It always amazes me how many people criticize young children when they see pictures of them worshiping God with their whole hearts. “It’s not real! They don’t know what they are doing. Make them stop! They are just imitating the adults around them,” they argue.

Are they right?

Let’s see what the experts say:

By copying adults during the first crucial year of growth, 1-year-olds learn a vast array of skills. “Imitation is vital to the development of abilities ranging from language to social skills,” explains Lisa Nalven, M.D., a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at the Valley Center for Child Development, in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

“A 1-year-old understands that the actions he’s copying have significance,” says Howard Klein, M.D., director of behavioral pediatrics at Sinai Hospital, in Baltimore.

Children at two years old onwards are natural imitators. They are eager to imitate their parents’ actions and want to be like them. It is important for toddlers and children to imitate because that is how they learn feed themselves, walk and communicate.

Children at this age are usually easier to teach because they are at the learning age, the child learns a great deal by watching and helping adults with great seriousness.

How do Children Imitate?

Most children love to pretend play at home. They are constantly observing their parents or other adults family members at home. Without realizing it, they build the child’s personality, character, self-confidence and their abilities to manage various responsibilities.

Therefore, parents are force to set good examples by becoming more mature, watching their language and avoid showing their unhealthy behavior. When adults perform good behavior and attitude, it leaves a strong impression on the child’s mind. Of course, he will follow suit when opportunity arises.

Understanding the Fact

Children at this age become more aware of the fact that they will grow up to be a woman or man, so they will attempt to follow their parents‘ footsteps. It is a common scene for children to copy parents’ dressing style, learn to express various ways of human emotions such as love, fear, anger, grief and happiness.

What Did Jesus Say About It?

Jesus actually praised the fact that children imitated their parents. Think about the story where he rode the donkey colt through the streets of Jerusalem, then went into the Temple. The children followed him in waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David!”

It made the Chief priests and scribes angry to hear the children! They scolded Jesus saying, “Don’t you hear what they are saying?” In other words, “Make them stop it, Jesus!”

Have you ever thought about that before? “Hosanna to the son of David” is not typical kid language. Where did they get that lingo from? If you will read just a few verses previous, you will see that it was the adults who were following Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem shouting exactly the same thing, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

Imitation Praise is Perfect!

What was happening here? THE CHILDREN WERE IMITATING THEIR PARENTS AND THE OTHER ADULTS WHEN THEY HAD BEEN PRAISING JESUS!!! But the most interesting part was Jesus called their praise PERFECT! He said, “Have you never read ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You [God] have perfected praise’?”

Jesus was well aware that the children were imitating the praises their parents had given, but he called that imitation praise PERFECT. So the next time you hear someone mocking small children as they imitate adults worshiping God, you will know what to say! IMITATION PRAISE IS PERFECT IN GOD’S EYES!

For more teaching on babies and preschoolers by Becky Fischer, check out:
PRESCHOOLERS & GOD — http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/preschoolers-and-god-sscm-22/

SPIRITUALLY PARENTING YOUR PRESCHOOLER — http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/spiritually-parenting-your-preschooler/

LITTLE LAMBS BIBLE CLASS CURRICULUM — http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/little-lambs-bible-class-curriculum/

The post Imitation Praise appeared first on Kids in Ministry International.

Anything that affects children being able to connect with God affects this ministry. Anything that affects children developing a biblical worldview, which ultimately affects their connection with God, affects this ministry. Therefore, we find ourselves engaging in conversations that most children’s ministries avoid.

One of those conversations, concerns creationism and evolution. Surveys show that children start becoming skeptical about the Bible almost as soon as they start hearing that science has proven Scripture to be wrong – and that’s very early!

Undermining the Bible to Kids

Undermining the Bible usually begins in cartoons that talk about millions of years. Evolution is actually affirmed by well-intentioned Sunday school teachers whose curricula avoid teaching what the Bible reveals regarding creation and the flood. By the time they are teens, young people are so hardened against the trustworthiness of the Bible that many times they stop believing in Jesus altogether.

In addition, their friends, teachers, and the media tell them every day that the Bible is simply a bunch of moral stories, full of allegories and poetry. Young people understand that if it is true, then the gospel message is a lie, and faith in Jesus is futile.

Fifty percent of Christians Believe in Evolution

I was shocked the other day when I heard a survey taken among born-again Christians which stated that over 50% of them now believe the world was created through evolution. Now granted, many of them say they believe God was the original catalyst, but that he used evolution to do the job. I have some real problems with that way of thinking.

At my root, I am a Bible teacher for children. One of the callings on my life is to help children rightly divide the word of truth. One of the things we strive to do is impart biblical doctrine into their lives rather than stay on surfacey Bible stories where they never really receive deep foundational doctrines.

