About a year ago we began praying every week in our three year old Bible class for a very special person. Jack, living at that time in China, was to be soon adopted by Bria’s family and she would not let a Sunday go by without our class praying for him. If I forgot to mention him, she would quietly whisper his name during the prayer to remind me, or she would say afterwards, “You forgot Jack!” to which I would quickly add a P.S. to our prayer. Bria would also make an extra take-home for him each time we made anything and if she drew a picture of her family, he was always included. Bria was a constant reminder in the “accept they become as little children” statement of Christ…she believed in prayer and that God would absolutely, without a doubt, send this brother to live with her family.Though Bria has now moved up to the four year old class, this past Sunday morning was a very special day for us. Jack was in our Bible class for the very first time! How precious it was to have the answer to our prayers sitting with us and to watch him try to sing along with songs he didn’t understand the words to. He sat quietly the whole time and it was truly hard to keep my eyes off him as I taught, knowing he was with us only through love, prayer, and the Hand of God. Jack has the blessing of three big sisters and a loving family that will always try to steer him in the direction of God. And we are all blest to see an answered prayer walking in our midst.
Our class is very simple and repetitive. We work hard to simply teach these young children that the Bible is the Word of God and the true value of that fact. We also learn that prayer is talking to God and that God loves for us to talk to Him. We are very close to being able to sing the books of the Old Testament and, with Laney’s example, the boys are starting to all bring their Bibles to class. I have started showing them words like “Old Testament” and “Genesis” in their own Bibles and they will now say, “show me the words in my Bible!” My only goal with this very young group is to teach them to love God’s Word, to love to talk with Him in prayer, and to learn some simple Bible stories that make God "real" to them. After all...isn't that all any of us need to know, believe, and understand. They, at age three, are all learning these lessons well!
The blessings of this single hour each week are limitless…we laugh, learn, listen, talk, pray, play, and most of all love during our hour together. They say we now have seventeen babies in our twelve month and under class…seventeen! How wonderful it will be to have seventeen three year olds when our time comes! I don’t know quite how we will manage, but am so thrilled at the idea of having so many children to teach and love. God has blessed our Great Oaks church family so richly…may He be glorified in all that we do!
Roberta Pledge
11/9/11
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