Thanks to God’s grace, this summer I was able to return to my country and become a teacher for the church’s E1 summer camp. I was mainly responsible for supervising and disciplining the children. There were three main teachers and two teaching assistants, however, there were forty two students in total and the camp lasted for twenty days. Most of the people knew that the task of teaching was our responsibility and had to be done relying on faith. To me, because of my young age, I felt both excited and nervous. I knew it was time to sacrifice for the LORD due to religious restriction by the government policy. We might be questioned for gathering the children to teach them, but we knew it was according to God’s will just as how Peter and John mentioned in [Acts 4:19] [Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.] After a thousand years, the teachings of the disciples still strikes our hearts and we dare not forget about their teachings.
I had complicated feelings towards taking part in this holy work during that year because I had forty to fifty co-workers learning together, however, because of the impact of the society’s influence and the lack of care in the religious education group, only three of them remain with me now. Now when I see these forty two children that I am to teach, I am reminded of the past when I myself was participating with great ambition; therefore I hope to fulfill my duties and not regret later for not trying hard enough when taking part in this holy work. We can always see God working with us because during the past summer camps, there were always ten to twenty students that received the Holy Spirit. Many of them also saw visions and miracles. This year was also the same, at first there were seventeen students that did not receive the Holy Spirit yet and at the end of the camp, eleven out of seventeen students received the Holy Spirit. We experienced many Spiritual battles and all of these battles had edified us and had become the most precious experience of this year. One night when we were praying for the Holy Spirit, more than ten of the students started to cry and the teachers did not know the reason; they thought the students were homesick. They continued to cry after the prayer. When we arrived back at our camp they were still crying. One of us asked our students: “Why are you crying?” Sniffling and crying the student replied: “Before I cried because I was sad, but today it was because I felt so joyful and I do not know why.” We all started laughing because we knew it was because she received the Holy Spirit and was touched by the Holy Spirit. Later we told them that the Holy Spirit allows a person to submit to it, therefore, it is the time where they needed quiet down. After another short prayer, we said ‘Amen’ and the students submitted to the Holy Spirit and stopped crying and prepared for bedtime.
The work of the Holy Spirit is often hindered by evil spirits. Due to the fact that we did not use any cushions to kneel on when praying and directly knelled on the marble floor to pray, after half an hour, our body would naturally feel tired and it is easy for us to lose the reverence in our hearts when praying. At the end of the prayer, we could not hear the prayers of many students who were kneeling at the back rows and they were starting to fidget around, therefore, this gave chance for the devil to interrupt. One child said that she saw the devil twice when she had her eyes closed. She said that the eyes of the devil were wide and round, they were staring at her. After she kept on saying “Hallelujah”, the devil disappeared. Afterwards, we investigated and asked the students about their opinions and we shortened the time of prayer to fifteen minutes. Sometimes God remains silent and this is the hardest part of our work, for many days in a row, no student received the Holy Spirit and we began to lose strength and start to become depressed. We tried hard to investigate and soon found out that the students had jealousy and disputes amongst themselves and were unable to see their own strengths and weaknesses, and the teachers were also physically exhausted. Because of this, they were not able to catch the problem in time and deal with these matters in a timely manner. Afterwards, before we prayed, we had an activity that allowed us to reflect upon ourselves so that God could forgive our sins and reveal himself to prove that he was with us. Every night, when the students shed tears and prayed for their sins to be forgiven, I was deeply moved by the sounds of their prayers just as how it was recorded in Revelations 19:4-6: This is the sound of the loud peals of thunder, like the roar of rushing waters to praise the Lord Almighty for He reigns. Within just fifteen minutes, the Holy Spirit greatly descended and two of my students received the precious Holy Spirit. I think this is perhaps the most joyful and touching reward: To search for the will of God in one heart and to testify for His abidance. He truly can be seen and can be felt, and this alone, is the most precious grace of our lives.
It was clear that twenty days alone was not enough to change a child’s thoughts and to correct their behaviour; the parents are the most important religious educators. In order to save a child’s soul, we tried to gain an understanding about each and one of their family’s background. We also talked with the child and wrote forty two letters that explicitly mentioned their strengths and also their weaknesses to tell them that all of these will later affect their journey of faith. On every child, we could see what they were treated like in their family and how their parents taught them. Some have a very deep understanding at a young age and carry a lot of burdens that was too much for their age. Others were spoiled; and some parents had too much expectations for their children and due to that those children had an uptight personality. We also could see the shadows of ourselves on these children as well, and we felt sorrow in our hearts because we hope that they could grow up within Christ and be free from harm for we do not want to lose a single soul. At this stage I could understand a little more about what our Heavenly Father’s thoughts, He must be more worried than us. “Feed my sheep.” Two thousand years ago, Jesus said this and how can we forget these words? As a religious education teacher, we are also fighting for souls at the same time. If we plant the words of God into their hearts, then they shall not stray from the right path. Not only will they be able to keep their souls in Christ, they can also bear fruits and become a tree in the church that is able to shelter others from the wind and rain. They will also be able to have abundant life. Although we have a lot of weaknesses and shortcomings, but we told the children that they are the army of the Lord, and they also need to depart from Egypt and become a Holy Nation. (Exodus 12:40-42). We are convinced of this and may the Lord protect and guide them.