As such, I use the story of creation and of Adam and Eve in the Garden in many of my curricular lessons. For instance, I have a curriculum on the blood of Jesus. Bible scholars talk about the “scarlet thread” that runs from Genesis to Revelation. What they mean by that is that in every book of the Bible, you’re able to find the blood of Jesus spoken of in one form or another symbolically. In other words in every book of the Bible, we are given a type and shadow, or a prophetic picture of Jesus’s sacrifice of his shed blood. It’s one of the ways that we have of confirming biblical validity and affirm that the Bible is in fact the inspired word of God.

One might think that in Genesis the symbolism of Jesus’ blood begins with Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, because Isaac is a well-known prophetic picture of Jesus. But the blood actually appears much earlier in Scripture than with Abraham. It goes back to the Garden of Eden. Man sinned and needed to be redeemed. The Bible tells us that God took the skins of an animal and clothed Adam and Eve before he sent them out of the garden. How did God get those animal skins? Did he just create some skins without the animals? I don’t think so!

So what happens when you skin in animal? You get blood! The inference here is that blood was shed for the forgiveness of man (in this case, Adam and Eve), so that in his sinful state he would not be destroyed in the presence of a holy God. As we know from Scripture without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. So even before it was a Scripture God acted on this biblical truth. The shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins was first instituted in the Garden of Eden.

The Beginning of Everything

The story of creation is the beginning of everything. It was in the garden that God bent down and breathed into man the breath of life. But if God used evolution to create the world, at what point did he breath that life into a living creature? At what point did he consider the glob of goo – that pool of primordial soup – as mankind? If He used evolution to create the world, then did he actually breathe into the nostrils of chimpanzee as the forerunner of man the breath of life, or did he wait till the Neanderthal man or the Java man came on the scene before he breathed in him the breath of life? Which creature did he choose? Or was that just “allegorically speaking”? A beautiful poetic symbolic picture!

Some Christians say God never meant the creation story to be taken as a real event! At which point I ask the question, how do you decide which stories in the Bible are allegories and which ones are true? Jesus talked about Adam as though he was a real person. In fact, if you will study Scripture one of the most boring things is actually one of the most important—the endless lists of genealogies. In them you will discover that even the genealogy of Jesus goes all the way back to a specific man called Adam!

Adam Was Noah’s Great, Great Grandfather

Noah is the great, great grandson of Adam. Count them: Adam, Seth, Methuselah, Lemech, and NOAH! How can Noah be the great, great grandson of someone who’s make-believe and just the result poetic imagery of a symbolic man in an allegory? Oh, that’s right! We can’t believe in Noah and the flood either! That’s also an allegory! Excuse me – I forgot! Funny, isn’t it? Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be before the coming of the son of God”…. Silly Jesus! He thought Noah and the flood was real! He’s even using him as a picture of what is going to happen in the end times before he returns! Boy, Jesus needs to get his doctrine straight, doesn’t he?

But I digress. Let’s move on. It is from this story of creation that we refer to God instigating the institution of marriage between a man and a woman. It is upon this principle that we base our beliefs in regards to homosexuality today. So it’s in the world’s best interest to consider this nothing but a stupid allegory so that we can marry and have sex with anybody we want to!

Sin started in the Garden of Eden. The result of sin was death which was also found for the first time at creation. We are told clearly nothing ever died, that is, there was no sickness or disease, prior to the Garden of Eden. If that’s true, then there’s no way that dinosaurs and similar creatures lived prior to Adam and Eve because they died BEFORE Adam and Eve and sin and death came on the scene! Prior to Adam and Eve there was no sin, therefore there was no sickness or death. So how could the dinosaurs have died millions of years before Adam came along? (Trick question with a logical answer—dinosaurs were created on DAY SIX right before Adam and Eve were—they co-existed in the Garden!)

It is in the creation story that the great battle between Satan and mankind began. From that time forward, there has been enmity between man and the devil. And he’s been out to destroy us ever since. It all started in the Garden of Eden.

Let Us Make Man in Our Image

The story of creation is where we are told that mankind was created in the image of God. God said to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, “Let us make man in our image.” What was that image? It was that we were made spirit, soul and body just like God (GOD: Father, Son and Holy Spirit / MAN: Spirit, Soul and Body).

But the Bible never tells us that God breathed into animals the breath of life—only man. This is one of the things that sets people apart from the animal kingdom. Animals have a body and soul, but they don’t have a spirit. That was something man received when God breathed into him (The Hebrew word for ‘breath” in Genesis actually means ‘spirit’!). He received God’s very spirit—and the capacity to commune and fellowship with God.

If the creation of man in the Garden of Eden did not take place the way we read it in Scripture, then which amoeba, blob of protoplasm, or animal as a forerunner of man as we know them today, or caveman did God create in his image? How far back in history, did he go before he pointed to a creature and said, “That’s the one I want to say is made in my image!”?

