REACH London – are you doing it?

This week I had a privilege of leading children at our Church School through a week of prayer every morning.  I appreciate the thank you card I got where they shared in artistic expressions what they understood.  As I was prayerfully considering what to share with kids, I was impressed to share with them REACH values, and to pray with them for our church family to embrace intentionally the guidelines from our church leadership toward the future growth.

We had to make it simple for primaries to get it through use of metaphors, stories, video clips and more. 

This is what I learned:

Revival – as we watched a time-lapse video of spring flowers coming from what appeared a dead ground, we thought of resurrection that spring brings.  Think of what happens to a dry desert sand when it gets rain – grass springs, flowers come from dry seed under the sand.  We all need revival, we all need Holy Spirit rain to make us grow, flower and bear fruits!  With revival comes transformation – we watched (video, of course) a butterfly emerge from cocoon.  And kids all agreed that we all need to change for better, to mature and grow!

Education is discipleship!  We read the Animal School fable, how duck leaned to run, rabbit to fly, squirrel to swim and eagle to climb, and they all got poor grades in it.  Proper education considers personal genius of every individual and develops different potentials.  We even watch a clip from original Karate Kid, considering the importance of a sensei, a mentor, a personal teacher, instead of a “factory production line.”  If education would be simply about transmitting information, then we could replace teachers with automated machines, like ATM replaced bank tellers, and plug kids in front of computers to obtain “knowledge.”  Wisdom is caught, values are modeled by example.  Education is discipleship.  Who is discipling your kids? Who is modeling life for your children???   

Alignment.  A fable of a swan, a crawfish and a pike pulling a cart in three directions, and not moving it all was our starting point.  Are we pulling together, in the same direction?  Consider following images: rowing team, synchronized swimming, a military parade march, a team of jets flying together – unless they agree they cannot walk together.  Pray for our church family to be in alignment, to walk and work together as a team!

Community outreach and Evangelism.  The word euangelion, meaning the good news, was used by children in Alexandria, watching grain ships arriving at port, and running into the streets to tell people that food is coming.  Even children can be bearers of good news.  Our youngest children already know people in need.  As evangelists we all are called to help people in need, and to give hope for better.  Watch a video of Nick Vujicic, a person without developed limbs, thriving in life and inspiring others to appreciate life – there is no room for self-pity and depression!

Healthy leadership and Management.  The last was the easiest – every one is a leader, simply because we all could invite someone to be happy, to make someone smile, to make someone’s day better!  And it’s all about learning to take care of what we have.  This is my brief learning.  Kids got it! You can learn these values too