2nd Website { Instructions For Trinidad Churches

Instructions for Trinidad Churches…
wishing to participate in this ministry of Child Evangelism

Revised 7-12-09

This is not a request for you to help us with this ministry, but an offer for us to help you to help others. If you can see the Lord building your church in this way, then prayerfully consider it.

CHILD EVANGELISM – How does it work? The photographs on the home page that go with these titles show child evangelism events being conducted as part of a mission trip from the US to Trinidad. This is only an example. These events are meant to be conducted by you and your churches after you receive the barrels. This ministry to the children will only work if it is by the Christians of Trinidad, and for the lost of Trinidad. We will be making more mission trips, but to show you how it works.

With a few resources, we can empower local churches, communities and individuals in Trinidad to change the future through helping the children. We cannot do much to supply the worldly needs of this generation of adults in America, much less in Trinidad. However we can change the future through the children. A child who understands Christ and lives themselves as Jesus did can a impact huge number of people in the course of living their lives. Children have the faith to just accept and live in the ways of God without question. It is harder for adults to surrender all they understand and have worked for and even if they do, the remaining number of years are fewer than a child.

Sanctuary for Children

of Trinidad & Tobago

CHILD EVANGELISM

www.SanctuaryForChildren.org

THIS IS WHAT TO DO

• 1- BEFORE – you sponsor a child evangelism event
• 2- THE EVENT – Guidelines and suggestions
• 3- AFTER – the event

• 1- BEFORE – What you need to do before you sponsor a child evangelism event
• a. Communicate with me-
• i. Make sure you understand
• ii. Once you plan to do this, do not waste this opportunity to;
• 1. Bring children and adults to Christ
• 2. Build your church
• 3. Attract un-churched families
• iii. make the most of it
• b. Receive the Barrels
• i. Communicate with me
• 1. Plan well in advance for
• a. the event and
• b. the arrival of the barrels
• 2. Wait patiently. A lot of steps must be properly completed
• ii. You Pay Customs ( import tax) – It has been about 100- 300 TT per barrel
• 1. Explain to TT government port officials, These items are from a US charity being sent to help a TT ministry; These items are not for resale.
• iii. Protect and store the barrel and its contents. They represent the blood of Christ. Shipping cost is about $200 US per barrel plus the value to the contents donated from many people who trust the Lord that their donation will be properly used, plus a huge amount of time to collect the items, pack and ship the barrel. A barrel in your care becomes your responsibility.
• iv. You also must give accountability s to what it done with the contents.
• v. Pastors or leadership should give out the bibles as they best see fit. They are the most expensive thing we send and the hardest to replace.
• c. To start with, we will send one barrel to responsible ministries if they have made an effort to stay in communication and show responsibility towards following these guidelines. We hope to build continued relationships with this ministries who can make the most of the resources we send. We are selective because we cannot afford to waste what the Lord has provided. These items are free to you, but they represent a sacrifice given by many to the Lord in faith. You are receiving an offering taken up for you.

