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The C-G Box goes to China!
This is a news letter and e-mail from Missionary Jesse Landis who writes about his trip to China and how he used the Gospel Box to minister to the children.
"What if our teacher won't let you wear your new bracelet?" asked a Chinese girl to her friend after receiving a salvation bead bracelet reminding her of her commitment to Jesus.
"I'll just tell her Jesus gave it to me," she replied.
That's right! Jesus gives us salvation and no one take that away! What an honor for me (Jesse) to minister with a small team to the children of the Father's House in China on my recent Camp Sonshine International trip. Ever since my days as a Bible college student at Christ for the Nations Institute, I have had a very special place in my heart for the nation of China (I call this the "China Factor"). What a joy to do Camp Sonshine there and to introduce Jesus to kids who had no idea who He was until we came. We showed the Jesus Film in Mandarin the last day of our camp, and many of the children asked Jesus to be their Lord with tears in their eyes. One girl cried the whole last day because she didn't want us to leave. She had experienced real LOVE!
I just wanted to let you know that the resources from Children's Gospel Box were a great blessing in China. We conducted a children's ministry teacher training over a 2 day period. I was able to divide out the materials among the 2 groups represented. The one group work with 50 kids near the border of Burma. They were so encouraged by the supplies I was able to leave with them. I will send you several emails with the pictures attached so that the pictures are higher quality.
We also showed the Jesus Film in Mandarin the last day of our camp with the kids. It really brought the lessons we had been teaching all week "home". The children were greatly moved by this experience and they all (around 60) wanted to know Jesus personally. The colored bead bracelets were a great aid in reviewing salvation with the kids afterwards.
Thanks again for all your help to make it a reality.
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Brazil
"The first week we reached more than 40 children, then the second outreach was more than 70 children. We also did an outreach in the schools with approximately 300 children. Afterwards, we traveled to another town and worked with some 200 children. Now we have a team of 10 who are continuing to minister. We had around 400 children who accepted Jesus!"
"We had cooperation of the community that loaned us a place and people to make lunches. We had an average of 40 children and 40 of them accepted Jesus!" (Curitiba, Brazil)
Brazil C-G Box training was accomplished in two separate trips, in seven different cities, training 565 children's workers from 246 churches.According to team leaders Gary and Leslie Royer (who speak Portuguese), the C-G Box ministry "not only gave the trainees the joy of seeing these children come, but also showed them they could do this in their own neighborhood."
The new National Church Children's Director, Alice Agne, has been working hard to communicate with her churches but the majority of reports are still pending. She has, however, given projections as to the conversions she ultimately expects from this year's C-G Box. They are as follows: 300 to 350 children's rallies with 30,000 to 37,000 decisions expected.
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Burma
"One of the days we gave out the wordless books and the bracelets. The kids were thrilled. I went over beforehand with my interpreter the explanation...then during the class time she and I both explained the concept. Then I had 2 or 3 of the students come up and tell the class about what the different colors meant. I then told them that their homework was to share the story with someone else and they could in turn give them the bracelet. Well, two days later, we had changed our meeting location and one of the students came up to me and said that he needed a bracelet. I told him I had given them all out. I asked him what happened to his—thinking that he had lost it or that one was missing from the packet. However, he told me that he had shared the story with a friend and he had accepted Jesus into his heart and he had given him the bracelet. Well, my attitude immediately changed and I later remembered that I had bought a stash of miscellaneous beads, so I went through the stash, picked out the right colors and made up four more bracelets, for my own stash. All four were gone in 30 minutes."
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Central America
"If I had 11,000 Boxes, I could transform Central America." (Former missionary Lewie Richey)
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Chile
Foursquare Missions Press sent 120 Children's Gospel Boxes to Chile, South America, training some 140 children's workers in 2003. Over a thousand children have given their lives to Christ as Savior. But the fruit of this effort is seen in an up-to-date testimony of a Chilean pastor's 8 year-old grandson, Jonathan San Martin, who entered an underprivileged children's home to share the "Wordless Book" message. All 80 of the children responded to his invitation to accept Jesus Christ as Savior...OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES!
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Costa Rica
A poor community of La Carpio, Costa Rica received good news in the form of Gospel literature from an outreach team. According to missionary Wyce Ghiacy, "The children were excited to hear the Gospel through the tract and wanted to hear the story again."
During the last 14 months, 169 U.S. workers were trained to take the C-G Box to the field.Here's an example from Costa Rica and Linda Richey that aptly describes our ministry.
