A Class for the Children

By Riane Thomas

     While on a mission trip to the Philippines with my cousin, Holly, and her husband, we enjoyed numerous opportunities to visit different groups of Saints throughout the region.  Several of these visits required traveling many hours.

      Our hosts informed us one day that we would be visiting a few adult church members in a remote town far in the mountains, though our hosts thought optimistically that we would be back by night.  Holly and I had prepared for the trip to the Philippines knowing that we would have lots of opportunities to teach the children, and had brought supplies – coloring pages, crayons, puppets, and such.  For this particular visit, we wanted to know whether we should expect the chance to teach a children’s class.  The response was “no”, but we thought we’d better pack a few things just in case.

    Throughout the long ride up and down the winding mountain roads, I spent a good deal of time looking at the particular scenery.  While wrapped up in the view, I kept feeling the prompt to pray for the children.  But we’d left all the children we’d taught for the previous week back at the main mission and we’d been told not to expect any children at our destination.  I was puzzled, but in the spirit of the trip, in taking each opportunity as the Lord provided it, I threw my logic to the wind and spent much of the remainder of the drive praying for those yet-unknown children.

    We arrived at the home of one of the Saints.  Pale, tall, and therefore conspicuous, we three Americans collected quite a crowd of intrigued children.  Though they had no ties to the Church, we couldn’t let such a gathering go to waste.  Almost immediately we broke into song, singing about the whale swallowing Jonah, the giant and David, and a few other well-known Bible stories.  But before long, we were recruited to visit with the Church members at their several homes, and it was the last we saw of our impromptu class.

     I did have to concede that the Lord had known something about who we would meet when I had received the prompt to pray for the children during our drive.  Personally though, I reserved the private opinion that just teaching those children a few songs was something of an insignificant contribution.  But the sun was setting, it was getting later, and we started wondering when we would head back.

     Surprise!  We were spending the night!  Holly and I sighed in relief that we’d had the foresight to bring our toothbrushes and a spare change of clothes, just in case.  But more exciting than that, staying until morning meant we would be able to offer a class to those children!

     And that’s exactly what we did.  The following morning found children sprawled over the floor and chairs at our host’s house, coloring pictures.  We had so many and they were so involved that we nearly ran out of pages, while Holly and I shared our class material.  I spent the return trip thoroughly impressed with the Lord’s plan.

    I’ve no idea what long-term effect our class, those coloring pages, or the catchy songs will have on those children, but I do know that He hears our prayers.  I feel so honored that, by the prompt of His Spirit, He enabled me to prayerfully prepare for a chance to serve that I never could have foreseen.

"Here am I, Lord,

Is it I, Lord?

I have heard You calling in the night.

I will go, Lord,

If You lead me.

I will hold Your people in my heart."

~ Dan Schutte