The Adam of the garden is called the first Adam. Jesus is called the last Adam. Why? While Adam was made in the image of God, Christ is ‘the image of the invisible God’ (Colossians 1:15). Adam was created a perfect man, in full possession of all human faculties, and with a God-consciousness which enabled him to have spiritual communion with God. Initially innocent, sinless, and holy, he was in a right relationship to God, to woman, to himself, and to the natural world around him. The last Adam, Jesus, was also perfectly man, one with God (John 10:30; 17:21-22), innocent, sinless, and holy (Hebrews 7:26). Adam was a type and shadow of Jesus Christ—a prophetic image of the son of God.

If sin did not start in the Garden of Eden, at what point did it start? At what point did man need a savior? Did the Cro-Magnon man need a savior? Or perhaps the Homo Erectus? Which one of these dudes did Jesus die for? Which one brought sin and death into the world and brought the need of a savior to save us from our fallen state?

The Power of God’s Words

The list goes on and on! Either the story of creation is real or half the Bible is a fake! If you can’t believe what God says about creating the world, people and animals, then how can you believe in the invisible forgiveness of sins or Jesus’ second coming? How can any of it be true?

The Apostle Paul spoke of Adam as a real person. Consider these Scriptures that we base our salvation message on:

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—Romans 5:12 NIV

Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. Romans 5:14 NIV

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22 NIV

So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 1 Corinthians 15:45 NIV

For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 1 Timothy 2:13-14 NIV

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones. Jude 1:14 NIV

So if the story of creation is not real, and Adam and Eve are the subjects of an allegory, what does that do to the validity of these scriptures? Adam and Eve are rooted in the very message of salvation.

Our Kids Need Answers

So in regards to our children and our youth, we need to teach them biblical doctrine. We need to teach them the things that I’ve talked about here. There are answers to the seemingly unanswerable questions regarding creation and the word of God. To believe that God used the evolutionary process to create the world is a serious compromise that has great implications for the trustworthiness of the Bible.

The fact that over half of Christians today believe in evolution, regardless of whether or not they put God in the equation, tells us that the world is winning the battle of the mind! It means that slowly but surely, one generation at a time, our faith in God and the trustworthiness of his word is being systematically undermined. It’s time to reexamine what we believe through digging into the scriptures. We either believe it, or we don’t. There cannot be compromise!

By Becky Fischer

For more information on this topic, please see our children’s teachings http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/and-god-said-conference-series/

Also visit Answers in Genesis website athttp://www.answersingenesis.org/

The post The Creation Story is Just an Allegory! appeared first on Kids in Ministry International.

Is it time for a change in one of our most revered children’s ministry activities in the local church—the annual vacation Bible School, better known as VBS? KIMI Ohio’s director, Alicia White, has a new perspective on an old idea. She writes:

Do Vacation Bible Schools need an Upgrade?

“The traditional Vacation Bible School, or VBS for short, was established to create a summer intense Bible study or discipleship course for children who already attended church and desired to spend more time than what was allotted in a regular service setting, or what they could do during the school season.

The movement of VBS caught on quite well, but like with any movement, the longer it lasted was the more it was changed to adjust to the times and needs of each generation that came after the first. Today VBS is much shorter than the original time of five weeks, usually one week or less, and the focus in some ways has become more evangelistic in nature verses discipleship. Both goals, discipleship and evangelism, are equally important but do not come without their set of challenges when focusing on solely children.

Conversions vs. Discipleship

One of the problems with evangelizing just children is that no matter how saved and how excited you get them about starting their walk with Jesus, they are still at the mercy of a mom and dad who have to desire to take them to church on a regular bases, and most importantly desire to raise them in a Christian home with Christian principals.

Although I firmly believe a child can lead their parents to Christ, it certainty is a harder road to take and there is a greater chance that the seed you have planted will fall away from a child’ heart who lives in a home not following Christ. Salvation without being followed by discipleship will yield little fruit for these children. Whereas if you can bring the whole family in at one time to receive the message of Christ and salvation, you can change a whole home and guarantee the family will come back to be discipled.

Let’s now look at the discipleship aspects of VBS. In this day and age, businesses, technology has disassociated us from relationship in our family, and broken homes, have disintegrated family devotion and worship time. And in the church we find ourselves separated by age group and programs that departmentalize families to the point that they never worship together in a way that both age groups learn and grow from it.

Can the Fruit of VBS be Increased?

So in looking at VBS in the now, how much more fruit would we see to create a discipleship event for the whole family together? Discipleship is learning and understanding that doesn’t just affect our church life; it affects our lifestyle, our home, and the morals and fundamental beliefs that directs our every decision. In this culture where families literally have to fight tooth and nail to keep Jesus the center of their home, a family VBS offers a unique opportunity for the families of your church to set apart three days to learn and focus on Jesus together; and potentially inspire families to make this the beginning of family worship and devotion at home.

The need for family worship has never been greater than now…why not use the biggest event of the summer to minister and focus in on this need?”

Thank you, Alicia.

We at Kids in Ministry have felt this way from the beginning. In fact, when first contemplating on starting KIMI twelve years ago, I wondered what I would do. I remember telling the Lord, “if you’re just looking for another little old lady to hold vacation Bible school’s around the country, keep looking. I’m not your girl.”

