“I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.” (Ps. 89:1 ESV, emphasis added)
Sue, Katie and I had the blessed opportunity to volunteer for an MTW (Mission to the World) area retreat held in Crete. We so appreciate all the support and prayers for us and all of the missionaries and other volunteers. Although we were serving missionaries from a different area of the world, if you had the chance to hear about Brenda’s trip this past Spring we were in the same place doing similar things. There are four “areas” and each one has a retreat every four years. We had the blessing of serving the Africa area! They won’t have another retreat all together like this until 2026 so it was a special time for them to reconnect. COVID had stopped the retreats for some time which was why the Europe area met in the spring of this year. Next up is the Americas—where the retreat will be held somewhere in this hemisphere next October.
MTW’s home office (in the Atlanta area) does a good job of balancing times for worship, various seminars, and down time to relax and talk. There were worship services every morning and times of prayer every evening except one (a day off for everyone—even the volunteers) and the praise team were volunteers from Chapelgate, so Chesapeake Presbytery was well represented. There were lots of seminars to choose from in the afternoon as well as counselors and Member Care teammates to talk with as needed. We were able to have breakfast with Dan and Janet McBride ourselves one morning.
I do not know exactly how many missionaries were able to attend, but the Children’s Ministry volunteers cared for about 30 children, infants through 8 years old. And the Youth Ministry (which included tweens (9-11) up through college age) I heard had almost three times that many! Praise the Lord!!
Eric and Anna Graham (missionaries with NEXT), who were here at our Missions Conference on Saturday, were also there in Crete working with the older youth. NEXT is the ministry of MTW with the purpose of “serving the global church in reaching the next generation for Christ.” (see https://www.nextconnect.org/what).
The three of us served with a dozen other volunteers, three of whom worked in the nursery. We watched and worked with these precious children from 8:45 in the morning until the 12:30 lunch break and then again in the afternoon until dinner. We could also offer to babysit in the evening. Our program in the morning used a modified VBS with the big idea that our God is an Awesome God. I had the privilege of teaching the Bible story along with the other pastor who volunteered with his teenage son. We studied the life of Joseph from Genesis 37-50 and learned about God’s love for us even as we are sinners, how God cares for us no matter where we are (even in prison!), and how God is in control of all things and works them all out for His glory and our good. As the Holy Spirit reminds us through Joseph’s words to his brothers: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen. 50:20 ESV).
Jesus loves the little children (Luke 18:16) and so should we. One of the joys of be-ing a member of our church family is serving the little ones with the love of Jesus. Have you thought and prayed about how you might do that? How could you bless the covenant children of our church? It includes volunteering (for the nursery, children’s church, Sunday school, or VBS), but there are lots of ways that we can show and share the love of Christ with the little ones God has blessed us with hav-ing around for a time. Whether they are infants or elementary age or older, we are called to welcome them, love them, and even be like these little ones! As Jesus says to his disciples: “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Lk. 18:17 ESV, emphasis added).
May God help us and bless us, and may the Lord greatly bless the little ones!
Pastor David