•2-   THE EVENT – Guidelines and suggestions for the event

• a. Advertise and invite well in advance
• i. Advertise and invite in advance – “Free toys, clothes and bibles for children. Adults welcome. ” Suggestions;
• 1. Word of mouth. Members tell those outside the church. Families they know or ask them to ask any children or those with children
• 2. Flyers
• 3. Whatever you know works
• ii. Adults will come with the children or will come to get clothes for them. That is OK. Use your judgment. Will this possibly bring someone to Christ? The gifts are not for charity but evangelism. Not just for earthly aid but to lead to eternal gain.
• iii. If possible, seek the children Jesus would go after. The unwanted children if it is possible to find them. The free gifts should draw them out.
• 1. Do not worry if they are only coming for the gifts. Many came to Jesus only for His gifts of healing, deliverance or fish and bread and He did not keep them away.
• iv. Target Children who can evangelize others or a home for the Lord. A child who knows the truth about Jesus and will not give in, can cause the rest of the household to come to Jesus just to have peace.
• b. At the event
• i. Have plenty of Adults to help control the children and keep order
• ii. These adults represent your church and Jesus. Make sure they are prepared to continue to minister to those who might want to come back. You want those who come to get the gifts, to come back to your church for the truth of Jesus, of greater value than the gifts
• iii. Plan fun activities for the children. Suggestions
• 1. Skits put on by the Sunday School Children who are already active in your church. Children attract children.
• 2. Snacks, Candy or food
• 3. Stories from the Bible related to evangelism
• a. with pictures or acted out or simply told to hold their interest
• 4. Fun and Assembly with control
• 5. Music. Children’s songs and fun dances or group activity. The point is to make those who came, glad they came.
• iv. A message from the Pastor or church leader
• 1. about the church and the purpose of this event. This is your chance to show them the Lord’s house and invite them.
• 2. about your church and an invitation to come back
• v. THE MAIN PURPOSE – Boldly give the gospel message of Christ as the only way to heaven and earthly blessings. The truth that sets people free. If I were there, this is the main thing I normally do. In preparation, knowing that I only get a small one time chance to tell these children, I pray that the Holy Spirit will use me to speak specific words given to me by the Lord into the heart of each child. I don’t count on getting a second or third or fourth chance like you might expect with those who plan to attend church. Assume they are coming once, only for the gifts. You will not get many chances to keep delivering messages that will get through. I pray that the Holy Spirit will get through and they would receive more than a toy or clothing, but truth of eternal value. My main prayer is that the Lord would use this event that has been prepared for Him to bring those who will bow down and worship Him for eternity to increase His kingdom, for His glory.
• vi. After the message, you can give an invitation to accept Christ.
• vii. Give an invitation to come forward for individual prayer for children and adults. This always brings a large response.
• 1. Have worthy adults prepared, ready and available to minster to these prayer needs and children wanting to accept Christ
• viii. Almost the last thing. Give out gifts and a Bible to each visiting child or adult who wants one. Give the Bibles wisely
• ix. The last thing after they have the gifts and are happy…
• 1. Have members and leaders from your church to talk with and meet the children and adults who came with them. Invite them to come back. Build your church. Develop personal relationships. Find out who you know in common and invite them also
• c. One successful example of what a church did with this
• i. Kingdom Ministries Sunday Night March 22, 2009
• 1. They involved another church even though the child evangelism event was held at Kingdom ministries
• 2. Well in advance, both churches asked church members and children to tell those who were not members to come for fun, free gifs and the event
• 3. They passed out printed flyers
• 4. The other church provided transportation for any children who wanted to come
• 5. They specifically invited children who would not come to church or were not Christian, who would only come to get free gifts
• 6. They had all the Children’s Sunday school teachers present as well as the pastors from both churches and plenty of adults to help ministry and to control the children
• 7. They had musicians, song leaders and children’s songs planned
• 8. The Children from the Sunday school classes put on a Bible story play. Visiting children loved it
• 9. The pastor spoke to the children and led songs
• 10. A member of the mission team led the children in some songs, entertained them with group dancing games and directed the activities with a microphone. The kids were wound up and wanted to come back to that church. If was FUN!
• 11. We handed out crosses the children who wanted them
• 12. I gave the main evangelical message that Jesus Christ is the only way.
• 13. The pastor gave an invitation to the children who wanted to accept Christ. He also gave an invitation to come forward for individual prayer. I was very busy with prayer, but was told 20 children made a decision for Christ
• 14. The member of the mission team directed the children by age groups to go downstairs where the gifts were. The pile of gifts were not in sight and were not a distraction
• 15. The gifts were set out on tables in a controlled room children could not enter. The Adults controlled what was given to each as the children filed by in an orderly and controlled fashion under adult supervision. They were given Bibles as well, if they wanted one.
• 16. I prayed over so many children who had come forward for prayer, the prayer lasted longer than activity. I think every child there came forward for prayer
• 17. Church leaders made efforts to connect with visiting Children to invite them to come back to Sunday School since they had seen the play put on by the children who were already Sunday school members. The children who were members talked and played with the visiting children. Many visiting children said they wanted to come back and asked to be invited. Some needed transportation.

•3-   AFTER – What we need from you after the event

• a. If you conduct the event and never contact us, we cannot send supplies to you for another event.
• i. Pictures of the Event- To be published on the website
• ii. Written testimonies of what happened. To be published on the website
• iii. If you want, send something for Americans to know about your ministry. I will be talking you up in the US.
• iv. Contact information. Ministry and pastors names, addresses, etc.
• b. Purpose of this information
• i. To Americans who have already and will continue to support this, these pictures and written information are the only way they have to know anything about your ministry in Trinidad. Without the connection of communication, we cannot help.
• ii. I have to give account to those who have donated the gifts, the Bibles and paid for shipping.
• iii. If pictures and stories are not sent back in a timely manner, there is no assurance that the gifts made any difference, no proof that they were used in a responsible manner and no incentive for Americans to send more again.
• iv. Every barrel that is wasted, makes it harder to collect donations for all the barrels. Americans are skeptical , with good reason to donations that are lost or not used
• v. Make plans to take care of taking pictures, and writing testimonies, well in advance. Have people prepared and ready well before holding the event.
• 1. Choose trustworthy persons who can and will write
• 2. Choose responsible persons to take pictures and have cameras that work. The photos you see on our website are the kind we need.
• 3. Make sure a responsible person sees that all this is being done and is sent to me quickly, not months later
• vi. After too much time has passed,
• 1. Memories of what happened will be difficult
• 2. It is not possible to take pictures once the event is over.