It was then the Holy Spirit dropped in my heart, “Well, what about holding schools of ministry for kids?” The idea captured my heart! And that’s how Kids in Ministry began – not holding vacation Bible schools, but holding family conferences where children were equipped for the work of the ministry.

Summer is before us. It’s time for you to begin planning what you will do with your children this year in the local church. We strongly urge you to consider holding a family event, rather than just a children’s event.

Author Alicia White, Director of Kids in Ministry Ohio

Learn more about Alicia at KIMI Ohio: http://kimiohio.org

To see her curriculums click here: http://kidsinministry.org/resources/curriculums-visuals/other-curriculums/

Kids in Ministry International
PO Box 549 * 111 Collins Avenue
Mandan, ND 58554
701-258-6786
Email: kidsinministry@yahoo.com

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Here’s a thought: “The kingdom of God has no upgrade.”

Check out this thought-provoking word from our own Pamela Ayres, founder of our international PowerClubs ministry:

“I heard two sermons in August of 1976 that turned my heart to repentance. The theme of both sermons was this: “It will cost you everything to follow Jesus.” I didn’t know what “everything” was. I only knew deep down that if my life was to be worth anything, it was going to need to be invested in something that would take my “everything.”

Honestly, I don’t believe that deep down any child who hears the gospel without the inner knowledge that it will consume his whole life will respect the gospel or the kingdom of God. Electronic devises have pretty much erased the word “impossible.” If you can imagine it, you can see it. Just wait to get the next upgrade.

God Will Not Respond to Remote Control

But there is one aspect of life that cannot be manipulated or twisted to suit our needs–the kingdom of God. It will still cost us everything to serve God: our time, our relationships, our heart’s cry. God is not available “on demand.” He will not respond to remote control. Unless we seek with all our hearts, we will not find–neither we nor our children. That is a challenge worth presenting to a western culture that is ho hum to stimulation.

Kids need breakthrough, awakening, to the reality that what you see is not what you are getting–that life is a supernatural experience lived out in the natural realm. That is the hot and heavy encounter with God at the altar. But to walk in the kingdom, you must walk daily, steadily, not looking for the spectacular but yielding to a supernatural love relationship that grows through obedience and daily prayer.
How can that ever trump a video game unless kids know the excitement and challenge of living in the supernatural?

No Heavenly Trophies
Parents and other leaders need to nurture that challenge, promote it above sports, dance and secular education. There are no heavenly trophies for personal achievement–only for overcoming the challenges of knowing God. That is a slow and steady building of the kingdom of God within us.

The kingdom of God has no upgrade. It’s fully developed. The challenge is ours, and our children’s, to see Jesus as our consuming desire and giving him our “everything.”

Written by Pamela Ayres, KIMI Top Leadership Team

Pamela wears many hats in Kids in Ministry International from a key player in leading our international PowerClubs, to head intercessor, to author, teacher in our School of Supernatural Children’s Ministry, writer of curriculums, and in many ways the glue that has held our international operations together. To take advantage of more of Pamela’s teachings, see the following resources:

http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/children-know-supernaturally-gifts-of-the-spirit-1-3-sscm-17/
http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/breaking-through-to-your-breakthrough-sscm-44/
http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/7-jesus-our-messiah/

To support Pamela in her missions work, donate at: http://www.pamelaayres.info/

Kids in Ministry International
PO Box 549 * 111 Collins Avenue
Mandan, ND 58554
701-258-6786
Email: kidsinministry@yahoo.com

The post The Kingdom of God Has No Upgrade appeared first on Kids in Ministry International.

PowerClubs Will Change Mexico!

Normally when I travel, it’s to do a PowerClub training and to inspire and educate people on how to start a ministry to children and more effective ways. My goal is to bring awareness of children who are hungry to walk in the supernatural power of God.

But my recent trip to Mexico was completely different. My director, Ana Lilia Zertuche, director of KIMI Latin America, has spent the last several years doing that for me. This was not a trip to educate and inform people about children. Rather, it was a time for me to get to see the fruit of what PowerClubs has been doing in Mexico.

My first and most delightful surprise was visiting a a large Baptist Church in the heart of Monterey where they had been using our curriculums and are PowerClub pattern of ministry for over three years. The pastor and his daughter both had been through our PowerClub training. They were extremely excited about what got it been doing in their church in the children.

When I first walked in the church what I saw was the preschool children worshiping God. It’s something I can’t describe in words; it’s something you have to see for yourself. That’s why I’m including this video of the children. You must watch this!

