Monday launches our annual 5-day Bible club for the local neighborhood kids! If it is anything like last year, we expect there to be 50-100 kids ranging from toddlers to teenagers at our door eagerly waiting for it to start each day. We plan to do games like tug-o-war, sing songs, have a teaching time, and then have them color pictures. To this day, when we go into people’s houses, there, hanging proudly on their walls are the now sun-bleached pictures that their kids colored last year. Needless to say, both we and our local young friends are looking forward to another VBS this year.
The Spirit World
Starting Monday, we will be teaching on Satan, demons, and what happens to people’s souls when they die. We plan to look at the following stories and then draw out what they teach us about the spirit world and about Jesus’ power over these forces of darkness. Here is the break-down of what we plan to teach each day:
- Jesus heals the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-21)
- Jesus heals a boy with a demon (Matt 17:14-23)
- Jesus casts a demon out of a man who is mute (Matt 12: 22-45)
- Are there ghosts? What happened to the souls of the rich man and Lazarus? (Luke 16)
- Theology of demons, spirits and Jesus’ power based on the previous lessons
Why the Spirit World?
We chose this topic because one of the core beliefs that we keep encountering is that people think that their dead loved ones become (often evil) spirits that dwell among them. Our goal for this VBS is to show children that when a human dies, their soul is sealed either in Heaven or in Hell. We also want to show them that the Bible says that there is spiritual activity all around us, but this spiritual activity is demonic. We are prayerful that these biblical truths will begin to chip away at their fundamental animistic beliefs and practices.
- Please pray that we will clearly communicate the teachings of Scripture in Bakoum/French.
- Pray that we and the other adults present will be able to manage the children and that they will be attentive.
- We are seeking to train the national believers how the Word of God can be taught to children. Pray that the adults who come to the VBS will become passionate about ministry to children (specifically for Audry and Balbine).
- Pray that these children will believe. Pray that their eyes will be opened to see that there is demonic activity around them and that they need to run to Jesus for safety and protection.
- Pray that there will be children who reject the teaching that the spirits of their deceased loved ones live among them.
- Pray that the Lord would give us incredible wisdom in whatever difficulties we might face this week.
The Unassuming Kingdom of Heaven
In Matthew 13, Jesus shares the parable of a tiny mustard seed that a man sowed in his field. It was small and unassuming but when it grew up, it became larger than the other plants in the garden. It was so big that the birds even came and made their nests in it.
That is what these children are. They are not the “big men” among the Bakoum but our prayer is that these very children will grow up and become pillars of faith among the Bakoum people. Thank you for joining with us in praying to that end.
