Happy Day

We had clubs in two housing developments in South Boston yesterday. These were the clubs that Tamara and I were supposed to teach earlier this week, but Carolyn and Chris ended up teaching them. When we talked to Carolyn about the clubs, she said that no children came to the first club and only one little girl listened to the Bible lesson at the second club.

Tamara and I prayed that more kids would come yesterday, but we honestly didn't expect very many. We arrived 1/2 late to the first club (due to traffic issues), and few kids seemed interested in coming to the club. We talked to one little girl, who said that she needed to go check with her mom. She came back a few minutes later with five of her friends - each carrying dolls and a bag full of doll clothes. They all plopped down on the blanket we had brought, made their babies "go to sleep" and proceeded to participated in our club. Two more girls joined us later on - huzzah! It was like having a mini-MOPS meeting. :-) Each of the girls promised that they would return to our final club today.

At the second club, we started out with three children and ended up with eleven! One little boy named Stephen kept jumping up and saying, "I'll be right back." He would have two or three more children in tow when he returned. It was so neat to see him eagerly invite his friends. I taught the Bible lesson on "The Good Shepherd" and as I began teaching about sin, several of the boys began asking deep questions like, "Is it sin, even if we do only one thing bad?" and "How has everybody sinned?" I continued to explain, and one little boy named Shomari raised his hand and asked, "Well, what can I do to get rid of it?" I told him to hang on just a second, and I would gladly tell him what he needed to do to have his sins forgiven.

All of the children came back for counseling after the invitation, so Tamara and Chris took most of the younger children, while I talked to the older boys. After going through the counseling steps, Shomari decided to receive Christ as his Savior. It was the most amazing thing to see him totally "get it" and make such a conscious decision to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus. I was so excited! This was the first time that God used just me to counsel a child for salvation, and it was indescribably thrilling.

Praise the Lord for His blessing our clubs so mightily yesterday! Praise Him for bringing Shomari into a relationship with Himself. Praise Him also for providing Chris as an excellent helper and teacher.

Please pray for our clubs this afternoon that the kids who attended yesterday will return. Specifically pray for Quincy and Rob - they were so close to making a decision yesterday, but it didn't happen. They have grasped the salvation message, but haven't come to the place of personally believing in Jesus Christ.

Please continue to pray for Tamara. She is still struggling with health issues, and she is wondering if maybe it would be best for her to stop teaching/being responsible for the ministry in Boston this summer. She really needs to get some serious rest before starting school in the fall. Pray that she will have clear discernment as to God's will for her this summer.