PowerClubs in a City of Drug Cartels

My next surprise was how many head pastors of churches across Mexico had gone through the PowerClub training themselves, as well as taking their leaders through with them. It was the pastors that were excited! It was the pastors who are leading the way! It was the pastors who were inspired and had gained fresh vision for their cities and their nation through what they saw God doing in the children of their PowerClubs. It is the pastors who are saying their nation is going to be changed through PowerClubs! Let me share just a handful of the testimonies with you:

What can God do in a city which is a center for drug wars and violence in the news? The city is Guadalajara, Mexico where last year they found 40 dead people who had been beheaded. It is a city that needs God! And now there are PowerClubs springing up everywhere!

Pastor Rodriguez has been pastoring in Guadalajara for 15 yrs. Ana Lilia Zertuche has held many PowerClub trainings in Guadalajara, and he attended one with twelve of his church members. They all caught the vision of kids—especially Pastor Rodriguez!

He began modeling his own church after PowerClubs. They now had started four different PowerClubs, and have trained an additional 18 people on their own how to run them. Pastor Rodriguez and his church now have a vision to start PowerClubs all over their city. In fact, he and his wife, and daughter in son in law sat down with a map of Guadalajara and divided it up strategically into sections. Their goal is to plant a PowerClub in each of those sections of the city!

He and other pastors get together regularly to pray to break the curses off their city. Pastor Rodriguez is leading the vision of working with children in order to change their city and they believe PowerClubs will change Mexico!!! Let’s keep him in prayer, because this is a vision the devil does not want to come to pass!

Head Pastors Who Didn’t Like Kids

Pastors Hugo and Erika Torres of Manzanillo, Colima told me they didn’t even like kids, even though they were head pastors of their church. Then God spoke to Erika , telling her she would belong to multitudes of children. It was no coincidence then that they stumbled across the movie Jesus Camp on TV. Erika was deeply impacted as she watched a little girl speaking in tongues in the film. At that time, Erika did not even speak in tongues. Her heart began to cry out, and she said, “I want this, Lord. Bring this to my city.”

Shortly after they saw an advertisement for a PowerClub training in Guadalajara and they recognized Becky Fischer’s picture on it. “Lord, this must be you leading us to begin something.” So they attended. Like so many others who catch the KIMI vision, their lives were turned upside down with a passion for kids walking in the supernaturally.

Since that time Hugo and Erika have started four PowerClubs in four different cities with an average attendance of 230 children altogether.

They began asking the Lord for their own place for the children. “We wanted a place in the church for kids. So God gave us a house.” Not just any house, but a two-story house. Now every Sunday the kids go to their PowerClub Church while adults go to theirs. Their church now has a vision to continue spreading PowerClubs throughout their nation. They believe God can change their nation of Mexico through reaching the children through PowerClubs!

PowerClubs Are Changing Children and Families

Another church in Mexico has been transformed because of KIMI PowerClubs! That’s what Pastor Alfredo told me when I talked with him and his sister Ana. They received a prophetic word from a minister that there was going to be a turning point in their ministry, and the main focus would be children.

At the same time his sister Ana, had a dream in which, while being surrounded by children, the Lord called her to spiritual warfare. The Lord said, “Keep your eye on the children. They need moms and dads to protect them.” The Lord spoke to her and said he ministry was to prepare children in spiritual warfare like she was called.

Shortly after they were introduced to the ministry of KIMI through a training led by Ana Lilia. Now, for one year they have been utilizing the program of KIMI PowerClubs. They said there has been a tremendous transformation in the children who go to their church.

“Now our church is having a new movement,” Pastor Alfredo said, “and this is how the Lord placed in my heart, as a pastor, to start a new season. We have started this ministry to kids with all our heart and strength. In the past, before we understood what God wanted to do with children, we would just try to keep them busy, and out of the way.”

Pastor Alfredo continued, “We believe the main ministry for us now is children. We have taken them and evangelized in poor areas of the city where people don’t know about God. Our children are healing the sick. Whole families are coming to the Lord because of the prayers of the children. The children know God listens to them and uses them powerfully.”

Spreading to Spanish Speaking Europe!

He continued that the Lord has placed Europe on their hearts. They have made contacts in Spain and soon will be taking the vision of KIMI and PowerClubs ministry over there.

I can’t wait to see what these churches will do within the next five years. With the enthusiasm and the vision that they’re carrying for their nation in regards to the children of the PowerClubs, they lead. Nothing will be impossible to them!

If you live in Mexico and you are interested in being trained for PowerClubs, please contact our director Ana Lilia Zertuche at http://kimilatino.org/

Kids in Ministry International
PO Box 549 * 111 Collins Avenue
Mandan, ND 58554
701-258-6786
Email: kidsinministry@yahoo.com

The post PowerClubs Will Change Mexico! appeared first on Kids in Ministry International.

To Boston With Love: A Message From a Rabbi

Every American citizen needs to read this powerful message “To Boston, With Love,” from a new friend of mine, Rabbi Moshe Rothchild, about the recent Boston Marathon Massacre. He is an American conservative Jew living in Israel. He has linked arms with Christians-who-love-Israel, to bring unity between Christians and Jews. His comments are insightful, encouraging, and inspirational in his perspective of what we need to do in light of terrorism on our homeland. He writes:

This has been a difficult week. First the terror attack in Boston and then the horrific explosion in the Texas fertilizer plant. The coming weeks and days will shed more light on these two events as we do not yet have the full picture of either tragedy.

