And a Little Child shall lead them!

By Holly King

Age-Level Ministry Coordinator

Jordan's Chapel UMC - Pulaski, VA

As the time came to begin to prepare for our Summer Kids of the Kingdom Players program, I Holly King, Children’s Director and my assistant Alley Huff had already decided to work on one of the plays that we had previously purchased, but hadn’t had the time to perform.

The children were winding up their Easter play performances when I noticed an ad in the back of their Easter program. The play in the ad was titled “We are United, an island adventure, Building up the body of Christ.”

It looked cute, but didn't seem to be anything special. This play kept nagging at me, and I finally went to my co-leader Alley Huff with the idea that maybe we should check it out. We agreed to order a copy and see what “We are united” was like. At first glance, there appeared to be nothing spectacular, the songs and story were OK, but nothing that really jumped out at us. Yet, there seemed to be a sense of urgency that this was the play we must do. So with reservations, the decision was made to perform this play.

The children began practicing the play and discussion began among the leaders and parents of a location to take this play “on the road”. The previous year, they had been able to take the children in the players program to Gatlinburg, TN for a weekend of fun and fellowship. This year, everyone wanted to take a trip someplace different and find a church to perform the play for. Several places were discussed with the decision being to try to arrange a trip to Jordan’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Burgaw NC, located about 30 miles west of Wilmington. As a back up we would go to Gatlinburg, TN and work to find a church there to do the play.

Several members of Jordan's Chapel United Methodist Church in Pulaski have been friends with members from Jordan's Chapel in Burgaw, NC for years.  Both churches had been through their “up’s and down’s” over the last few years. But this has been a particularly rough year for Jordan's Chapel in Burgaw. They have been though growing pains, a sudden change in pastor, a division of the church, and the new pastor; is nothing like the old one.

I was aware of some of the problems that Jordan's in Burgaw had been dealing with, but not all. At one point I almost decided not to try and arrange the trip to Burgaw, but something wouldn't allow me let it go. This same pull urged me to call the youth leader in Burgaw, Melva Rivenbark, and see if they were interested in having us come for a weekend and perform the play for their church. Melva was very excited to set up a visit and the church was presented with the idea and accepted. A trip was planned for the first weekend in August.

As the children and adults continued working on the program, we became more excited about the trip. The more we worked, the more the message from the play became important and the more the songs became “spectacular”.  The main problem was being ready to perform with 3 weeks less preparation time. At times it seemed we would never make it.

We began to meet for extra practices during the week to try to get ready and on the Monday night before we were to leave on Friday, the children and adults were at the church working on the play. We had tried to make sure that we prayed before each practice, but this time I got busy and forgot. The adults that were there will tell you that this was the worst practice we had ever had.  I honestly felt there was no way this play was going to come together by Friday. We scheduled another practice for the next night and made sure that we talked with the children about forgetting to pray and made sure that we did so before we started on Tuesday. What a difference prayer makes! We had the best practice ever! The children all said their lines just like they were supposed to and there was almost no prompting from the adults.  It was wonderful. The children and adults got to see first hand the difference prayer makes.  

Thursday night before we were supposed to leave, I got a call from a friend from Burgaw and she began to tell me about the “rough week” they had, some of the things that had happened there in the last week and that the church was more divided than ever. She didn’t want us to arrive on Friday and not be aware of the division, because she felt like we would be able to feel it.  She didn’t know what our play was about or even the name of it. The more she talked, the more I began to realize that God was going to use us in a mighty way with the people from Jordan’s Chapel in Burgaw, if they were receptive to the message He had for them. I told my friend that God had a message for them in this play, I told her the play was about Unity and how we are all important to God. I told her of how we almost did another play this year, but decided on this one instead, of how I almost decided not to arrange this trip, of how the children saw what they could accomplish with a simple prayer.  She was amazed by this and said that she hoped God would give me the opportunity to share this with the other members of her church on that weekend.  I decided not to share the problems that Jordan’s in Burgaw had that week with any of the adults or children.  I didn’t want them to be apprehensive about going there in amidst of what was happening with their church.

