God Calls Kids Too

I don't remember how old I was when I first felt the call of God on my life. My earliest memory of feeling at least some semblance of that call was from back in the 90s. I believe I was 9 years old, but it's possible I was older. Missionaries Neil & Kathy Vanaria, who are now dear friends, came to my church one night to share about what God was doing in Papua New Guinea. I remember feeling like that's what I wanted to do. Even though I don't remember every specific and detail, the point remains the same: God can/does call children too (see the story of Samuel from 1 Samuel 3)! The theme from the weekend was "I'm small but I walk with Jesus" (I'll share more about that theme tomorrow).

Polly and I had the privilege of leading the teaching about missions/evangelism to all the kids. The leader Adriana put together the lesson but thought it would be nice/fitting for missionaries to teach it. We shared the importance of going and making disciples as mandated in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). After we were finished with the teaching, we had a special time of reflection and prayer. We gave each of the kids an electric candle and shared how we were to carry the light into the darkness.

Adriana had also mentioned the desire for us to have a specific call for those feeling a specific call on their lives, as she was called at the age of 8. After some time of general prayer for all who were ready to bring that light into their world around them, we made that call. Nobody came forward. We just let it be. If nobody was going to respond to that specific call, we were still going to have a nice time of prayer for the general call.

After some time, however, one girl came forward. Our missionary friend Caitlin had already been pouring into that girls life that day so we had her come up and pray over her. Then a group leader grabbed my attention as she came up with 3 little boys who said they were going to be pastors. One in particular seemed very sure about that and was more than ready to pray about it. Finally, Adriana brought me another girl who said she felt God's calling on her life. I prayed over her and really sensed that God had plans for her life.

It was a beautiful time of prayer as we were privileged to have the opportunity to pray over these children responding to the call of God on their lives. How awesome that this church saw the value in this and made it a priority! And we're grateful that they allowed us to be a small part of it.

God has some big plans in store for these kids lives. I can't wait to hear what they're doing years from now.