Here in Israel unfortunately we have lots of experience dealing with tragedies and terror in our homeland. In our short 65 years since the modern State of Israel was declared we have experienced 7 wars, over 170 suicide bombings, 2 Intifadas (uprisings),1000’s of successful and thwarted terror attacks, over twelve thousand rockets and mortars fired at civilian populations and close to 23,000 soldiers killed. Yet we are not discouraged, nor broken—-we are stilled filled with hope that the future will be peaceful and our children will live with security.

What advice could Israel humbly offer the citizens of the U.S?

To Boston With Love continues: First of all, take comfort in knowing that you have the moral high ground. When you are attacked for your beliefs in freedom, democracy, justice and religious tolerance you should never crack and allow your enemy to make you feel as if you have done something wrong. You are a victim of terror. You are not part of the “cycle of violence” as the foreign media likes to call it here in Israel, thereby equating Israel’s reaction to terror with the terrorists themselves. There is a right and wrong. You are right, we are right and the terrorists are wrong. Never allow for moral obscurity. Murdering innocent people is always wrong. When you hear people say that the U.S. foreign policy causes and instigates terrorism, please reject this whole heartedly. If not, you create a moral equivalency between the perpetrator and the victim.

Here in Israel our reaction to terror is to return to normalcy as quickly as possible and not grant the terrorists the victory of disrupting the lives of good people longer than necessary. Just recently in November, when terrorists blew up a bus in Tel Aviv, the police did what they had to do and the street was re-opened within a couple of hours. The authorities want to make a statement: “You will not stop us from living the lives we want to lead. Even when your evil plans sometimes succeed, we will live on and we will hunt you down.”

The final and perhaps the most powerful idea is that the reaction to terror here in Israel is to build. Many of the communities in Judaea and Samaria (what the world called the West Bank) were built when someone was killed by a terrorist. For every Jew killed, we will build another community. In the town of Itamar, a little over a year ago, two terrorists entered the town on the Jewish Sabbath and murdered almost the entire Fogel family while they were asleep in their beds. In less than a year, Itamar built a brand new Yeshiva (Jewish school) and are also about to complete a brand new synagogue. The terrorists love death, we love life.

Another example: On March 28, 2001 a family member of Rabbi Josh Fass was murdered in Israel. What was Rabbi Fass’ reaction? He created an organization called Nefesh B’Nefesh (A Soul for a Soul). The organization helps and encourages Jews from around the world to move to Israel. Through the help of Nefesh B’Nefesh , close to 20,000 Jews have moved here from North America including my own family. You want to kill Jews living in Israel? Well, we will go out and bring more! I should add here that for years, Pastor John Hagee has been donating one million dollars annually to help Nefesh B’nefesh.

A final example: In 2001 two men were killed by terrorists on the road from their home to Jerusalem. The reaction? The towns all along the road from their home to Jerusalem built the “Pina Chama” (Cozy Corner) which is a place that soldiers who are on duty can stop in for a bite to eat. It is open day and night and staffed by volunteers from the local communities. The food is all donated by locals who will bake cakes, send popcorn or other treats for the soldiers. The Pina Chama serves over 200 soldiers a day.

Darkness cannot dispel darkness, only light can (Martin Luther King Jr.). The terrorists try to snuff out the light of the good people in this world. We must never question our moral position, we must never equate the reaction to terror with terror and finally we must continually add light where the terrorists try to bring darkness, until we succeed in illuminating the entire world.

To learn more about Rabbi Rothchild and his organization Teach Israel, click here:

http://teachisrael.org/

Kids in Ministry International
PO Box 549 * 111 Collins Avenue
Mandan, ND 58554
701-258-6786
Email: kidsinministry@yahoo.com

The post To Boston, With Love appeared first on Kids in Ministry International.

What does the Holy Spirit have to do with chickens?

Read the testimony by one of our leaders, Torry Norris, single mom of four of Jesus-lovin’ kids:

“We are not city dwellers. We are somewhere between the suburbs and rural living. What would you call that? The ‘ruburbs’? Anyway, we are close enough to make a run to Target but far enough out, to have a menagerie of animals and not be a nuisance to others, and in that collection we have a couple of dozen chickens. Chickens are great, they come when you call…totally entertaining to watch, they would never consider coming in the house and you don’t feel guilty for leaving them out.

Low down in the Food Chain

Another bonus is they give back , my youngest has his own little egg business. On the downside, being a chicken at our place, is like being a wildebeest on the savanna. Everything wants to eat them and there really isn’t a thing to be done do about it. I mean it’s tough, but I suppose that’s how it is when you are low on the food chain.
So what does the Holy Spirit have to do with chickens? Well, here is the lowdown.

