Children aren’t the church of tomorrow, International Mission Board missionary Kathy Shafto contends. They are the church of today.
It’s especially true in Africa where Shafto and her husband, Jay, have spent decades ministering. Not only does this continent have the youngest population in the world; but UNICEF estimates by 2050 40% of the world’s children will be from Africa.
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“It just makes sense that African children are the church of today and the missionaries of the future,” Shafto said. “African church leaders have committed to sending African missionaries to the ends of the earth. This is also one of our goals as IMB missionaries in Africa. If we want to do that, we need to disciple children well.”
Shafto and a team of six children’s leaders in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, teamed up to create a curriculum to train and disciple those from the age of 3 to 18 to be Great Commission kids.
The missionary said while her background is in education and she’d lived in different parts of Africa for years, she knew she needed other child experts to help develop this different way of doing discipleship for children in Africa.
The team is made up of Kennedy Fuma, Mado Fumumguya, Therro Benza, Raymond Kemburiya, Regan Biloko and Nephtalie Mayala.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Sue Sprenkle and originally published by the International Mission Board.
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