A great Christian leader said "The church is only one generation away from being extinct." What does this mean? Are we taking the time to teach our children about the Bible, God, Sin, Man, Jesus, etc? Are we simply entertaining them so we can get through the day?
The Bible speaks of a time like this, in Judges 2:8-10 "And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." Then in verse 11 the climax hits...the children served other Gods and did evil in the sight of the Lord.
In South Africa 38% of the population is under the age of 18 so we feel it is prudent to receive much training regarding ministry to kids.
One of the largest children's ministry organizations in the world is Child Evangelism Fellowship. They have operations all over Africa, including South Africa. When I inquired about a need in the area that we lived in, they told us that there was nobody doing work there. This was a surprise to us as they have so many operations all over South Africa. They said that were we live is a heavy English speaking area and they have really only trained Afrikaans's speaking people. This was a joy to hear!
I (Bob) went to the training on a Saturday, it was all day from 8am to 6pm about 30-45 minutes away from where we live. I was the only non-Afrikaans speaking person in the class of about 50, so they had to do the whole thing in English! I apologized but they were more than happy when I tried to recite Acts 1:8 in Afrikaans, needless to say I still need some work!
The training consisted of everything someone would need to know when training children. There were people there who were training 1000's of kids using this program. It is really amazing and I would encourage anyone looking for a great Bible based curriculum to take a look. I was blessed that I made the trip to meet and talk with such wonderful people.
This training will set in motion several outreaches we have been praying about in our area and will also give us a strong kid's ministry when we plant our church. Please pray for the kids, wherever you are. Pray that Godly men and women will take the time to teach them about God so they don't do evil in His sight.
Grace and Peace,
Bob, Suzanne and Bobby Scott
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