Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Day 192 - Generational Investment

Today was a great day. I was off, and was able to sleep in this morning. I then got ready to go to RiverStone. We are having a children’s day camp this week. It is for children from the first grade thru the sixth grade. It is a great camp. Adair and Meleah had gone for the past two years, and if Julia was here, I’m pretty sure Meleah would be up here going to it. Anyway I got a call from the director about three weeks ago. She asked me if I would be able to teach in the camp. Don’t laugh! I know that I am not a children’s teacher. It’s not my calling and I don’t have the patience that it requires to do it consistently. My hat goes out to anyone who works with children. They really are our future. I did work with the youth many years ago, but only sparingly have I worked with kids this age.

Well, she wanted me to teach on healing. That really intrigued me so I asked for more details. I would do three 30-minute classes. I was available for today, so it was done. Today I was at the church at 10:30 and I taught until about 12:30. It was an honor. We have to be willing to pour into the upcoming generations. I didn’t learn anything about praying for healing until I was older than 30. Just think where these kids will be. They are praying for healing starting at the age of 6! The big question for the past two weeks is what and how was I going to teach them. The good news is you have to keep it simple and short. The attention span isn’t as long as an adult’s. The bad news is you have to keep it simple and short. That meant I really had to look at everything I had taught in the past and boil it down to the core ingredients. Then I had to make it interesting enough to keep them involved.

As I was praying and thinking about what I was going to do, I remembered that we had heard Deborah Reed, the children’s director at Bethel Redding, talk about healing and children when we were out at the healing school summer before last. I remembered that she had used some different techniques to get the kids to practice. So, yesterday I watched the DVD of her message. I had remembered correctly. I used some of her ideas along with some of the things I teach our ministry teams and put a lesson together. It turned out great. All three classes were engaged and I think left knowing that God loved them and wants to use them to heal others.

I spent some time talking about the fact that God is good, and He is in a good mood. I also boiled down my theology to this. God is Good and all good things come from Him. The Devil is bad and all bad things come from Him. Then I had 4 volunteers go into another room. They had “boo-boos” wrapped in toilet paper. For example one arm was wrapped up. Then they came out and I modeled how to pray, and the person was healed. Everyone cheered wildly at what God did. Then after I had modeled all the examples, I had them pair up and I went step by step and had them pray for each other. If there was a real illness or injury I had them pray for that, if not I had them make something up to pray for. Then the other person prayed for their partner. That way everyone got to practice praying.

Well, in every class God showed up. We had colds healed, sore knees healed, sore throats healed, sore necks healed. One girl was going to the doctor for pain in her neck that had been bothering her for days. She was pain free when she left and was going to tell her mom she didn’t need to go to the doctor. It’s amazing what the faith of a child can do. They are not loaded down with wrong theology and doubt like we adults are. If we can get them to realize that this is normal Christianity, we can usher in the Kingdom that much quicker. I was blessed to be able to be a part of what God is doing in their lives. They also had classes on worship, hearing God, outreach and prayer this week. And this is first thru sixth grade. Wow!

If we are going to sustain Revival and Reformation, we have to reach these kids. Otherwise it will die with us. I want to know that if Jesus tarries we will still be going after Him and His presence and Kingdom long after I am gone. We should have a vision not for the next five to ten years, but for the next one hundred years. I want my granddaughters and their generation to be five times as radical and as passionate as I am. The only way to do that is to invest in them. Well, they are not here, but their generation is. I can invest here and pray that others will invest where they are. Yes it was a good day. I do believe the Kingdom was advanced today.

Tomorrow morning comes early. I work early periods for the next two days. I’m glad I got to sleep in today. It’s a 3AM wake up tomorrow. I guess it’s about time for bed.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds awesome! Wish I could have participated "as a child." I'm wondering why we don't implement some of the active practice that you had for the kids for adults? I'm sure that even as an adult believer I could benefit from sessions like that. . .it is that "child like faith" that I need! Love you Dad!

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