A few nights ago my oldest son came in visibly excited and exclaimed “God is so Cool!” Of course, what mother wouldn’t want to hear that come out of a 13-year-old, but pressing for more information on God’s goodness I said, “Do tell me more.” He went on to say he had been in the house and suddenly had a strong impression to go outside.

Go Back in the Name of Jesus!

As soon as he walked out the door he saw our neighbors dog had escaped its yard and was about to partake in a free chicken dinner! My son said that he immediately raised his hand (the dog was over 25 feet away, he never touched it) and said “Go back to where you came from in the name of Jesus!” Now here is the cool part, the dog stopped dead in its tracks, yelped a terrified yelp, spun around and ran all the way home. Chickens saved!

The best part of the story is, a boy recognized the leading of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus name has authority in the situation and God gets the glory for the outcome.

I take God’s command of training our children seriously. That’s how I became involved with Kids In Ministry International. We have the teaching, equipping and tools you need to train your children. I would recommend the Hearing God’s Voice curriculum if you want to train your children how to hear the voice of God and be led by Holy Spirit. God is always speaking but unless we take the time to train our kids to tune in, they are going to miss that leading. This time it was some chickens saved…I wonder what it will be tomorrow.

Torry Norris is the director of Kids in Ministry Texas, a certified graduate of the School of Supernatural Children’s Ministry, a PowerClub leader and trainer, and frequently travels with me as my assistant in conferences and seminars. She has an amazing testimony as a single mom how against all odds has managed to homeschool her four kids, and disciple them quite impressively in the things of the Spirit.

To hear her moving testimony click here for Single Parent Discipleship:http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/single-parent-discipleship/

If you live in Texas, we encourage you to contact Torry for more information. To donate to Torry’s ministry click here: http://kimitexas.org/

Kids in Ministry International
PO Box 549 * 111 Collins Avenue
Mandan, ND 58554
701-258-6786
Email: kidsinministry@yahoo.com

The post The Holy Spirit & Chickens appeared first on Kids in Ministry International.

The most important ten minutes of my day are the ten minutes I spend with my kids right before they leave for school. For many years, I felt like a failure when it came to leading my family in devotions. I could never seem to find a rhythm or a routine. It felt like one failed attempt after another.

Then, the week before Parker started high school, Lora and I were on our Monday morning coffee date. Since I preach on Sundays, Monday is our Sabbath. We talk about our marriage, our kids, our calendar, and our finances.

During the course of this particular conversation, I confessed my feeling of failure — and that’s when Lora shared something her dad did, which I decided to adopt. My father-in-law prayed with more intensity and more consistency than anybody I’ve ever known. He prayed about everything. In fact, when I asked him if I could marry his daughter, he literally said, “Let me pray about it.” That’ll put the fear of God in you! Especially when he didn’t check back in for a week!

My father-in-law was extraordinarily busy pasturing the church he founded in Naperville, Illinois, but he found time to do devotions with his four children every day before school. In the spirit of full disclosure, the teenaged Lora didn’t always enjoy those devotions. What teenager does? But more than a decade after her dad’s death, those times they spent together are treasured memories. Those devotions were a daily touch point with her dad.

One of the great challenges with family devotions is finding a consistent time and place to pray together. It’s not easy when your kids are playing soccer, taking piano lessons, participating in a school club, and taking swim lessons. And that’s probably just one of your children! So how do you find a rhythm? I think it starts with looking at your daily routines. It makes sense to pray with your young children before bed because you tuck them in every night. With older children, it’s more difficult because they probably will be staying up later than you do.

When Lora shared the story about morning devotions with her dad, it was a revelation. I knew I needed to leverage the first few minutes of the day before the day got away from me. So beginning on Parker’s first day of high school, I started reading the Bible and praying with him. Does every devotional time seem like a success? Hardly. Are there days when we’re running late and have to scoot out of the house? Absolutely.

But I’m determined to have a daily devotion with my children, and this touch point is the most important ten minutes of my day. It’s the most important meeting of the day. Why? Because I love my children so much more than anybody I’ll meet with the rest of the day. And while every devotional time doesn’t result in an epiphany, some of those touch points have turned into turning points.

Your children need to see and hear you praying. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in a prayer closet or a prayer chair. You can turn your commute or your workout into prayer times. When you make their beds or fold their clothes, pray for them. Go into their bedrooms while they’re sleeping, kneel next to their beds, and pray over them.

You don’t become a praying parent by default. You do it by design, by desire, by discipline. Spiritual disciplines take sheer determination, but if you determine to circle your children in prayer, you will shape their destinies. Your prayers will live on in their lives long after you die. Your prayers for your children are the greatest legacy you can leave.

