Ministry for the cause of Christ with any age group is always a blessing. However, I love ministry with children, especially. The heart and faith of children are priceless. They love and share openly and honestly asking for little in return but a caring adult to share their heart, life, and love. Jesus loved the little children and asked that they not be hindered in coming to Him. He was not too busy for them in His ministry. He stated that if one is to come to know Him as Savior that they must come with the trusting faith of a child. We are warned in Scripture to not be a stumbling block for children, but instead to teach them about Him in every activity of life and show them His ways.
Pictured above is me with my first English class at a Christian summer camp in Hungary (one camper is not pictured as she injured her knee). I have taught children in multiple settings for close to 20 years, but this group is very special to my heart as this was my first experience serving on an international missions trip.
While each of these children are special to my heart, from day one of teaching one child captured my heart from the moment I said "Hello. Good morning. My name is Jennifer." Her name was Karmen. She is three from the right in the picture above (white shirt, purple jacket, and pink pants). Karmen always came to class with a smile, a hug, a hello, and many questions. I was nervous to teach English to children who spoke mainly Hungarian, as I knew little Hungarian. I was told by my director not to worry as one to two children would step up and play the role of translator within my group to help me out. Guess who did that for me on day one? That is right, Karmen. She showed genuine concern for every person, adult or child in our group.
Camp is centered around evangelist outreach in order for children to come hear of how they can accept the free gift of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection for payment for their sins and have an eternal home in heaven. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights are big nights of sharing the gospel at evening meeting time. Tuesday is the big public invitation night. I prayed for my campers to listen, understand, and accept Christ if they had not already done so in their lives. That night 5 out of my 9 campers came forward to accept Christ. Praise God. Karmen was one of them. Super Duper Praise to my heart.
Wednesday morning during class, my teaching partner and I asked the children who went forward and if anyone wanted to share about accepting Christ. Karmen raised her hand. I thought she wanted to share about herself. But I was wrong. I am trying to hold back the tears typing what she wanted to share. She didn't want to share about herself. Her question in broken English was "What about you?" She asked with such urgency. She asked with such care and concern in her eyes and face. I can still picture it vividly. She had just accepted Christ the night before and her greatest concern on her heart was that her two camp English teachers knew Christ too. WOW! What a humbling thought. Is there any wonder that Jesus said what He did about the heart and faith of a child? My teaching partner and I were able to communicate using as little English words as possible for clarity through a language barrier that YES we both knew Christ. I accepted Him as a second grader and my teaching partner as a teenager. We explained that we were at camp teaching English because we knew Christ and we wanted each of them to hear about Him and know Him too. Karmen then smiled the biggest smile that I had ever seen from her (and remember she was always smiling). She was happy because we too knew Christ and she understood the heart of the ministry of why we were there.
Karmen continued to come to class with a smile, hugs, helpful translation, a loving heart, and ready to learn English and about the Lord. On Thursday night Karmen (pictured above) came forward to give her testimony. As she spoke in Hungarian, it was translated into English for me to hear fully her shared heart. She grew up in a Christian family, but realized that Tuesday night that it was not enough to get to heaven on her parent's salvation. She needed to make it personal for her. She said that "Jesus filled the empty place in her heart and it is no longer empty. Jesus is there. He is inside." Praise God.
I am still in awe of this new sister in Christ. Still humbled that she cared enough to be an evangelist to me in less than 24 hours of her salvation even through a language barrier. This makes any excuse that I could ever give for not sharing the gospel to those around me invalid. Still amazed at her strength to publicly speak at the age of 12 of her testimony of Christ before others. Praying for what the Lord has in His plan for her. If you are reading this, she could use your prayers too.
Most certainly the heart of child is a blessed thing. Ministry to children is most definitely a blessing. With one child in one week I received much more than I gave. Let the children come unto Him and may we together impact the next generation for Christ.
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