"Let the little Children Come to Me, and do not forbid them"
The last two weeks have been packed with ministry opportunities! To be more specific, we've had lots of open doors to serve in childrens ministries. We just finished our second week of Vacation Bible School (VBS) and it was amazing! Everything went well and God is still working through it.
Not only was VBS a great time to serve the kids, it was also a great time to serve each other. We grew together as a body, as friends, and as a family. We drew on each other's strengths and weaknesses. At times we had to make last minute changes, but even then everyone stayed together as a group, in unity, and worked together to solve the problems.
Something that I really enjoyed seeing was all of the youth that were there serving. Almost our entire youth group participated in VBS and I believe it taught them all some important life lessons. For example, I taught one of the kids in our youth group how to clean the toilets. I believe that cleaning toilets can be a very humbling thing and something that we can actually learn a lot from. This young man had a great heart about it and cleaned the toilet until it shined and I was very proud of him, as he didn't complain about it at all.
Everyone else did a great job as well! It was really neat to see the youth there because they were amazing examples for the children. The first week of VBS was when the little kids came. But week two of VBS was for the older kids, some of them even older then the youth which had volunteered to help. Some of the youth kids were really nervous about that and I could tell that in the beginning they felt uncomfortable. But they just stepped up to the plate and I was so proud to see them serving. They shared their testimonies, but not just by what they said; they shared their testimonies by their actions, and the children saw that.
Something important about serving in ministries like vacation Bible school is the people that we serve! We aren't here for ourselves, we are here for them. It is important to try to develop relationships with the kids, so that when VBS ends they will want to go to church and continue to develop the relationships they have. So yes, we share the Gospel! Yes, we read the Bible with the kids and have them memorize verses.
But of course we recognize that these are children and they want to have fun and get rid of energy! So we tried to do fun things with the children that would hold their attention and that they would enjoy. We played balloon volleyball, we taught them how to swing dance and how to line dance, and we entertained them with skits.
We wanted them to have such a great time so that when VBS ended they would come back. And guess what?? THEY DID! We have youth group on Friday nights and almost all of the older children from VBS came, which doubled the size of our youth group! It was so great to see them all there, to see our youth growing, and to have another opportunity to invest in the lives of these children! God is so good!
So please, pray! Pray for these young children which are in a phase of life where they are becoming young men and women. Please pray for me as I try to be a godly influence in their lives and try to speak to their hearts. This is such an exciting time of change and growth for these kids and I pray for them constantly, that they would grow in the love of the Father!
The last thing that I have to announce today is this...I got accepted to Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta! My fall semester starts this Sunday, September 1st. I will study my first semester via correspondence and then I will move to Vajta, Hungary after Christmas break. So thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray and support me in whatever way you are called to. I am blessed by you all!
God bless you all,
~Alex R. Pratt
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