Your Voice

Children on mission: Encouraging imagination

By Janet Erwin
Executive editor, The Alabama Baptist

My love for the International Mission Study, an annual focus of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), often finds me teaching a variety of ages at my church, Shades Crest Baptist Church, Birmingham. This year I was surrounded by children in grades one through six learning about Rohingya refugees in Myanmar.

In preparation for the study, I discovered some photos online depicting refugee life for children. One of the photos showed boys who had stolen a box and turned it into a car that later was sold to help purchase food for the family.

After talking about the photos, I divided the children into two groups and distributed their “materials” — boxes, pieces of cardboard, paper, sticks, washed plastic containers, etc. Their task was to learn what it was like to create toys out of these scraps alone — no scissors, glue or string. They quickly tackled that assignment of identifying with refugee children in this way.

At the completion of the study, some of the children asked to take their creations home, along with the remainder of the scrap materials.

I urged them to take what they wanted and to remember to pray for the refugee children as they used these leftover scraps.

Their enthusiastic response took me by surprise, yet the children validated what I had thought, read and heard about the need for children to tap into their God-given creativity rather than constantly be tethered to technology. What I witnessed that night reinforced my beliefs, and I grieved over what children of today are missing out on.

Think about it. What did you play with before the era of technology? What did you create toys from?

My boys grew up on the missions field riding bikes, climbing trees, building a clubhouse out of a wooden shipping crate and creating their own board games when they tired of purchased games.

Neuroscientist Adele Diamond and psychologist Deborah Leong say, “The best kind of play costs nothing and really only has one main requirement — imagination.”

So what are we waiting for? As parents, grandparents or teachers, we need to help our children trade cell phones and iPads for cardboard boxes, paper, paint, crayons, modeling clay, sticks, blocks — simple items that grow their imaginations.

Let’s raid our recycling bin and create a play box. Let’s go outside, enjoy God’s creation and thank Him out loud for it. Let’s devise creative activities to use with children at church to help them remember what the Bible says and relate to global missionary stories.

EDITOR’S NOTE — TAB Executive Editor Janet Erwin served as an International Mission Board missionary for 19 years. She also was editor of Woman’s Missionary Union’s monthly magazine, Missions Mosaic, for 12 years. She leads missions classes at her church and is a popular guest teacher.

Bring on the heat, please

By Russell Klinner
Executive director, Shocco Springs Conference Center, Talladega

It may not feel like it today, but summer is coming! For most people the anticipation of summer brings thoughts of relaxing vacations at the beach, fresh tomato sandwiches on the porch or a cold watermelon by the pool.

Without a doubt, the sweet (or sweat if you prefer) season of 95 degrees and 95% humidity is on its way.

During the 10 weeks of summer, we will host more than 20,000 guests — 65% of our guests in 20% of the year. Three months from now, our campus will be overrun with young adults experiencing an environment that is atypical of their normal life.

At Shocco they separate from the constantly plugged in lifestyle and tune in to God.

Shocco’s environment leads to eternal spiritual change for all those who come on to this campus. As we diligently lay out the schedule, plans and details for summer, I ask you to pray with us — right now.

Pray for current and incoming staff. Pray for our guests and their leadership. Pray that through the impact God allows us to have alongside our many partner churches and organizations, He will be glorified and souls will be eternally changed by what occurs on our campus this year.

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Letters to the editor

Jennifer Davis Rash’s editorial “Drawing a line down the middle of your story” in the Jan. 30, 2020, issue reminds me of my own story.

I was around 33 years old when I began pastoring First Baptist Church, Columbus, Mississippi. I served at Columbus from 1974 to 1986.

Now some 33 years later, after leaving that church for another, they are inviting me to become their interim pastor. God is so kind to me.

Joe McKeever
Jackson, Miss.

Wow! Thankful for Jennifer Davis Rash’s Rashional Thoughts column.

