If you want to work in
an area with the most receptive hearts, consider the field of child evangelism.
“It is still true that children are the most susceptible to the teachings of
the gospel; their hearts are open to divine influences, and strong to retain
the lessons received.” Desire of Ages,
page 515.
Here is the story of Alyssa*
who was in charge of the child evangelism for the OJT site located in the
island of Luzon. The church she and her partner were assigned was small, but
united in serving the Lord! On the first Sabbath, she was given the privilege
of teaching the Sabbath School lesson. The topic was the sanctuary and many
questions were asked! Many in the group didn’t totally understand about this
important doctrine of the sanctuary and afterwards Alyssa* said, “I was
inspired when God guided me to answer their questions from His Word and that they
learned something from it. In the afternoon, I was asked more questions and it
showed me more than ever that those dear people wanted to learn more!”
She added later on:
“One lesson I learned there was to go out even if there’s just two of you, for
God will surely be with you!” Friday, the starting day, came and there were
still many flyers to be distributed. When she asked around for volunteers to
help in passing them out, no one responded. So, Alyssa* determined to go out
alone, but God touched a mother’s heart to help her. Now, there were the two of
them walking the streets, inviting people to come to the seminar. While they
were passing out flyers, God sent two young people to help out and now they
were able to go to even more houses and invite lots of kids and adults.
That night, almost 50
children came to the meeting! As the days passed on, Alyssa* became more
acquainted with the children who were attending her program each night. She
commented on the experience: “This week, I really saw the Holy Spirit working
in the hearts of the children, convicting them of God’s holy day. When I did
the Sabbath illustration using the 7 jars and made an appeal for who wanted to
taste the blessing of the Sabbath, all of them heartily answered, “Yes!”
That next Friday came
and because the kids didn’t have class in school, Alyssa* invited them to help
her cook the food in preparation for the Sabbath. All of them were so excited
to help her! What a great time with the kids she had! While helping to cut the
vegetables, they laughed, told stories and asked lots of questions about the
Sabbath and how to keep it. Alyssa* just loved answering their questions
because it showed they were very eager to follow everything the Bible says.
After cooking, they ate lunch together. As they went home, she was so happy to
know that they understood that Sabbath is a special, holy day and that they
would not play with their toys, cook their food or wash their clothes on the
period of time from sundown Friday to sundown Sabbath.
Who has the most
receptive hearts? It’s definitely the children!
Alyssa* said: “This
week, we presented the topic about spiritualism and ghosts to the children. The
day before, when I announced that tomorrow we would study about that, one of
the girls approached me and told me that she regularly sees ghosts. Her friend
confirmed that she really does and wasn’t telling me lies. After I presented
the topic the following night, she came up to me and told me stories of what
she had seen before. God gave me the inspiring experience of listening to her tell
me that when she learned the dead are in their graves, cannot visit their loved
ones and that the “ghosts” are just Satan’s angels pretending to be their dead
relatives, she wasn’t afraid anymore! She told me that she just prays whenever
she sees a ghost again and that now she feels that angels are in the darkness,
not terrifying ghosts!”
Yes, even small
children can understand the Bible truths about what happens when a person dies!
Commenting more about it, Alyssa* said, “I learned that kids are indeed so
receptive of the truth. Once you teach them the truths from God’s Word, they
are very willing and even eager to accept and believe it right at that moment.
And once they’ve learned about the truth, it doesn’t stop there. Their young
minds burst with questions to understand even more! This is when God taught me
to not skip or ignore even one of their questions. Children have such
confidence in the Bible when you teach them what it says!”
And children are not
afraid to take a stand for the right, no matter what anyone says. Alyssa*
described an incident like that: “This week I experienced God’s love in the way
He worked to bring the message to the children at the right time. The schedule
of teaching about God’s health laws fell right on the day before that community’s
fiesta, where the tables in all the homes were filled with abominable foods and
drinks! Just the day before, the children had learned that pork is unclean,
that God doesn’t want us to eat it, that it has worms inside and that those who
eat it are not taking care of their bodies. The next day, some of the children
told me that they had pork served in their homes, but because they already knew
it was not healthy to eat, they wouldn’t touch it! Some even told me that it
was “yucky”! I praise the Lord for His great love to these children to help us
teach about the health message right before that important community day!”
In the last week, a
mother came to Alyssa* and told her that though she had not been attending in
the program, she had still heard the message. Because she had listened every
night from their little store and was so impressed with what the children had
been learning!
Another thing that
brought joy to Alyssa*’s heart was to see the children fulfilling the pledge
they made to have a 10 day trial to try God’s health plan and see if He
wouldn’t bless them too just as He blessed Daniel and his 3 friends. They told
her when they came to the program that they weren’t eating the unhealthy things
they had learned about and how much they enjoyed God’s plan!
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| Some of the precious children! |
Sometimes God speaks to
children as in this case that Alyssa* told about: “One child told me his dream
about Jesus. He saw Jesus going to a church where there were no idols and then
He invited all the children to worship there. I thought that was a great time
to make an appeal, so I asked him if he had ever thought that he might be one
of those children that Jesus was calling to worship in a church without idols.
I also asked him what he is going to do with the truths he learned during our program
and he told me, “Teacher, I will follow it!” I praise God for that!”
One of the children who
attended so faithfully was the most diligent and attentive one of them all. She
wanted to be baptized so badly and had already asked her father many times for
permission, but he always said, “No!” Alyssa* felt convicted to talk to the
father herself and see what he would say. When she did, the father still said
his daughter could not get baptized. The conversation shifted to answering some
of the father’s questions.
He told her this was
the first time for him to hear the teachings of the Seventh-Day Adventists
during the adult seminar (he had been listening from inside his nearby house) and
Alyssa* was able to answer many of his questions. Then she appealed to him to
support his daughter’s decision to be baptized and he agreed. Then he also said
he wanted to learn more about the teachings of our church and study the Bible!
Commenting on the
story, Alyssa* said, “Surely, the greatest challenge in the children’s program
is how to talk with the parents when their children want to be baptized. It is
only as you kneel in prayer to God and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the
right words to speak, that your appeal will make any difference on their
hearts. I believe that when I was talking to that girl’s father, the Holy
Spirit was speaking to him and he listened. He also told me that he had been
into many religions and was really searching for the truth. Now he was very
open to study more about what the Bible says.”
Most likely, that young
child will eventually lead her father into God’s true church! Children are
instrumental in reaching their parents. What a joy it was so see that girl
being baptized on the last Sabbath of the seminar!
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| That special girl |
Alyssa’s advice to
others was:
“In handling the
children, it is not only them you are working for. It’s very important to visit
their parents and build good relations with them, too. Invite the parents to
the adult program too because it will be easier for them to decide to follow
the truths together with their children than if the children only learn them alone.”
Keep watching for more
stories to be posted soon!
*Not her real name.