We arrived on Friday and had a wonderful time visiting with old friends and making new friends. Our youth and children and their youth and children had a lock-in at the church on Friday, a trip to Wrightsville Beach on Saturday, and a wonderful weekend of fellowship.  We had final rehearsal on Saturday evening and of course we remembered to pray. We invited their pastor to come and watch the rehearsal thinking it might help him decide how to end the service on Sunday morning. I have to admit, we did not think it was one of our better practices. We began to worry just a little that it wasn’t going to come together, but the pastor of Jordan’s Chapel-Burgaw, got very excited. Until that time, he didn’t know what the play was titled or what it was about. He realized that God had sent us to them to deliver a message.

It wasn’t until Sunday morning that we began to really know exactly what God’s plan and purpose was for us in Burgaw. Several of our adults attended one of the Sunday School Classes. In this class the problems of this church began to be discussed. You could see a clear division already formed. Some of the members that were trying to hold this church together began quoting from the bible, the very scripture that our play was written on, and the very scripture that the children’s message would be bringing to this congregation in an hour! These people had no way of knowing what our play was about, or what scripture we would be using. God then gave me the opportunity to share some of the story of how we came to be with them with this play. I also shared this story with the congregation before the performance began. I told them God had a very real and extremely important message for each and every one present, if they would accept it.

As the children performed the play I stood in the back of the sanctuary in awe, our young people were as close to perfect as they could get. They delivered their lines with confidence and the songs were “spectacular”. As the children sang the final song, the entire congregation stood, holding hands and praising God along with our children. You could surely feel the presence of God in that service. When the play was finished one of the members of Jordan’s Chapel-Burgaw, went to the front, embraced the pastor and made a call for all those who wanted to unite for their church, and pastor to come forward to pray at the altar. There were over 170 people at the service that day and every person in the sanctuary left their seat in a show of unity and to pray for their church and pastor.  It was one of the most moving things that any of us had ever experienced. There was not a dry eye in the church. The associate pastor told us that we were “Right on time, God’s Time.” He said that “if we had come last week we would have been too early, and if we had come the next week we would have come too late.”

Even now, our adults and children will tell you how God used them to help begin to heal the hurting congregation of Jordan’s Chapel in Burgaw, NC. We will never forget how God was able to use us.  We have since done this same play for our congregation and several others in the Wytheville district and even though we didn’t get the exact same response from our church and the others that we did in Burgaw, we felt the presence of God at each church.  We know that each church got a blessing from the play and the personal message God intended for them.

If ever it has been demonstrated to any of us associated with our Children’s program, this proves God is alive and stronger than ever!

We know God put His hand on our young people in a wondrous and mighty way, and used our little group to show others His Love and Power.

Kids of the Kingdom Players at Jordan’s Chapel UMC in Burgaw, NC- August 8^th 2004

L-R: Front Row: Roger Warf, Kasey Holcomb, McKayla Huff, Megan Price, Taylor Akers and Kristen Mitchell.

Back Row: Trevor Warf, Ashley Warf, Hayley Sutphin, Jordan Price, Elainé Huff, Jonathan Holcomb, Megan Dean and Morgan Goad—Not pictured: Emma Minnick Jayme Dalton, Alex Dalton and Brianna Williams

Kids of the Kingdom Players at Jordan’s Chapel UMC in Burgaw, NC- August 8^th 2004

L-R: Front Row: Roger Warf, Kasey Holcomb, McKayla Huff, Taylor Akers, Megan Price, and Kristen Mitchell.

Back Row: Trevor Warf, Ashley Warf, Hayley Sutphin, Jordan Price, Elainé Huff, Jonathan Holcomb, Megan Dean and Morgan Goad-- Not pictured: Emma Minnick Jayme Dalton, Alex Dalton and Brianna Williams