Lazarus had his party in Heaven!

Lazarus and the rich man from Luke 16 was our story today. And what a good time we had with it! We had a real angel, well almost, anyway sometimes Verna can act like an angel and today she was. Verna and Alexis worked hard on those wings, too bad they are for looks only. Angelique did a great job today as she narrated the story. Like I said it's almost as fun to watch the kids watch the story. They seems to form a wall for the 'players' as the story unfolded. It was really cool. The rich guy, played by King Abraham had a party which got interrupted by the beggar. Well, both died and then enter 'Angel' Verna to carry the beggar to heaven, however satan showed up to escort the rich guy into hell. We even had some dramatic lighting portraying hell. Well, what else to preach but a real heaven and a real hell, but we also emphasized how they both arrived at their eternal destinies. It was so fun to preach, you could see how the story gripped certain ones as the preaching progressed. The power is in the gospel according to Romans 1 so we preached the Word in such satisfying way today. We then lead a mass prayer to receive Jesus. If you would have been present you would have sensed the saving Presence of the Holy Spirit as He recreated the hearts of many children and even parents today! What a job! Thank you again partners for all your support! This is fruit that will abound to your eternal account. For many more pics go here. Love, Verna and Mark

Forgiveness-Gotta do it!

It was a great day, to minister forgiveness as the Lord helped us lots. We had 39 pray to receive Jesus! Awesome! Angelique directed the reenactment of the story from Matthew 14 on forgiveness. Germaine was the forgiven servant dressed in glasses and big nose. It's always fun to watch the kids watch the story. Verna and I (Mark) then ministered more in depth. The anointing was present to help and we could really see some of them identifying with the examples of unforgiveness. The Lord gave us a simple ideal of using black paper to signify unforgiveness. I asked someone for a piece of black paper, well, this was a special black paper that had a white side to it as well. It worked perfect to demonstrate unforgiveness (black) and forgiveness (white). Sometimes some of the simplest things can bring the clearest meaning. I believe they got it. We ended leading them in a prayer of forgiveness. In the second service with the A-Team kids we have been ministering on Faith. This week we started at Romans 4:17, calling things that be not as though they were. Well we got to the point where we said money has ears, and they all laughed. It was a laugh of unbelief, well they never heard that before. We worked on them some. Verna reminded them of Jesus encounter with the fig tree and how it heard him. More work to do, but it is so rewarding. Thanks to all who are supporting us, this is your fruit! More Pics click here. Love, Verna and Mark!!

Summer Summary! - A Great Year!

We have had such a great time this summer and now fall. Our attendance has been sustained beyond anything we've seen since starting, which means we are reaching more kids than ever. Jesus is the Lord of the Harvest, and He certainly loves this harvest field. Every week we are just amazed to watch and see what happens during this service. We have had many, many new births, even some parents and older siblings. We started this summer to teach the kids to give, so each service we minister about giving and then receive an offering. One girl really liked to give so she gave a little bear, doughnuts, earrings. Some of the things we have ministered to include: wrong friends, pride, jealousy, wisdom. Bible stories of the 9 lepers, Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar and more. If you are a part of this ministry, you are helping us reach these children for Jesus and you won't loose your reward. For more pics see here. Love, Mark and Verna

Party Spirit

Hello, last week we introduced a subject that we have noticed quite a lot since our tenure here in Manila. That is "grupo" or groups, or what the Bible calls 'party spirit.' The kind of 'grupos' we are talking about are very unhealthy and separates the children unnecessarily and causes hurts and fights. This has even tried to creep into our childrens church!!! Well we are not ignorant of satan's devices. We went on this week to pull the covers off his tactics against our children. Angelique did the 'soap-opera' portion of our service. The kids love to see the story in action. Attendance was tops, we did the altar call, as a group event. We ended the preaching with the best group to be with is the "Jesus Group." That led to a neat salvation message which involved a 'gift'. This type of preaching can be 'on the spot', someone had a gift-bag, so we used that to demonstrate our point. Well you have to receive any gift no matter how nice or good. So, we led them all to receive, there was a really good anointing as Verna led them all in a Salvation prayer. This week was also reward week for inviting and rewards for the A-Kids efforts of attendance and memory verse. The top inviter, Rhea had 29 kids, Awesome! Love- Mark and Verna. Click here for more pics.

