The Children Decides: the Summer of 2014 With the Lord

July 26, 2014

At the beginning, “accompanying children” was merely a concept that was entertained by a few mothers. But, starting from this summer, parents stepped back to supporting roles to let their children decide what to do and where to go.

On the first day, the children had a meeting to intently come up with a trip itinerary which included watching movies at the cinema, going to the library, visiting the forest park, art gallery, and planetarium, and going swimming, mountain climbing and cooking. In the meantime, the parent’s job was much easier:  simply setting up their minds to put their lives on the line to accompany their children. In the days that followed, every afternoon, parents and children would travel to every corner of Taipei by all modes of transportation, such as by car, by bus, and by subway.

Pastor Jung Myung Seok once said, “When living the life of faith, if you put effort into it, it’ll be fun. Become the owner of your life and then try to live your life! It will be very fun. This is what you call fun.”

It is true, indeed. Gradually children learned how to take the initiative, so they began to treat the activities that they were going to participate in very seriously. There was no need for moms to keep telling them what to do. What the parents did was just to accompany their children at their side and to instill God’s truth into their minds when necessary. Because the parents shared the experiences with the children together, the children could resonate well with the sharing.

Although the activity was originally designed to just accompany the children, the blessings God gave to everyone during the process were beyond imagination. God guided us to overcome our limits which we once thought were difficult to overcome, and made us realize we could still do more. The parents accompanied the children each day to go up to the mountains and go down to the waters. When feeling tired at night, we would begin to miss our pastor Jung Myung Seok more-- he who used to always be by our side. All the memories we once shared with the Teacher came to mind one by one: doing sports, hiking trips, praising, and sharing God’s words. When we exchange roles, we come to feel the value of that love more.

Thank you, Lord. In the summer of 2014, we accompanied children to write down the love stories between the Lord and us. This is truly a meaningful summer, as well as a brand new start that the Lord gave us.

Writen by Christian Gospel Mission’s church in Taiwan