Posted on March 8, 2010 - by rfrank

The Facebook message I will never delete

This morning I came into the church office after pushing hard this weekend.

Yesterday we launched a new worship venue for the kids in my church. For as long as I remember, we have had two kid’s church services at my church – one for ages 3 through K and one for grades 1-6. We have been wanting to break the kids into smaller groups and become more specialized in our approach and teaching. We created a new service for the Kindergartners through the second graders. We have been working on this for a few months, but last week we pushed hard installing the sound and video equipment and working through a long list of “last minute” to-dos.

This morning I received a Facebook message from Shelli, one of our faithful volunteers in the bus ministry. Shelli is committed and has a heart of gold for kids. When I read her message, I choked up. I read it to our church staff this morning. I have changed the child’s name, but here is the message:

After church Sunday a little voice from the back of the van said, “Miss Shelli.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Thank you for taking me to the kindergarten class today, I had the best time there.”

Five year olds don’t always remember to say thank you and this just touched my heart. Jesse is not in school yet. She is often neglected in many other ways as well. She lives among addicts and yet somehow she is happy, smart, and doesnt realize when she goes without the things that every little girl should have. She loves church! If you asked her why, she would say its fun, but I would say she loves it because 1) it’s usually the only time she leaves the trailer park in week, 2) it’s the only age appropriate learning opportunity she gets, and 3) it’s the only stable, regularly occuring event that she has in her life. It breaks my heart. I could go on and on….

I just wanted to share this with you to let you know that for one little girl…the best thing in her life, just got a little bit better yesterday.

Thank you for all that you do for these children.

These are the stories that every children’s pastor wants to hear. I don’t think Shelli knew how much of an encouragement her message was to this guy. I think I have enough fuel in my tank to go another 10 years now!

Don’t forget the importance of what you do! Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these… you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).