Be like a child.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
-Matthew 18:1-3
Here’s a story from Grace Kids Company, our children’s ministry at Grace: back in October, the K/1 (kindergarten and first grade) room in GKC launched a campaign for the kids to raise money to build a house in Guatemala through Missions Frontier, one of Grace’s Frontline ministries and a short-term trip site. Missions Frontier, led by Matt and Leslie Capehart, is a missions organization that supports the local church through Kingdom business, short-term trips, education, and community projects. My wife, Carrie, will be going on the short-term trip to Chichicastenango, Guatemala from April 2-10, with a team from Grace (the team has started a blog here and will post updates while in Guatemala).
Anyway, through Grace’s Christmas catalog, the kids in K/1 found out that $1,200 would be enough money to build a house for a family in Guatemala who didn’t have one. They decided to do something about this, so they set up a large bank container in their hallway and these 6-7 year old kids got to work raising money.
For a good while, Noah had been saving for a toy he wanted. After weeks of saving, he had $17. Noah told his parents that he had decided, instead of buying the toy, to give it all to K/1 Crossing for the house to be built for the family in Guatemala. Knowing how much he wanted this toy, and how hard and long he had worked to save it, his parents assured him that it would be okay to consider giving part of his savings. Without hesitation, he answered. “No, I want to give it all.” And that’s just what he did!
A mom told us about her daughter’s desire to raise money to donate to the Guatemala project. Since it was around the holidays, the little girl decided to bake pies and sell them for “10 cents or however much people wanted to give.” In the first week, the little girl had sold 2 pies, for $10 each, and brought in all that money. By the end of the collection time, this girl had brought in $110 from baking pies!
By Christmas, the K/1 kids raised just over $1,300 in mostly quarters and dollar bills! This goes to show that it this was kid money–their parents didn’t help them much at all. Carrie will now go to Guatemala and help build the house the K/1 kids raised money for. She will be able to bring back pictures and stories to the kids about the house and the people of Chichicastenango, Guatemala.
The point is–these kids get it. They were told that some families don’t have houses in Guatemala. They did what they could to help. Now, a family will have a home in Chichicastenango because a group of compelled 6 and 7 year-olds put their childlike faith into action.
What holds us back from being like that?
