Touching Heaven – Changing Earth
Children’s Prayer Camp
The children of Acts Church, Chiang Mai, Thailand ranging in ages 7 to 12 years of age traveled to Laphoon for their church camp to kick off a prayer series for children’s church. During the very first session God changed the program for the weekend. He so desired for the children to come close to him as Daddy. He wanted them to change their vocabulary from “Lord” or “God to “Daddy”.
There was a wonderful skit about two young girls praying. One rattled on and on showing her ability to pray, while the other petitioned God as “Daddy”. Even though it was as skit, we all wanted to shut out the noise of the first girl so we could hear the intimate conversation going on between the Father and the second girl. She had touched the Father’s heart and was in relationship with Him. This skit set the tone for the rest of the weekend. In a nation where Dads are too often distant from their children, God wanted to call the children to Himself even to the point of them coming to sit in His lap.
My! The second day was powerful! From the start we changed our vocabulary during our worship to sing songs such as, “How great is my Dad! Sing with me, how great is my Dad”. Just singing the songs set up the atmosphere for intimacy. Then six large church chairs were set up in front of the church. The children were encouraged to take a yellow slip of paper and write down one issue or problem they have struggled with in their lives. The invitation was then given, “Come, sit in His lap, bring it into the light and talk to Daddy about it. Without any hesitation the children came, sat, curled up in His lap and wept. From their facial expressions you could see that many were truly touching and experiencing God the Father.
There were many youth and single adults helping with the camp, but God had sent one special Dad as a chaperone. He went about the room giving Daddy hugs especially to those who lived without their fathers. This only brought on more tears. And all of that happened before lunch.
Now, from this position of intimacy the children were ready to pray, or talk to their Daddy.
In the afternoon, they were then given a white glove to use as a prayer tool, decorating each finger with one type of prayer, i.e., praise, thanksgiving, confession, and supplication. Throughout the previous month the children memorized scriptures for each of the categories to use while praying. They then practiced praying with the prayer glove spending two minutes on each section.
We then moved on to Isaiah 61:1-3. The children posted words to describe what the Kingdom of Heaven is like on a yellow board. They then posted the opposites on a black board to describe the Kingdom of Darkness. In the night service the large map of Thailand was spread out on the floor. The children were asked to identify the sins of the Kingdom of Darkness that have invaded Thailand. The dark signs were then moved one by one until our precious nation was covered with darkness. Then one by one the children were given one lighted candle, with instruction to pray about one dark sin while replacing it with the lighted votive candle. Soon our once dark nation was covered with different colored candles.
The red candle represented forgiveness, white for holiness, green for healing, yellow for the kingdom of God, brown for humility, and blue for the spiritual atmosphere. The children then took their candles home as another prayer tool. Each time they spend time in prayer they are to light the candle. When their candle is finished, they can return it to the church for a new one. In the mean time the old candles will stay on display in the church office as trophies of prayer by the children for their church, their city and their nation.
Several times during the weekend, the children declared, “We are not just cute. We are mighty prayer warriors!”
The next morning we returned to Acts Church for the final session, but God had other plans. When the children worshipped with the adults several were called on to give testimonies of the weekend. Then Pastor Kriengsak changed his Sunday morning message as well to follow our theme. He preached a very strong Father’s Day message-calling fathers to repentance for not caring for the families. Two other fathers joined him as they knelt down in front of three young men representing three age groups. The tears flowed once again when the children had to verbally forgive these men.
Touching Heaven – Changing Earth was the theme for the weekend and our children were surely touched. They can now move forward understanding who they are and the place of intimacy they have with Daddy God.