3 Weeks of Increase!

Praise God! We've had great 3 weeks since our last post. Starting with over 48 kids pray to receive Jesus!!! during this time. That's Awesome with 28 of those today. The kids are doing a great job inviting. Of course we reward them for inviting. One boy, El Roderick invited 34 and Jason Ray another 14 + many others who have continued to invite. We did have a contest a couple of months ago to invite kids, but this is just extra. Today we had over 180 kids. This is the largest amount of kids for a regular weekly service ever!!! It's our heart to do transformational teaching each week. So this week we started with the story of Mary found in John 12 when she broke the Alabaster box on the feet of Jesus. He said wherever the Gospel was preached this story would be told. Well, His words rang out in Manila today as we retold the story. Angelique (Codename: Gel) did a great job on the narration as usual and then Verna and I finished up and preached from there. We preached, this woman's very expensive gift was received by Jesus, and that she gave her best. We asked the kids what they could give that Jesus would receive. Some answered prayer, faith, love, kindness. We then told the story when Jesus watched the widow give her two mites in the offering and then we taught the kids on giving. We have never took up an offering during this childrens ministry, but that all changed today. We said this woman gave her best, and that we weren't looking to take their money, but that God would bless them for their giving. All I can say is the Spirit of God bore witness to what we were doing. One girl gave a little stuffed toy and then her earrings. Of course we didn't want to take them, but because we knew her heart and the preciousness of all this we received them for Jesus. It was a special time. The last two weeks we ministered the story of Blind Bartameaus and then had a healing line as we preached Jesus 'the same yesterday, today and forever.' Another ministry here in Manila blessed our childrens ministry so we had a spaghetti dinner. Kids in the Philippines love spaghetti, and this is a special treat for these kids. We also rewarded some of the aforementioned kids for inviting. The big gifts were remote control cars. The week before we preached on the publican and the Pharisee. We had some castouts come to the 'church' and pray who were then harassed by 'religious' people to demonstrate the modern day Pharisees. You can see more pictures here from the last three weeks. In His Love, Mark and Verna

Dinner with the King!

The last two weeks have been great. Attendance is really at record levels. Plus the greatest thing is that Children are being born again! Last week we had a slice of the life of Joseph. Since we arrived early Verna started to worship early and I think she ended singing almost all the regular songs we use. It was a really good time of worship with the kids. We endeavor to teach the kids how to worship, and sometimes the anointing is really precious. This week we ministered on the king who was holding a feast. He invited many guest, all who had excuses why they could not attend. Eventually the 'unwanted' became the wanted and the feast was a great success. Angelique (not shown) is our main storyteller and then Verna and I (Mark) finish up. We preached on the second return of Jesus. It was lots of fun the kids seemed to focus well. Of course you have to be over animated, which I thoroughly enjoy to do. We are blessed to send the smaller children upstairs which allows us to be more effective with the older ones. We are also telling the children to invite their parents. I think last week we had 3 parent in attendance. Praise God for what he's doing. To see more pics go here. With Love - Mark & Verna

Coming Home, the prodigal son

Prodigal means wasteful, I never knew the real meaning of that word. We had a great time today. As the story was being enacted, I looked and there was not a kid sitting. They were watching so intently. It's lots of fun making these stories come to life, especially when they are fun and today was no exception. We had real pigs, almost... Of course the prodigal son and his mean older brother, and even a party time with the prodigal and his partymates, BH. That's before hunger. Well he ran out of cash, no one would give him anything over in partyland, and then he tried to be a servant for what was already his. His Father said no, you can't serve for what is already yours. That is good news. After the story we split the kids at 6 years and had two groups. The bigger kids we preached the story in a little more detail downstairs and the little ones went upstairs with Noel, one of our trusted helpers. It helps to split the kids. Also after the Praise and Worship, there was a tangible presence of the Lord before we started teaching. It's great to be apart of a ministry that is so enjoyable. I will sometimes walk around and make eye contact with the children, no language is needed as they will always smile at me after I look at them for a few seconds. Praise God for the Harvest of Children. You can see more pictures here. We had 10 pray to receive Jesus and over 120 in attendance. Praise Him!!! Love, Mark and Verna

