Child Evangelism Fellowship Greater Buffalo
Reaching children with the Gospel in Greater Buffalo, New York.
M came to Good News Club but no one came to pick her up. We finally reached someone to come get her after an hour and a half wait. We learned a lot about her life from this relative. Her Dad was in jail and Mom was going to court to see if she would be keeping her children. M has continued to attend club and you can hear her singing the Good News Club songs softly by herself. After a few weeks, M trusted Jesus to be her Savior. Now she has a heavenly Father to watch over her. She continues to attend club and to hear about her heavenly Father and His love for her!
When we shifted from in-person classes to online classes, we were discouraged because it’s really hard to build personal, one-on-one relationships with the kids from behind a screen. One boy in particular, J, had questions about salvation, but there just wasn’t an opportunity to talk to him without all the other kids listening and watching too. We didn’t want him to be self-conscious, so we just prayed for God to work in the situation.
This past Tuesday, we started our Zoom class at 4:00 like usual and…no one logged on. We waited, and waited, but nobody came. About 4:15 we were about to give up, we heard the “ping!” that someone was there. It was J! God had answered our prayer. For some unknown reason, he was the only one that came to the club that day.
We spent about 20 minutes sharing the Wordless Book, and answering his questions. At the end of the discussion we asked if he wanted to pray to accept Jesus as Savior. He got a little shy, so we told him he could do it later in his own bedroom. He said ok, then asked if he could end the call – he wanted to go pray right then!
After the Bible lesson in our Good News Club each week, we have an “invitation” time, where any children with questions about the lesson can speak to a teacher one-on-one. After a lesson on Cain and Abel, 4th grader R had some serious questions. He just couldn’t understand how one brother could be so angry as to kill his own brother!
As we talked about sin I asked if any one of us could say we are perfect, without sin, never having disappointed anyone or hurt anyone’s feelings or broken a rule. Maybe we haven’t murdered our own brother, but… R said, “No! We’ve all sinned. I know I’ve done wrong things!”
He asked several more questions about forgiveness, Christ’s dying on the cross in our place, and that all we need to do is believe that He did that for us personally. With joy all over his face Rex said, “That’s it?! That’s all I have to do?!” I showed him Acts 16:31 and how “believ(ing) on the Lord Jesus Christ” is all that’s necessary to be saved.
Just at that moment another student interrupted to ask a completely irrelevant question! I was so sure this would throw off R, and he would lose focus. I quickly answered the other student, and turned back to R. To my surprise, he was quietly praying on his own.
After a minute or so, he looked at me and said, “So, now I’m saved?”
I said, “If you believe Jesus died for your sins, and is the only way to get to heaven. Is that what you were praying about?”
He grinned and nodded, and was so excited; it was absolutely contagious! I grinned right along with him, and told him that we were brother and sister now. He asked if that meant that if some little old lady who passes by on the street is also saved that she would be his sister too, and then laughed in delight!