Mary Faye and Jerry Ridley
Facebook
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I am preparing to teach on spiritual brokenness, a term or experience that might be a fresh concept for many. Here are three good definitions:

• The process whereby God brings us to the end of ourselves and into greater love, trust and submission toward Him. — Rick Ferguson
• The spiritual state by which one is disarmed of one’s self-dependence and pride, therefore leaving one disabled and in desperate need of help, thereby making one a viable conduit for the glory of Christ. — Mike Leake
• Agreeing with God about the true condition of our heart and life, as He sees it. It is a lifestyle of unconditional, absolute surrender of our will to the will of God — a heart attitude that says, “Yes, Lord!” to whatever God says. Brokenness means the shattering of our self-will, so that the life and Spirit of the Lord Jesus may be released through us. It is our response of humility and obedience to the conviction of the Word and the Spirit of God. — Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

Can you affirm how God may have used an experience of brokenness as defined/described above to, as my late husband Rick said, “bring you into greater love, trust and submission toward Him”? What fruit was borne in your life because of brokenness?

Kathy Ferguson Litton
Redemption Church, Saraland

“If you want an evangelistic church, you have to live an evangelistic life.”

Ed Stetzer
Executive director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College

One of the things that got Jesus into trouble is … He spent too much time and energy identifying with persons who were not persons of power, not persons of class and responsibility.

Pastor Kelly Miller Smith Jr.
FBC Capitol Hill, Nashville, Tenn.

With every privilege comes responsibility, and the greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility.

Pastor Joe McKaig
Decatur Baptist Church

Why do bad things happen to people who love God deeply? I don’t know. But Immanuel is a reminder that the greatest prize of the gospel is not that we get what we want or that life is always OK. No, the greatest prize of the gospel is God Himself. God is with us.

Pastor Micah Fries
Excerpt from “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?” in LifeWay Voices

Lessons learned from Kobe Bryant’s untimely death:

1. People die. (Heb. 9:27)
2. Money can’t stop it. (Matt. 19:16–30)
3. Tomorrow isn’t promised. (Prov. 27:1)
4. Life is fragile. (James 4:13–15)
5. Put your trust in Jesus. (John 14:6)

Pastor Stuart Davidson
Eastern Shore Baptist Church, Daphne

You see the effects of the gospel at work when we share a meal, bump into each other at Kroger, walk side by side in a memorial march or a Christmas parade, sit with each other in worship, and plan events that are intentionally focused on the unity that is ours in Christ.

Pastor Frank Lewis
Nashville (Tenn.) FBC

Gospel above all means a greater love for the gospel mission than absolute uniformity in every non-essential. It means a charitability toward each other that respects, gives the benefit of the doubt and refuses to tolerate slander.

J.D. Greear
SBC President
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From the Twitterverse

@jdanielatkins

It’s heartbreaking to see the body and bride of Christ slander one another all week on Twitter and think that [on Sunday morning] many will fully believe their worship is acceptable to God.

@bellevuepastor

When it comes to grace, everyone wants it but few are willing to give it to others. “Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you [forgive]” (Col. 3:13, NASB).

@kristenpadilla

In a growing post-Christian, secular society, Christians increasingly will need to hold hands across the aisle if the gospel of Jesus Christ is to go forth. That’s what I learned at Beeson and it has had an indelible impact. I remember Timothy George saying we want to spread our arms as wide as possible under the tent of orthodoxy. I learned also that labels were rarely helpful and not often true. I learned that there’s more that unites us in the apostolic faith as expressed in the creeds than that which divides.

@kevinbumgarner1

“God says you’re released from the cares of the world to focus on Him.” — Scott Odom, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church @scottodom7

@sendrelief

It doesn’t matter where we are in the world — people need the hope of the gospel. Now, @NAMB_SBC and @IMB_SBC are meeting needs and changing lives together, through Send Relief.

@joeyhanner

Social media is not the place to insult or attack others. If you have a problem go to the source. #peacemaker

@SBCExecComm

“Whatever problems we have that need to be addressed, they need to be addressed in the right way by the right people, whether that is privately or publicly. Whatever is separating us — and deterring us from the Great Commission — must and needs to be dealt with now.”
— @ronniefloyd

@plattdavid

We are faced with a question when we wake up each morning: will we live according to the wisdom of the world or according to the wisdom of God? #praytheword