Batterson, Mark (2012-07-17). Praying Circles around Your Children (p. 18). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

More helps and teachings for parents. Check out these resources from Kids in Ministry International:

Revolutionary Parenting:http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/revolutionaryparenting1/

How to Raise a Spiritual Champion:http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/revolutionaryparenting2/

What Christian Parents Can Learn from Mormons, Muslims, & Jews: http://kidsinministry.org/resources/more-stuff/muslimandjews/

Kids in Ministry International
PO Box 549 * 111 Collins Avenue
Mandan, ND 58554
701-258-6786
Email: kidsinministry@yahoo.com

The post The Most Important Ten Minutes of the Day appeared first on Kids in Ministry International.

Kids in Ministry International
PO Box 549 * 111 Collins Avenue
Mandan, ND 58554
701-258-6786
Email: kidsinministry@yahoo.com

The post The Wedding Day appeared first on Kids in Ministry International.

It was really a routine contact when Dutch missionary Astrid Withrow and her American husband, Travis, contacted Kids
in Ministry asking for help being trained to do PowerClubs. They found us on the internet. Since they were living in Burundi, East
Africa, it made financial sense to send out KIMI Kenya director, Pastor Paul Mwangi and a helper, instead of going ourselves

The training went well, but we didn’t hear a lot from them for about a year. Then Astrid decided she wanted to go through our School of Supernatural Children’s Ministry correspondence course and ordered the DVDs. Suddenly, it was like she was set on fire. She and Travis began training a small team of Burundians, and they began blazing through the struggling nation of refugees (many run-aways from neighboring war-torn Rwanda) and trained men and women to raise up PowerClubs. In one year’s time they had launched 82 PowerClubs ministering to over 3,000 Burundian children. No one had ever had that kind of success in KIMI before in such a short period of time!

Food Multiplication

Without asking for any financial help from us, many times they barely scraped enough money together to pay for the
trainings, which includes paying the transportation, housing, and meals for each of the attendees. Astrid faithfully sent us reports that left us amazed. She told of having barely enough rice to feed her students (who had never had the privilege of being trained in children’s ministry of any kind.) But with open windows and doors, and sometimes meeting with only a roof with no walls, the village children would stand in the openings watching everything they said and did.

When mealtimes came, there was no way they could turn away the hungry children, and feed only the adults. Understand that the average IQ of a Burundian is only 58 because of starvation and malnutrition. So believing God, Astrid’s team fed the adults
and the children. Many times in her reports Astrid would tell us there clearly was only enough food for the adults, but an obvious food multiplication took place. Every adult and child were fed with no problem!

Cripple Man Walks

During a PowerClub training, teaching the people to heal the sick is standard procedure, because they are expected to
teach the children how to do it in the PowerClubs. So they ask for the sick to come forward. But if there are children standing on
the perimeters, they will call for them to come in. The Withrows then walk the children through the steps of laying hands on the
sick, and how to pray. The teachers always are surprised when they are healed on the spot.

One day, as they were having their healing lesson, an old man sitting across the street from their meeting place overheard
everything they were saying. He began to shout to the “mzungu” (white person), “Come over here! Pray for me!” He was actually
interrupting her teaching, but finally she took the group of children across the street.

The old man had been known as the town drunk and wife beater. He had been a womanizer throughout his life. But now  he was crippled, and could only steady himself with a wooden cane, but had to have help going from one place to the next. Astrid showed the children how to lay hands on him, and led them in a rote healing prayer. Astrid said they were pushing down on him so hard, they almost knocked him off the tree stump he sat on.

In a mere moment Astrid noticed the old man’s right leg begin to shake–first his thigh, then from the knee down. The shaking got stronger. Astrid shouted, “Do something you could not do before!” Immediately the old man began stood to his feet. He threw his cane down and began to walk away from them. He walked and walked until he was out of sight. Astrid assumed he was gone, and wouldn’t be back. But minutes later, here he came, grinning from ear to ear and walking normal. He began to testify of the healing power of God! The next Sunday, he went to the local church that had hosted Withrows, bringing his wife and grown children. They received Jesus as savior that day.

Better Than the United Nations

The violence in Burundi is constant and out of control. One of the most exciting reports that came from the PowerClub testimonies was when a city official met Astrid with unusual news. He said their city normally experienced as many as 80 murders every month. But, he told her, “Since you have started your PowerClubs here, the murders have dropped to around 20 per month!”

It seems the PowerClub children were going home to their parents telling them they must forgive their neighbors and bless them and pray for them. The adults began laying down their differences and sharing meals together. The city official told Astrid, “You have done more to help our city than the United Nations has ever done.”

What continues to amaze me, is the work of the Holy Spirit through Kids in Ministry International in places I have personally never been to and with people I have never met. Why? Because it works to raise up children to be serious followers of Christ. This is the heart beat of God to pass our faith onto the next generation.
Learn more about PowerClubs by clicking here.

Learn More about KIMI in the Nations by clicking here.

Learn more about the School of Supernatural Children’s Ministry by clicking here.

Kids in Ministry International
PO Box 549 * 111 Collins Avenue
Mandan, ND 58554
701-258-6786
Email: kidsinministry@yahoo.com

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