By Carol and Jim Plueddemann
In recent years many have awakened to the horrible realities of suffering children around the world. We weep for the abuse and exploitation millions of children face in today’s sick world of slavery, child labor, child soldiers, street children and prostitution rings.
In this reality, the story of Naaman and the young slave girl in 2 Kings 5 takes on new meaning. Imagine the horror this child survived when bands from Aram raided Israel and took children as slaves. She ended up in the house of Naaman, commander of Aram’s army. Who knows what life was like for this young girl snatched away from her family and living in a strange country? No doubt she was treated as a piece of property, abused and dehumanized.
But look what God did in this dark situation: the child slave pointed Commander Naaman to God Almighty! “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel,” Naaman confessed. The slave girl became one of the most influential missionaries in the Old Testament.
Children today represent both great need and great potential. We must cry out against the atrocities they face, but we can take comfort in our God, the Redeemer. He can change the most awful evil into good. A child can be a mighty asset in breaking open an entire culture to hear God’s voice.
Who knows how God might use the child slaves from southern Sudan who have been taken from their Christian families and sold into Islamic nations? God may penetrate dark cultures with his light, and perhaps children will be the key.
A young man at a missions conference told us, “I’d like to serve in missions, but I don’t have a lot of skills. I just work with children.” Just? Nothing is more important—or more demanding. It’s a huge challenge to learn how children develop and learn in order to help them understand spiritual truths in a life-changing way. Children’s ministries call for the best we can offer.
Here are three big reasons why missions should renew emphasis on children’s ministries:
1. Children are most often victims during times of turmoil. The needs of hurting children are greater than ever.
2. Children are often sensitive to Jesus’ tug on their lives and seem to see with unusual eyes of faith. A high percentage of believers decided to follow Christ as children.
3. As the story of Naaman shows, children make wonderful missionaries.
Let’s pray faithfully for children who are in perilous situations. Ask God to protect them and deliver them. Pray for those who are working to change unjust practices.
Pray, too, that children will be a means of blessing to the adults around them. Often children are more open to the gospel and then become the means of bringing adults to Christ.
Pray for missionaries who reach out to children through camping programs, street children’s ministries, feeding centers and Bible clubs. Encourage and support these efforts. Make sure that children’s ministries are honored for the important and strategic part they play in world missions.
Those who minister to children often lack the status of those working with adults. May God call and prepare many to minister to the world’s children. It is a high calling that demands the finest minds and most creative energies to reach these who have great needs and great potential.
