Dear Friends,
Psalm 126:3 says, “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.” This year has been full of great things, and we wanted to use our last newsletter of the year to share these with you. May each story cause you to praise the Lord on our behalf, and rejoice with us!
– CEF of GBA
Good News Clubs
Good Attendances
During a average school year, our GNC teachers in the Lake Shore school district know by the first Club day how many students will be attending that year. One or two more kids may trickle in during the first few weeks, but it is unusual. This year, the unusual has become the norm.
Almost every week we are contacted by one of Lake Shore’s three elementary schools, saying there’s a new student who wants to join GNC. The students who are already attending are inviting their friends, and these kids don’t want to miss out on the good time. As of Christmas break, there are 60 students registered in these three schools. At AJ Schmidt Elementary, 12% of the student body has signed up!
At Highgate Heights Elementary in Buffalo, the lead GNC teacher is also a teacher in the school, and is able to incorporate GNC into the after-school care program. This year she was told that the program was restructuring, and only a fraction of the students would be eligible to attend. She wondered if she would have any students in her Club, but praised the Lord for the few kids who attended the first week. About a month later, she reported that she is now up to nine precious children in her Club! Some of these kids are also asking for their own Bibles!
Salvations
Several children have made professions of faith at Good News Clubs already this school year. Here is just one story….
J. is only in second grade, but already has a reputation of being a difficult child. When the GNC teacher saw his name on the sign up list, she knew she’d have her hands full. Thankfully, the first few weeks passed without any major problems, and J. actually seemed to enjoy Club.
About a month in, however, when the GNC teachers checked in at the school office, there was J., sitting in a chair just outside the principal’s office. He made eye contact with the GNC teacher, then put his head down.
The principal walked out and spoke to the teacher, “Our friend here has made some bad choices today, which have hurt people. I can call his mom to send him home, unless you want him to stay?” The teacher wanted to say “Call his mom,” but knew that Jesus died for this little boy, and she had to show His love. “We want him!” she decided.
The Bible lesson that day “happened” (but we know that God puts these things together) to be about the crucifixion of Jesus. One of the lesson pictures showed an image of Christ on the cross, next to a silhouette of a person. A dirty arrow showed that Jesus took the person’s sin, and a clean arrow showed that the person received Christ’s righteousness.
The teacher was talking, but J. wasn’t listening. He was intently studying the flashcard. In the middle of the teacher’s sentence, J. blurted out, “I need that! How can I get that?”
The teacher quickly finished the lesson, so she could talk to J. He prayed right there to receive Jesus as his Savior!
Church Growth
E., a 7-year old Good News Club girl, so impressed her parents with the change they saw in her, that the parents wanted to know what she was learning. They decided to attend the sponsor church’s Sunday morning service. They brought E. and their two older children, one a boy who had attended GNC a few years prior, and the other a teenage daughter. It was E.’s first time ever in a church!
The parents loved the church so much they promised to attend the mid-week prayer service, which they did, and the whole family has been regularly attending the church ever since.
Christmas Party Club
Last school year, God opened an amazing door for us to minister at a transitional housing facility. Some of our volunteers went there each week to host a Good News Club in the lobby for any children who wanted to attend (and their parents, grandparents, hotel employees, random people walking in and out….). It was chaotic but fun, and we were so grateful for the opportunity to minister to them. Over the summer, the hotel emptied out, as the residents were moved into more permanent housing.
This fall, it began to fill back up, and the lead teacher wanted to get back in there. She visited a few times, met some of the new residents who had children, and got enough support to plan a Christmas Party Club. The parents she had met helped pass out invitations to the approximately 40 children who are living in this hotel/housing facility. She purchased small gifts for all the children, stocked up on snacks, and enlisted a few others to help her.
Just two days before Christmas at least 25 children (along with many of their relatives) attended the “Birthday Party for Jesus”. Everyone who came heard the Christmas story, and what Jesus’ birth means to us. Most of these kids were unchurched – none of them knew the words to “Away in a Manger.” The teachers were able to pray with a few children, though many of them were hearing the gospel for the very first time.
The sweetest moment for the lead teacher came at the end of the night when a mom hugged her and cried. This mom has grown up in church but had strayed far from God. She thanked our group again and again for coming, and asked for prayers for herself and her four-year-old son. They have nothing to their name, but she admitted that her greatest need was to get back to Jesus.