David and Go-liath

What's better than last week, well, this week of course with the Story of David and Goliath. We are blessed with helpers who make the story come to life. We all think in images, and it's easier to relate some of these concepts when the kids have a fresh image in their minds. We had lots of performers along with D & G, we had the Israeli army and the 'Palestino's'. After the reenactment we taught on courage for a while, and then talked about the source of David's courage. We had 'David' play his harp-guitar and talked about him worshipping the Lord. We then had one brave girl come to the front and sing, best she could, while Verna played. Then we worshipped together. We don't sing, or at least try really hard not to. We want the kids to actually worship the Lord. You can go here for more photos. In the A-kids we followed up with the story of Jesus and the Disciples crossing the sea found in Mark 4. One of the Greek words for fearful bring out the word courage. It was a fun day. We had about 5 pray to recieve Jesus, and then later 3 more outside while Verna was practicing music for Sunday. One of the rewards we get is to see these kids worshipping the Lord. To me it's better than thousands of adults. Love to you, -Mark and Verna

Fire, Music and a Big Guy!

Hello Everyone, Well this week with the children was probably one of my favorites for a while. The story centered on the 3 Hebrew children. We enacted the whole seen with the use of the helpers and the kids. We had music for the 'bowing to the big guy' part and of course no bowing ceremony would be complete without a 'big guy' to bow to!! There was lots of excitement in the room as the 'musicians' began to play, and just like in the Bible, our 3 Hebrews did not bow. Well this causes a stir and as you probably know the rest of the story, the three were thrown in the fiery furnace. We then went on to preach using the 'big guy' as our focus. We used him in the context of peer pressure. We said, We've seen this guy at your school, in your neighborhood. They were amazed and you could see the look on their faces, "At my neighborhood?" Then we went on to describe his different tactics, how he uses friends to get them to 'bow' to wrong things. It was tons of fun. I got to act out some of the examples, like stealing a pencil, how that turns into something bigger, like... a guitar. I then took the guitar and acted as I was stealing it. Glue sniffing is popular here, so we demonstrated that as well. You could see it register on some of the kids.

In the A-kids we continued the theme and talked about Joseph and how by making Godly decisions and refusing to bow to the pressure that he became second in command and how God saved his family. I know that one boy was squirming in his seat concerning wrong friends. We desire to preach a word that transforms them. We desire that each child will receive something from to Lord to take home each week. That's one way you can help us pray, for a door of utterance into the hearts of the children. We had over 120 kids, so we give God all the Glory. For more pics go here. Love, -Mark and Verna

Rock or Sand - House Building 101

This week we taught on the parable of the wise and foolish man. We had some good props, which really help the kids to see what we are teaching. To the left, is Abraham, the 'sand man'. He built his house very quickly and proceeded to give the 'rock man' (right) a hard time for taking time and doing things the right way and building on the Rock. Alexis, Verna's brother narrated the first part of the story. This is a very good story to tell children. We picked one point from the story and then began to teach to the children. We used a big set of ears, and talked about the man with the rock house and how he simply listened to people who knew how to build houses, and then of course, the sand man, he didn't listen. We went on to explain that we have to listen to our parents and obviously Father God. It was fun wearing the big ears, at one point in the story I moved the ears to my stomach, to demonstrate that's where we hear, and then put the ears on the rock house, to further illustrate that he listened, and his house didn't fall down. We had 5 kids pray to receive Jesus which is always a highlight of all we do. Two of the boys we very excited as we told them a salvation story. The interjections they gave were right. One boy said Jesus came to take away our sins. Tama! or correct in Tagalog. It was fun as Verna led them in the sinners prayer. In the A-kids, we let Angelique minister for a few minutes. Her subject was on following the plan of God for your life. We followed up with some of our own stories and encouraged the kids along those lines. For more pics go to http://cwol.jalbum.net/ Love, -Mark

And the winner is...

The Winner of our inviting contest is Ken Vincent. Ken (with the bike) brought 39+ kids to childrens church during our campaign. We had a total of over 136 visitors. Our highest attendance during this time was about 140 kids. Oliver was the runner up with 35 kids. It was a great thing we had 75+ kids saved during this time.

Our teaching this week was on the four kinds of soil found in Mark 4. Angelique, Verna's sister (blue t-shirt) did the first teaching. It's our desire to train others, so this is a good place to develop preachers. She did a great job. Verna and I followed up. I used a glass of clean water to demonstrate how God wants our hearts pure. We then poured in some dirt, it then dirtied the water in a convincing way. We asked them "Would you like a drink?" We went on to describe things that 'dirty' our hearts. We had 2 mothers there who came and prayed to receive Jesus. One left weeping as Jesus came into her heart!!

