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