Let the little children come to me
God loves children! Just look at Jesus’ response in Matthew 19, when some parents wanted to bring their children to him to be blessed. Maybe the kids were a little rowdy. Maybe the disciples felt that Jesus’ discussion with the Pharisees was too serious and important to be interrupted. The disciples rebuked the parents, but Jesus intervened. He blessed the children and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus didn’t say, “Wait until they are of age so they can make an informed decision.” He said, “Let them come”. We take that very seriously at CfaN.
Over ten million children – so far this year!
Over the past six years, hundreds of evangelists who have graduated from CfaN evangelism training have received further training for preaching to children. This specialized training was developed by Jako and Karin Hugo, who lead CfaN Youth Campaign initiatives all over the world.
This year so far, CfaN-trained evangelists have preached the Gospel to over ten million children in Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America, seeing millions respond to Jesus. This has happened through thousands of Youth Campaigns, organized by CfaN evangelists. Some preach in their own countries. Others come together from many nations, combining their resources to conduct what we call a ‘Fire Wave.’
Fire Waves reach whole regions
A Fire Wave is when teams of evangelists descend on one region, aiming to reach every village and town with Youth Campaigns. That often means going the extra mile – and a lot further! – to bring the Gospel to every child in the area, to the best of the evangelists’ ability.
It’s grueling, hard work. Days are long and tiring and conditions are often extremely difficult. They face sickness, danger and deprivation for the sake of the Gospel. But it is all worth it when the Holy Spirit takes the stage, and precious children have an encounter with God.
CfaN School of Evangelism graduates, Daniel and Katrin Smenes (Jesus to all Nations), have a heart for the children of Africa. This year, they gathered 30 evangelists to go to Kenya, and 40 more to Tanzania. Ruth Kopp and Heidi Bossert (also SoE graduates) organized weeks of non-stop outreaches. Heidi shared this story with us from Kenya, a great glimpse of what a day doing this vital work is like.
We won’t let anything stop us!
“My eyes were fixed on the motorcycle rider in front of us. We followed him closely in our car, determined that this time we would reach our destination. Three times over the past few days we had already tried to get to a remote village north of Mount Kenya. We knew that many children lived there, children who needed hope. Our hearts burned with the desire to bring them the message of hope, the Gospel.
But no matter which route we tried, we simply couldn't find one our vehicle could handle. Walking wasn't an option because the distance was too far. So, we prayed for a solution. And as we prayed, we knew that people around the world were praying for us, too.
A simple idea came to mind, and we put it into action immediately. We asked around for a trustworthy local motorcycle rider who knew the area and could guide our vehicle through the rocky terrain. If the road became impassable, we planned to ride the final kilometers on his motorcycle.
Now, we had already been traveling for over an hour. After countless twists, turns, and winding tracks, I had completely lost my sense of direction. Only the map on my phone reassured me that we were steadily getting closer to our destination.
Then we finally saw it – a small cluster of simple stone houses, wrapped in a cloud of dust stirred up by the constant wind sweeping across this desert region. We heard the voices of children and knew we had arrived at the right place. The moment our vehicle came into view, a large group of children came running toward us. Behind them, the local youth leader approached us with a big smile on his face, expressing surprise, joy, and excitement.
"Karibu, karibu!" ("Welcome, welcome!") he said, warmly inviting us into the courtyard with an open gesture.
Just ten minutes later, we were sitting beneath the shade of a tree, surrounded by a large crowd of children. They listened with full attention to our message that was translated into Swahili. Their response was overwhelming. It seemed every child joined in the prayer, inviting Jesus into their hearts. The message of hope had reached them, and it was received with gratitude. What an incredible joy!
This is the vision of Fire Waves: to bring the Gospel to children. That is why thirty participants from seven nations traveled to Kenya. Each of them had been trained by CfaN to present the clear, life-changing gospel to children.
Over the course of just two weeks, our teams preached the Gospel 589 times. More than 200,000 children and young people were reached, and over 140,000 responded to the Gospel.
We stood in awe as we witnessed God moving among the younger generation just as powerfully as he does among adults. During prayer for the sick, we witnessed 2,012 instant healing miracles. We also saw children in great numbers begin to speak in new tongues.”
This is a single story from one fortnight. And this is happening almost every day, in many nations. Evangelists, young and old, have caught the fire. They are inspiring each other, working together, pooling their resources to make mission trip after mission trip. We are seeing hundreds of thousands of young people responding to the Gospel every single week. That is no exaggeration. I cannot remember the last time the weekly ‘decision count’ reporting from around the world was less than 100,000. We are seeing the fulfillment of the “multiplication and collaboration” vision God gave me in real time, and it is mind-boggling.
Do you want to be a part of this astonishing move of God amongst the youth? Do you want to bring children to Jesus? Come and train with CfaN to be an effective evangelist who bears much fruit!
Together with you for the Gospel,
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda
(and the CfaN team worldwide)
P.S. Right now, we need considerable funding to keep printing the vital follow-up booklet that every child receives. It’s a big part of every campaign’s costs – we print them in the millions. Your gift today will help us equip Youth Campaign teams in Africa and beyond.
