Children Reaching Children
Tanzania
This year, you made it possible for children at Maktaba Primary School in Tanzania to become a shining example of what it means to love like Jesus.
Like Awana kids all around the world, the boys and girls at the Maktaba school learn the Bible in engaging, practical ways every week. With support from partners like you, they become familiar with the people of the Bible, learn stories and memorize Scripture. But as time went on, something more happened in this group, the something we pray happens in every Awana child discipleship ministry. The message of the Gospel — not just the words — began to resonate in kids’ hearts.
They were struck by the love that’s so central to the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. And it sparked a question in their minds: “How can we reach children who are less fortunate than us with the Gospel? How can we show them they’re loved, too?” With help from their Awana leaders, that question became a prayer and a shared plan: to take the Good News to the children in the pediatric cancer ward at nearby Muhimbili National Hospital.
Loaded up with songs, Bible verses and gifts to help kids with the daily challenges of cancer treatment, the Awana club walked to the hospital, wound their way through the halls to the pediatric cancer ward, and put on their biggest smiles. Any “We’re here now … what do we do?” or “This is so sad, what do we talk about?” awkwardness melted away as the children reminded themselves that although the boys and girls in hospital beds and gowns may be going through a difficult season, they’re still regular kids! They want to smile and laugh with people their age! Soon they were talking like old friends. They were praying together and singing songs of hope and love. God’s presence filled the pediatric cancer ward that evening as the boys and girls from the Awana club were, one teacher said, “a living, breathing Gospel demonstration, by children to children.”
It was a memorable and emotional day for the kids and for their leaders, Idda and Anna, who reflect, “We had never expected that a regular classroom lesson would produce such an act of compassion and love of God. This is the doing of the Holy Spirit.”
No one could have predicted the impact of that hospital visit on the children in the Awana club. They came back to school changed — compassionate, more involved in club activities and more diligent in their studies. Maybe seeing kids their own age fighting just to survive, sparked gratitude for the opportunity to go to school, to be with other children and just be healthy. Maybe it taught them that even as children, they can be the hands and feet of Jesus. And maybe that knowledge makes them walk a little taller and study God’s Word a little more closely.
Through the weekly child discipleship you help fuel, the message of Jesus touches kids’ lives and inspires them to share it. This is what your partnership does for children around the world. Your commitment to shaping kids for lifelong faith in Jesus Christ is changing hearts, one child and one church at a time. Thank you for helping make holy moments like these possible.