•c.     Your continued communication. Even if you decide not to do this again, an honest answer will keep the door open. If I never hear anything from you, I will let the Lord lead me to those ministries He shows me to be sincerely interested and responsible. This is His ministry for the children, not mine.

4- What is expected of you

• 1- Responsibility for the donations sent in the barrels.
• a. What the gifts in the barrels represent
• i. The resources we send are provided by those who gave to the Lord in faith. Their donations are being trusted to you. They gave to this ministry trusting that the Lord will make the most of their investment in His kingdom.
• ii. The gifts sent to you were collected from individuals who gave cash and donations as offerings, the same as placing money in their offering plates in their home church.
• iii. Protect the contents of the barrel as you would protect and offering collected in an offering plate.
• 2- Communication, Communication, Communication
• a. If you don’t communicate, we cannot trust resources to you
• b. Communication can be some of these.
• c. It takes more than one way
• i. Phone calls-
• 1. Best for covering business matters already in progress
• 2. Allows rapid discussion and agreement
• 3. Not a good replacement for coving a lot of information that could be read, such as this document.
• 4. Expensive. It cost 4 times as much for me to call you from the US than for you to call me from Trinidad.
• ii. Email- A very fast way to send a lot of written information.
• 1. Requires internet connection or internet café
• 2. If you have internet, get a “majic jack”. www.majicjack,com The initial cost is less than one phone bill for me to call you. After that, your phone calls are free to the US.
• iii. Postal- takes about 2 weeks.
• 1. Necessary to send documents such as this if you don’t have email
• d. Follow up after the event.
• i. Apologies are not a good substitute for photographs or written testimonies.
• ii. These are real some problems that occurred during or after the trip in March.
• 1. If you trust your pictures or stories to someone to send to me, make sure they are not “lost”. 3 hours of Pictures taken by professional photographer were never sent to me. The CD was lost.
• 2. When I was there in March, many churches where events were held were very excited and sincerely promised to contact me, but never did contact me. They expressed an interest in receiving barrels so they could continue child evangelism on their own. I left many cards with contact information. I was looking forward to continuing to help these ministries by sending barrels. I have tried to contact some of them, but they have not answered my messages. The Lord tells me, if after seeing this ministry in action in March, if they are not interested, not to push blessings on them.
• 3. Bibles and other items were left over and those left in charge of these items were going to stay in communication so we could discuss what to do with the items. I contacted them but never received a reply. The leftover clothes toys and bibles were trusted to their care, but I don’t know what happened to them.
• 4. Some churches provided a place to give out the gifts and presents the message of Christ, but no adults or leadership from the church were present. No prior invitations to un churched children had been made. The opportunity was missed to create incentives for the children to come back. Also, the children who came were out of control because the church did not have adults present to help control the children, give out the gifts and to minister to and invite the children back.
• 5. An honest response is better than no response at all. No response or no communication puts me completely in the dark. I can only assume that the ministries who do contact me are not interested.
• 6. If a barrel is sent and there is no communication, all we know in the US is that the donated items may as well have been lost in the ocean. This is no incentive send another barrel.
• iii. If you receive a barrel and do not follow up, these are some obvious consequences
• 1. Churches in America will not see pictures of your ministry or hear stories of what you are doing. Americans cannot help you if they do not know. I will be talking to many Christian organizations in America.
• 2. Choosing to not reply or no communication at all is worse than an honest but negative response. I would rather have the honesty. No communication closes future opportunities for us to work together.
• 3. These donations can only go to those the Lord shows me to be trustworthy and responsible.
• 3- Can these child evangelism events be combined with other events?
• a. Yes. If we can help you build your church and bring children and adults to Christ, that is worthwhile use of these donated items
• b. Talk honestly to us about your ideas. Perhaps the Lord will reveal His desires through you. We do not want to be rigid in our own plans, but sensitive to the Lord working through His body.
• c. This could help build your Vacation Bible school, Christmas events or other child activities or other programs I’m not even aware of. This is the Lord’s ministry. He has trusted me to take care of it and exercise good stewardship over the resources of this ministry.