EUCLID AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH IN BRISTOL
It’s never too early to start teaching children about missions. Thanks to Susan Thompson and other leaders at Euclid Avenue Baptist Church in Bristol, the children there start learning about missions at an early age. “Ms. Susan teaches us about missions each week,” says Payne, a young boy in her class.
Over the years, many of the children have come to Susan to share that God has laid a burden on their heart to reach those who are hurting. Last spring, four boys—Payne, Harrison, Philip, and Eli—told her God wanted them to pack bags of food for the homeless. Susan told the boys she would pray and that they should pray to see if this was what God was saying. The next week, they came back to her again about this calling. They had even come up with a name for their ministry—“Fantastic Food Supply.”
“Sometimes adults dismiss children when they come to them with ideas,” notes Susan, “but [I’ve realized] over the years that God speaks to the hearts of children as well.” These boys knew the Lord was speaking to them.
Payne explains, “You can drive down through Bristol and see homeless people digging in the trash, and they need food of some sort and they need Jesus in their lives. So we thought we needed to do something.” After seeing the need, the boys started planning how they could meet it.
Harrison recalls, “We started Fantastic Food because we felt God wanted us to help others…[and] when we see someone who is hurting, God tells us to go and help them and to not worry about ourselves.”
Their vision was shared with the church, and members young and old immediately began bringing food. The donations were then collected, bagged, and distributed to the homeless. Harrison shares, “We put Bible verses in the bags, and we hope they will come to know Jesus.”
Eli was excited to participate in the distribution. “I actually got to go give them the food bags, and they were glad to get it.”
Fantastic Food Supply isn’t the only way Euclid Avenue’s children are serving in missions. The 5th and 6th grade girls’ Sunday School class made mats for the homeless out of plastic grocery bags. Audra, a student in the class, shares, “We made [the mats] because our Sunday School teacher, Ms. Kim, said there were lots of homeless people in our area sleeping on the ground. So, for one of our service projects, we decided to crochet mats for them to sleep on. …We do missions projects so we can help people who are in need and tell them about Jesus.”
Solomon tells us in Proverbs 22:6 to “Train up a child in the way he should go….” Let’s apply Solomon’s words of wisdom and train our children to be on mission. It is never too early to begin.
