Connie shares a testimony from her club, “On Mondays at the school where I help with after school ministry, this year the attendance was lower than usual. Our program is not a traditional Good News Club as we run after school care from 3:30 to 5:15 for one age group on Mondays and another age group on Thursdays. The kids who sign up can choose to stay in the cafeteria to work on homework, do board games, a craft, or they can choose to play games in the gym.
“Another option for them is that they can choose to go hear a Bible story with “Miss Connie” in one of the kindergarten rooms. They pick an activity for 20 minutes and then can either stay or switch to a new activity while they are with us.
“We have a few teenage helpers from a city work program who help us by leading activity time in the gym. Because we have not had that many kids this year, there have been weeks when no kids went to the gym. There were several weeks in this last semester when that happened, so two of the teens from the city work program came to my room to help “supervise” the kids for the Bible lesson.”
“One of the teen helpers was mostly on his phone, but the other listened intently to the lesson when I taught. The series I taught through in February and early March before Covid was on Queen Esther. This young man had not heard this story from the Bible before and he was glued to the plot and the cliff- hangers that end each week’s lesson.”
“When wicked Haman had to bring Mordecai through the streets on the King’s horse with royal robes declaring how great Mordecai was, this young teen helper was stunned saying, “NO WAY!!” and laughed out loud at the twist of fate.”
“Of course because it is CEF material, the opportunity to present the gospel is given in every lesson. Though this young man did not make a profession of faith during the time he was with me, he had repeated opportunities to see and hear the gospel presented several times this last semester.
“One week, during prayer request time he asked me to put a prayer request into the “God Can” that we use for the kids’ requests. He was having a job interview that week and asked me please to pray. The next week when I came in to the school as soon as he saw me, he got a HUGE smile on his face. I took one look at him and said, “You got it -didn’t you!?”
“He said, “I didn’t get just one job, I got TWO job offers!! Thank you for praying for me!!!” We high-fived and the kids there asked what we were talking about. It gave me an opportunity to talk about how God hears us when we pray to Him and that sometimes the answer is “yes”, sometimes it’s “no”, and sometimes it’s a “wait”… but that GOD always knows what is best for us. This time we could rejoice with this young man that God had answered with a yes, and we could all give God the glory for answering our prayers for him.
“When I show up each week at this school, it’s to teach the kids, but God has in mind exactly who He intends to be there for the lessons. I don’t know this teen’s heart or whether he is even a believer yet, but I am praying that the gospel messages that he heard repeatedly, hearing the way God used Esther to shine for Him, “at such a time as this,” and seeing God answer his prayer for a job will go a long way in building his faith and trust in God!”