program Ministry in Review
***///Interruption///***
I turned 21 on June 7th. Yay.
***///Now back to your regularly scheduled broadcasting///***
[Sorry about the lack of posts lately. The last two months have been difficult for me to keep detailed logs. But here is the concise version of what we have covered with the kids. We read and taught daily from the Jesus Storybook to the kids while they ate their snacks and on Fridays Stephen and I preached...]
After School Program Week In Review (5/11 - 5/15)
Monday's Story:
A giant staircase to heaven. (Tower of Babel.)
Tuesday's Story:
Son of Laughter & The present. (Abraham & Isaac.)
Wednesday's Story
The girl no one wanted. (Leah.)
Thursday's Story:
Joseph.
Friday's Story:
Daniel, godliness & persecution
Stephen and I preached from Paul's 2nd letter to Timothy on the need to continue in the faith.
After School Program Week In Review (5/18 - 5/22)
Monday: Moses & bush, the great escape... + William Tyndale Cartoon
wednesday: richard wurmbrand & persecution talk & prayer with the boys
thursday: Eric Liddel
This week was basically the 10 commandments week. We memorized the ten commandments and talked about it every day. Emphasizing first our breaking God's law and need for a savior; and second that the law is good and holy and we should love God's rules.
friday: We spoke about how God is our treasure & preaching on continue in what you have learned again. + we taught the children the basic doctrine of the Trinity.
After School Program Week In Review (5/25 - 5/29)
(monday no school)
tuesday: Jesus loves the little children
wednesday: Holy Spirit
thursday: Paul meets Jesus, eyes opened.
friday: Heaven & preaching on Psalm 73:25 "true heaven" and Knowing God via the three ways He has revealed Himself to us: Creation, Jesus, and the Word.
After School Program Week In Review (6/01 - 6/05)
This was the last week of the After School Program.
monday: prodigal son
tuesday: the singer ("look at the birds" from the sermon on the mount...) (We also watched Chron. of Narnia on this day)
wednesday: Let's Go! (Jesus calls his disciples) (difficult time, kids weren't listening well to the story teaching, so I also preached on the call to repent and follow Jesus.)
thursday: how to pray (Watched eric liddel (chariots of fire) cartoon, too)
friday: daniel in the lions den & preaching on Good Samaritan + 1Cor13.
This concludes the after school program ministry for this year. *sad feeling* But the good news is that every Wednesday we will now be open for a few hours during the afternoon to continue and follow up with the ministry to the children whom the Lord has entrusted us with. Everything is in place and ready to go and flyers have been handed out to the children and their families. Continue praying for the kids during the summer-- especially that they will remember to keep coming on Wednesdays in order to be discipled. Remember: a summer seems like an eternity for these young kids.
Things to look forward to on this blog in the future:
I have two upcoming book reviews for you all from Ligonier ministries and reformation trust publishers...
1. Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea For Preaching
This book looks excellent and I can't wait to dive into it. It is authored by several contributors, many of whom you have probably heard of; such as the following:
R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
James Montgomery Boice, late pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pa.
Derek W. H. Thomas, professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss.
Joel R. Beeke, seminary president, professor of theology and homiletics, and pastor in Grand Rapids, Mich.
R. C. Sproul, founder of Ligonier Ministries and minister of preaching and teaching at St. Andrew’s in Sanford, Fla.
R.C. Sproul Jr., director of the Highlands Study Center in Bristol, Va.
Sinclair B. Ferguson, senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C.
Don Kistler, a Bible teacher, author, editor of dozens of Puritan books, and general editor of Feed My Sheep.
Eric J. Alexander, retired pastor of St. George’s-Tron Church in Glasgow, Scotland.
John Piper, pastor for preaching and vision at the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minn.
John MacArthur, pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif.
2. John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology
I'm very excited to read and review this book, too. Calvin is probably the most misunderstood person in the last 500 years of human history. Speaking of which, this fall he will also be having his 500th birthday! Yay. This book was also a joint project with many contributors including the following:
Jay E. Adams,
Eric J. Alexander,
Thabiti Anyabwile,
Thomas K. Ascol,
Joel R. Beeke,
Jerry Bridges,
Sinclair B. Ferguson,
W. Robert Godfrey,
D.G. Hart,
Michael Horton,
Phillip R. Johnson,
Steven J. Lawson,
John Macarthur,
Keith A. Mathison,
Burk Parsons,
Richard D. Phillips,
Harry L Reeder,
Philip Graham Ryken,
Derek W.H. Thomas,
edited by Burk Parsons,
Foreward by Iain H. Murray.
Lastly, I will try to keep you all updated with the various summer events that happen around here in Coos Bay and a mission trip I take to volunteer for a week at Joy Bible Camp in southern California.
Grace & Peace,
Adam Schaefers
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