In our A-Kids we taught about giving. How it's apart of the Kingdom, we used Luke 6:38 as our main text. It was reward day so all the regulars received what they requested, notebooks for school, backpacks, t-shirts, etc. We want to love in deed and truth and demonstrate that God will supply their needs. -Mark

A day of Giving

Today 5/31/08 we taught on the Good Samaritan. We started with an object lesson, and then a reenactment of the story. It always exciting to see the children watching so closely. We, had a Pari (priest) a religious person (The Levite) and then the Samaritan. It was lots of fun. Verna finished with a skit. It was about how the two dirty girls where whisk away by a rich person, then two older girls came and cleaned them up, and gave them something to eat. Then to tie it all together, Verna and I (Mark) preached out the meaning. I thought I would minister more along the lines of the parable, but it seemed right to talk about giving. So we ministered along those lines, how that we are in a Kingdom and one of the principles is to give. We used scriptures familiar such as John 3:16 and Luke 6:38. It can be a real act of faith to minister to many kids at different age groups, but we believe God!!! That's what makes each Saturday so different and rewarding. We have one more week left in our inviting contest, so we will show the winners with their prizes next time. We had 12 pray to receive Jesus today!!! That is the best part of it all. Love to all!! - Mark & Verna

And it keeps growing...

We had a bigger attendance than we've had for quite some time, about 140 or so. We are currently having an "inviting contest." It helps motivate the kids, well one boy brought 20. So that was quite well. Verna ministered on "adan and eva" or "Adam and Eve." She enacted it with the help of several helpers and some of the children with props. She used our dragon puppet in a tree with the 'fruit'. The kids were really excited and then she had Cain and Abel with their offering and then the murder. We had Jesus and satan characters as well. Verna demonstrated with word badges different things that satan brought into the world like sin, sickness, death, poverty and hunger. She had different kids, who had dark makeup wear those word badges. Our 'satan' character gave them the words to wear. Then she had the good things that Jesus brought to man like salvation, heaven, eternal life, healing and abundance. 'Jesus' gave the good words. It was fun and visual.This morning, I was looking at a book and read "sometimes you have to say No!" I knew this was for the kids so after she finished her part. We ministered on the word "No!" We built it up big! by saying all of the pain, suffering, murders, hurt, stealing could have been stopped with this strong, powerful, etc. word. Many guessed different things like Jesus, faith, obedience. Good words, but not the word for the time when Adam and Eve were being tempted. It, of course, was NO! or Hindi in Tagalog. We said you have to say No! to enticing friends who won't always appear as Satan. We used the 'satan' and said temptation won't always look like this, but sometimes like our friends. It ended with us praying with 31 kids praying to receive Jesus!!!It took some more preaching to get the attention of that many kids, but He is Able and the Anointing to save souls is awesome.Lastly we had doorprizes giveaways. We gave out notebooks, food, candy bars, rice, snacks, it was very exciting for the kids. -Mark

21 Saved in the Childrens Ministry

5/17/2008 was a great day, we had 21 saved, we taught on the Centurion. Verna and Alexis made a costume and acted it out. Verna and I then preached to them, and we said that this man got a miracle for someone else, and that they may need to do the same for someone else. I told a personal story about how God rented my house out when I moved to Tulsa, and that He still does miracles. We led them in a prayer that God would do a miracle for them, and you could sense the Spirit as we led them in that prayer. I wanted to be the one God would use to get them new slippers, all the school supplies and other things. We are currently having an inviting contest and it is working too good! When we led the children to receive Jesus, the expression on their faces after we prayed was priceless. I could see just a sobering/life of God look on them that was just amazing. We pray with a lot of kids so we know the saving presence of God, and we definitely had it today. We then played a game as a fun time together, it was tug-o-war, they had a blast. The advanced learners got a taste of spirit soul and body from 1 Thessalonians 5:23. We demonstrated with 3 boys. The body was a smaller boy and they all laughed. Then the boy got saved and got a new spirit, another boy. I got revelation as I taught them. We also read the story of the rich man and Lazarus and preached from that. Our advanced class is about 30 minutes or so and we want these kids to grow in the things of God. The team did a great help in volunteering today, each did a great job in helping with the kids.

Our First Entry

Hello From Mark and Verna Lanier,

We will use this forum to keep all our parnters and friend up to date concerning events here in Manila. Thanks for your support and prayers!!!