Using Your Talents

I forgot to mention this in the last post, and it was something that really touched my heart. During VBS, our children's ministry director Kim did something special with the older kids (grades 3-6). They went over the parable of the talents - using what God gives you to produce fruit. Each child in that group was given $2 apiece. She said they gave out about $250 total. They were told not to spend that money on themselves, but to find some creative way to use it to make more money, whether it be having a lemonade stand, or buying popsicles to sell, or whatever they could think of. The money they made would be given to House of Hope, a ministry supporting orphans whose parents died of AIDS. She was hoping to double the money and get back around $500. My first thought when she was sharing this with the parents at the end of the week was, "I bet most of the kids just went and bought themselves candy." I just assumed they really wouldn't get it at that age, or really wouldn't care. Boy, was I brought to tears when she announced that those kids had taken that $250 and turned it into $1200!! Wow! Those kids got it!! I was just so amazed and God just really showed me that he can use kids just as powerfully as he can use us old people.