Published March 18, 2011 by in
Friday
One observation that I have made here is that Central Methodist church (our main host church) has a lot of activities throughout the week for the children. They get over 100 in attendance total. However, the parents are not staying . They drop off their children and then return and pick up at the end of the session. Please pray that these young parents will come to know Christ through their children. The volunteers at the church are all older members and eventually they will no longer be able to help. When this generation is gone, sadly the church will be no more.
In America, we are not far behind. Jeff keeps reminding the youth that it is up to their generation to keep the church alive. We are only one generation removed from the church dying in America. That is a very scary thought.
Will you pray? Will you pray that God will move through these children here in England and that a revival will once again sweep this country? Will you remember to pray daily the God would intervene and bring many to Christ? Will you pray that God will raise up young leaders to continue to do His work here? This is a country that is desperate for the hope that only Jesus can give. Will you pray?
This morning we returned to one of the public schools to talk about what we do for missions. Today is “Red Nose Day” in England. The locals dress in red and wear red noses to raise money for, believe it or not, missions. The money raised today will go all over the world to help those less fortunate. Of course, this gave us the perfect opportunity to share how we do missions. The kids shared about the different mission trips they have been on and Keva even gave a mini sermon about sharing God’s love with others and how easy it is to pray to God.
Isn’t God’s timing always perfect? He planned for us to be here for this day so we could share more about how we serve God with the precious children.
After the school visit, we came back for a different “Mums and Tots” group. We played with the children, taught them “Jesus Loves Me” and Cindy shared again with the Checkers puppet about how it is important to ask Jesus into your heart. It amazes me that so many of the church ladies’ daughters bring their children to the activities but they don’t go to church. It just presses on me that we MUST raise our children to come to church and be involved. In America, these young “mums” would be involved in church like ours are . However, it is not “cool” to attend church, so they count this time together as “church.” Cindy and I are trying to come up with opportunities to help the young women learn that going to church doesn’t mean you are automatically a Christian. Being a Christian is having a “relationship” with Jesus, not just attending a church once a week. Please pray that we can offer ideas to involve the young moms to come and learn more about this Jesus, whom we love and serve.
This afternoon we are headed to Chatsworth. A lovely country estate owned by a Duke and Duchess of Devonshire who have opened it to the public, probably to make the money necessary to keep it up. It was used in the recent movie “Pride and Prejudice.” They still live in a small portion of the house. The house and gardens were amazing! It is hard to believe that people actually lived in such splendor…painted ceilings, carved walls, floor to ceiling tapestries. I think the part we enjoyed the most was the drive to get there. Beautiful English countryside with rolling hills and hedgerows. Cindy reminded the kids that when we pray a hedge of protection around someone, this is what the term “hedge” is referring to. The hedges keep the animals in and protected from predators.
Tonight we worked with the Kings Club. This is a group of 40-45 age 5 – 11 year olds. This is probably their only connection with “church.” We made the salvation bracelets, showed them a video on forgiveness and Liz gave a short testimony on how she has had to use forgiveness in her life. She did an amazing job. She really has the gift of talking with children on their level. The same with Amy. Then I taught them two of our favorite songs, “I’ve Got Joy” (which most of them knew from us being in their schools) and “Jesus is My Superhero.”
Next, the youth came for the Central Youth Club. We had 16 show up which was a great number for them. Our youth mingled with them and they they did a worship song. After that, we opened up the mic for anyone who wanted to share a talent and one young man did “beat boxing” and another young girl sang. Then we presented our two skits and Connor, Anna and Carson spoke. I have never been more proud of your kids than last night. They were absolutely amazing! I can’t believe that I God allows me to witness this year after year. I wish you could have been there to see it. Afterwards, we all ate Chinese or Pizza. It was a grand time together!
Tomorrow…..LONDON!!!