The day had been long, hot and tiring, but it had also been glorious. We had conducted 10 children’s crusades for over two thousand young people and we were on our way back to our hotel. Suddenly, we saw a small location that could work for one more crusade, we had 17 minutes until home time, could we squeeze one more in?
Each children’s crusade goes for just 15 minutes, including a short story, a clear presentation of the gospel, prayer for the Holy Spirit and an invitation for salvation. What a joy it is to see young people respond to the gospel. One look into the eyes of these youth and you can see that they are genuinely choosing to follow Jesus.
“Sorry, sir, but most of the children have gone home. Come back on Monday.” As we walked back to our van, I looked around. Indeed, “most” of the children had gone home, but there were still around 20 children waiting around.
I turned to my leader, “What if we can’t make it back on Monday. We still have 13 minutes, can I please gather the children and preach the gospel!” My heart was burning with love for these children. “Absolutely!”, came his reply. I spoke again to the person overseeing the children’s location. “Yes sir feel free to gather the children!”
I gathered the children there. They were the most gorgeous of children! I introduced myself, “My name is Andrew, and I have come all the way from Australia to speak to you. Do you know what animals we have in Australia? Kangaroos!” The children joined me in hopping up and down like a kangaroo. Then I prayed and began to share. They stood quietly, listening to every word as I shared a story of a little boy and his boat that was washed away by a great wind. We tell this story before sharing the gospel, for the parallels between it and how sin speedsters us from God, are very powerful and work well with the children. As I began to speak of the little boat, I said to the children, “Now I’m going to need a prop to be my little boat! What can I use?” I looked around and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a discarded lid from a child’s lunch box (pictured above). “This will do!” As I held it up I could have fallen over as I saw an image of a kangaroo with a joey in it’s pouch stuck onto the top of this lid! Here I was in West Africa, sharing the gospel with 19 children, holding a picture of a kangaroo in my hands that I had found in the dust. You have to appreciate the chance of this happening! What’s more, after preaching tens of times here, up until this location, I had never introduced myself talking about kangaroos, I don’t even know where that came from!
I finished preaching the gospel, and asked the children if they would like to follow Jesus. Every hand went up. As we left that place a tear began to form in my eye. When I saw that kangaroo with a joey in it’s pouch, I felt the Lord saying to me, “Thank you. Thank you for stopping for the one, thank you for caring for the children, thank you for coming from Australia to here and stopping for the one.” My tear soon turned to tears, as I thought about all the children that need someone to stop for them.
Let me encourage you today with these questions.
1. Who can you stop for today?
2. Where is God sending you?
3. Who can you pray for right now?
I love you and I thank you for partnering with us in this mission.
Andrew
PS- You can partner with the work we do HERE.
- The Scarboroughs - 