No Distractions. . .

Yesterday in children's church, we had over 60 kids -- actually closer to 70 kids. WOW!! It was wild and crazy!!! Today I felt like I was supposed to blog about what happened:

All last week, when I would try to prepare for Sunday morning, I just felt like I couldn't. I felt like God was going to do something and there was no need for me to prepare because it wasn't going to go as I planned anyway.

So, we got there yesterday morning and as I was meeting with my team and we were praying before we opened our doors, I heard it again, "Don't let things be a distraction today from what I'm (God) going to do." I told my team that no matter if we had kids running all over the place during our worship/prayer time, we were not going to let them distract us. We needed to keep those kids who were running around safe, but don't let them distract us.

So, we started out and we were talking about prayer yesterday -- the "do's and don'ts" of prayer. Although I believe there is no such thing as a perfect prayer, I had 3 examples of things we're not supposed to do while praying. One was praying just so everyone can hear us and using big words to impress those around us. One was doing it out of obligation -- like praying at dinner and rolling our eyes because someone is praying too long. The last one was just babbling -- saying things over and over and over and over and over again.

Anyway, I told the kids that we were going to go into a time of worship and prayer and I didn't want them to let anyone distract them from praying and worshipping. I had some of my team members come to the front and I told the kids that if they wanted prayer for anything, that we would pray with them. The first song started out and kids immediately started running in the back. I just had to close my eyes and CHOOSE to not be distracted by the kids jumping from couch to couch in the back (Yes, we had a worker there trying to contain them. The kids weren't just back there as a major accident waiting to happen.)

We had kids come down for prayer and a few of the kids were really worshipping God. We had 3 girls that had hurt their wrists last week. They all came down for prayer. I noticed during our fast song that they were all being very easy to clap. We prayed for them and ALL 3 of them said their wrists were healed after we prayed. One even started waving her hand saying, "Look!! I can move it!!!"

Another little girl came down for an earache and after we prayed, she said she felt better.

Another little girl came down. It was her first time to the ESC and she was in the 3rd grade, I think. Her dad works on power lines and travels to go help in disasters to restore power. I guess that recently her dad's partner had been seriously injured while working on a power line. He was ok, but it put a great fear in this girl. Krissy began to pray for her and I didn't hear was Krissy was saying, but I knew God was touching that little girl. Tears began to go down her cheeks. Krissy just kept praying and when Krissy was done, that little girl gave her the biggest hug -- not because Krissy did anything other than pray, but because that little girl felt God that morning.

That same little girl was in my small group afterwards and someone else wanted us to pray for her that she wouldn't be afraid. I said that we would, but that girl looked at me and just smiled. The fear that was on her before wasn't there anymore. We just prayed that God would protect her dad while he was at work. Let me tell you, that little girl didn't leave there the same way she came in.

So, I was thinking yesterday about all that stuff and why it all happened and how easy it was. I felt like the whole reason all of that happened is because we weren't distracted. By the end of our worship time (only 2 songs), more than 1/2 of the kids were in the back running around, but those who chose to worship were all about it!! As for my leaders, Krissy usually would have been one of the ones in the back running around chasing those "distractions", but instead she prayed for a little girl and she was set free.

From now on, I'm NOT going to be distracted from what God wants to do. I have no doubt that as our "core" group starts to really worship and move with God, those "distractions" one by one will want what those other ones want and before long, every child will be entering in and when it's time to stop be disappointed.