Carolyn Cummings, Aim’s Children’s Ministry Consultant, believes that ministry among children is not just a good thing for the children but for society as a whole. She also thinks it is good for the Mission. Here she explains why.

Consider the birth of a baby giraffe. The mother gives birth standing up which means her newborn drops about 6 feet… Thud! as the calf hits the ground. Welcome to life in the wild, baby! Within 15 minutes the infant giraffe is up and running alongside its mother. God designed giraffes this way to give them a fighting chance at survival. The vast majority of their actions are wired into their small brains through instinct, so while they do have stuff to learn, most of what they need for life is already there.

Consider the birth of a human baby. Besides crying, it isn’t able to do much of anything in the first 15 minutes after birth, nor for many days and months to come. It is totally dependent on others for all its needs and would not survive long without care. God did not wire human brains with an abundance of instincts, instead he left lots of room for learning. And God’s master plan for providing that learning is the family. His design and desire is to see children nurtured and loved and taught by parents with a support system of family and community. Sadly, many children lack what God wants for them.

Children can break the cycle of poverty and the sinful patterns of behaviour within society that kept their parents down.

The impetus behind Aim’s ministries to children is to see God’s intentions for the upbringing of children fulfilled, allowing them to reach their potential. But the goal of children’s ministry is the same as Aim’s: to plant maturing churches and train up leaders. Our desire for Aim’s churches is that they would reflect God’s kingdom on earth, the ‘upside-down’ community of Jesus-followers that included lepers, prostitutes, tax-collectors… and children sitting on his lap receiving blessings. Churches should be places where families are supported and the child, whose home life does not adequately provide what is needed, is welcomed.

Snapshots

So how do Aim’s children’s ministries contribute to planting upside-down, kingdom-reflecting, maturing churches? Here are a few snapshots:
During school holidays Vreni Bachman and Brigitte Lauppi have made the churches of Nandi District in Western Kenya places of fun with games, singing, crafts, stories and much laughter. They have written and designed several sets of Holiday Bible School curricula and trained volunteers to use them in churches. Thousands of children attend these Bible clubs in over one hundred and eighty churches every year. That’s a lot of children having a lot of fun in God’s house.

Kathleen Quellmalz thinks the church can provide a safety net for children who may otherwise end up living on the street. Children are on the streets for many reasons, but the most common is an inadequate family life. After years of helping street boys in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, Kathleen and her team from Safina Street Network are focusing on training church volunteers to identify at-risk families in towns and help them take care of their children so they don’t end up in the streets of the big city. Safina volunteers take their churches onto the streets and into the homes of their communities.

In the mountains of Lesotho, August Basson thinks the church should be teaching farmers how to farm better so they can feed their children nutritious food. After experimenting with many different techniques, August started promoting ‘Farming God’s Way’, a farming method that coaxes the most out of poor soil. Farmers in his community using these methods have increased their yields by 25%, even in times of drought. Increased food supplies means children are eating better and people affected by Aids are feeling stronger. August and his wife Anita are moving to another part of Lesotho so they can mobilize more churches to train more farmers.

Because Jesus did

Why should Aim care about children? The number one reason has to be because Jesus did. And secondly, because there are a lot of children in Africa and in African churches. Children can break the cycle of poverty and the sinful patterns of behaviour within society that kept their parents down. Spirit-filled children have the energy and boldness to transform communities.

Children need the church to be part of their nurturing support network as they grow up. But the church also needs its children - in all their glorious chaos - singing songs, chanting memory verses, lapping up the wonderful stories of God dealing with his people. Through this they energise us all and give us hope for the future. One evidence of a ‘maturing’ church is one that welcomes the little ones as it would welcome Jesus himself.

Africa’s children

• Over 40% of primary school-aged children in Africa are out of school. One in three of those who are enrolled in primary education will not complete school. (Unicef)
• About 120,000 African children are participating in armed conflicts. Some are as young as seven years old. (Africa Children’s Charter). Children account for half of all civilian casualties in wars in Africa (Africa 2015)
• Five million African children under five years of age died last year. This is 40% of deaths of children under five worldwide. Malnutrition was a key contributor in half of those deaths. In Africa, children under five not only died at 22 times the rate of children in wealthy countries, but twice the rate for the entire developing world. (International Herald Tribune)
• But when there is peace and stability, progress can be made as this statistic from Mozambique shows: Deaths of children under five have fallen from 235 per thousand in 1990 to 138 per thousand in 2006 — still very high (Europe is less than10 per thousand), but an indication of increasing prosperity. (Unicef)

Carolyn Cummings

Carolyn Cummings was brought up in New York but now claims Boston as home. It is there that her interest in missions was fostered and where her main supporting church is located. She has been in Kenya since 1989, serving as a teacher in Bible colleges (Ukamba Bible College and Pwani Bible Institute) and, since 2002, as the Children’s Ministry Consultant for the International Office. This role has combined well her interest in children and children’s ministry, and her desire to support those working with African children in hard circumstances.