Jesus commands that his disciples will let the children come to him because children have a rightful place in the heart of God. Since then, the Church has strived to fulfill this commandment to the best of our understanding and means, no matter how meager it may be, in order to carry out our obligations both to the Church and to our sons and to our daughters.
For those who were in worship yesterday, please join me in thanking and praising God for the children who led our Sunday worship. They offered up to God what they have to the best of their ability in their reading of the Scripture, in their singing, and in their acting, just to name a few. The Chapel Hill children, together with all the adults present, made up a chorus of voices in praising, thanking and worshipping God.
With gratitude, I thank the congregation of Chapel Hill for your faithfulness and vision in supporting the different ministries which help provide a safe place for our children to grow in faith, not only for the children who belong to the church family, but also for those who live in the neighborhood of Chapel Hill. I’d also like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Dawn Self, Lamar Smith, and to all the parents, teachers, and volunteers who spent time and effort to pass on their faith to the next generation through both their teaching and by lovingly nurturing their faith within the children.
I don’t know what the future will hold for these children, the work they will do, the lives they will touch, or who they will marry, but I do know that the church has provided them a glorious foundation upon which to stand.
Just think about it and look around and see what the Church must compete against. Our society offers every possible way to capture our children’s attention and to mold their thoughts and the way they perceive life from the most amazing toys to imaginative games and all sorts of high-tech and sophisticated electronic gadgets. The best minds of the advertising industry together with the talents of people in the movies and television spend billions of dollars each year finding ways to shape our children’s habits in order to mold the way they perceive the world in order to sell their next product or promote their next movie or television show, often adversely affecting both our children’s basic moral fabric and inner beliefs.
It is in this setting that the church, seemingly out of place, teaches them something completely counter to the very culture within which they are growing up. The church is the only place, after their families, that teaches them that God loves them unconditionally; that each is a precious child of God; and that no matter what others tell them or try to make them believe, that they need to hang on to the belief that God created them and that God truly loves them and that they are beautiful in Jesus’ eyes.
No one knows what the future will hold for our children and for those children that Chapel Hill hosts through the Project Transformation. Some might grow up and attend Ivy League schools while others might not have the means to attend college. Some might become famous and get national recognition while others are content and happy to simply serve as unsung heroes. We don’t know. However, there is one thing I know with certainty, that some day, each will have experienced hardship, disappointment, rejection, betrayal, and failure. It will be in these times that I pray and hope that the love and teaching that these children receive through Chapel Hill coupled with the grace of God will sustain them and give them the strength they need to weather the storms of life.
~ Mai
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