"A follow-up to a week of evangelistic outreach with the C-G Box in Turrialba, Costa Rica from a team from NNE4 District, New England...around 75 decisions for Jesus were registered...40 children began the follow-up course 'Living the Christian Life' and 31 completed all six lessons receiving their certificates and wanting to continue lessons. So, she (a local pastor's wife) is starting a regular Saturday class for these kids and some of the mothers."
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Papua New Guinea
"Thank you for the Sunday school supplies. The children here have had nothing for a long time, and this is going to be a huge blessing to our school and to the Sunday school. The preschool and Sunday school teachers just kept saying, 'Oh, Hallelujah' as we opened the boxes. They are all praying blessing upon our 'friends far away' who gave us this amazing gift."
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Philippines
The Children's Gospel Box ministry continues to bear fruit of young souls in the Philippines. The most recent children's rally in two cities in May saw over 500 children saved. According to the leader there, "Because of the rally, we will start the follow-up to begin a new church...there are 3 parents who will open their homes for Bible studies."
"Last Sunday, more than 250 kids attended our children's ministry. The pastors in our division are now catching the vision of reaching the children."
"It is amazing to think that we are now in our fourth month with the children's ministry! And there are still new children coming each Sunday."
In the Philippines, leaders Fred and Leah Horner reported that their five separate C-G Box seminars held strategically throughout the country stimulated the entire Foursquare community towards children's evangelism. In fact, a new department was established for children's ministries for Foursquare Philippines with Rev. Alice Agne as its initial director (as a direct result of the C-G Box).Alice accompanied the Horners during their training this year. Soon afterwards, she wrote them describing how they used the resources and training in Botocan, a poor "squatter area" in Manila.
"106 children responded and received Jesus as their Lord and Savior." They expected 80% returning to be discipled with the materials we gave them.
Another trainee from the Philippines, Rovella Subio, reported from Davao City that 540 children accepted Christ, including 95 Indian children, during four different rallies.Yet another trainee took the Box back to the tribal people of Mindanao. This region is remote and has tribes of Aboriginal people, some of whom still practice cannibalism. In total, 366 children's workers were trained and resourced, returning to their respective churches to, in turn, train others. In this district in a later rally, 60 Muslim children came to Christ.
"161 accepted Christ (in three days) in a rally held at a basketball court, where even the Catholic Church gave us the key to the chapel to get chairs for the rally. God is at work!" (Davao City, Philippines)
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Peru
I spoke to 1500 children in Lima Peru last August- and was able to hand each child a wordless bead bracelet, and 500 praise wands, along with the Jesus Film and hundreds of tracks.. A little 8 year old girl who came up to me after the children’s meeting that day in Peru and asked me through a translator to explain the bracelet again SLOWLY so she could go home and teach it to her dad. So many of the kids almost cried when they were told they could keep the bracelets if they promised to tell the story to someone they met. At first I made the mistake of suggesting they give their bracelets to someone who they tell about Jesus- WRONG- these kids have NOTHING- so they aren’t about to give the bracelets away. The praise wands were amazing. One teen who was working with the little kids told me- it made the music time almost reverent when they got to hold the praise wands and sing to Jesus. Music is usually chaotic time- all the kids out of control running around. They actually had an opportunity to explain how special it is to be able to sing to the God of the universe! A worship moment! The children’s director of the church where we had the rally CRIED when I gave her the Jesus film IN SPANISH! She took EVERY track that goes with the film and said she would make copies for another church! The kids were more receptive to me as a speaker because I cared enough about them to bring them a gift. My son (The missionary in Peru) said it was amazing to see the difference in trying to communicate with another culture of children-when I gave them gifts- as opposed to when he teaches Sunday school. So the children’s box spoke volumes without saying a word! The children in Peru are not valued, and they think adults just use and abuse kids. Kids are not taught in most churches, they just run around during the 3 hour adult church service with no supervision at all. So we spent 4 days training 500 Peruvian adults/teachers/pastors the importance of teaching children WHILE THEY ARE YOUNG- and not losing another generation for Christ! Blessings, Kathleen Chapman
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Uganda
"We visited a couple of remote villages in Gulu that were filled with children. The EvangeCube was a huge success and many children came to Christ. We also handed out several of the children's tracts and the kids were so excited that they would run to a friend or family member who could read it to them. They are so hungry for the Word! Thank you so much for supplying us with tools to minister to the children of Uganda!"
