I love the old chorus we used to sing, "There is Joy in Serving Jesus!" That can be said by about 12 of our faithful children's workers, Coletta and me with today being the final day of our first ever "Bible School" activity at our new facility. Due to the recession here which has really affected our church offerings, we were not able to go all out and have a BIG Neighborhood Bible Time at the Liberty Baptist Church of Van Wert, Ohio this summer. In June, while doing a live prayer time devotion at a Lima, Ohio Christian radio station, I picked up a Child Evangelism pamphlet that had the area director's name and phone number. I gave Rex Eads a call, and immediately, this loving, compassionate, humble servant of God who lives every day by faith loving Kids into the Kingdom, called me back and we scheduled a Five Day Bible Club at our playground just East of our new church. (You can see the East side of our gym and school building we bought in the background of the picture above).
Brother Rex did the drive from Lima every day this week, and was always early with a big smile on his face. We had a total of 32 children enroll, that ranged from 4 to 12. Five Children accepted Jesus this week. Other than rolling out the blue tarp for the kids to sit on and putting up a few chairs and a refreshment table, the rest of us just helped keep the kids in line and were faithful each day for their safety and welfare. Other than Rex's hard work, the other main duty for each day was for some to take turns bringing and serving refreshments at the end of each hourly morning session.
This afternoon as I left the hot playground and ball diamond picking up the tarp and the last table and chair, I whispered a prayer to the Lord today. "Thank you Lord for giving us this property to show the love of Jesus to neighborhood kids. Thank you for placing my wife and I here to serve these wonderful people. And, thank you Lord that even though the plants and crops really need the rain here, you held it off every day to let our church sponsor the 'Outdoor Bible Time' for Kids for the first time since we have purchased this property!"
I'm Jim C. Burns, and that's something to think about!
PS. "Lord, you can give us a down pour now!"
