By Sharon Mager, BCM/D Correspondent
Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware President Robert Anderson, senior pastor of Colonial Baptist Church, was the guest speaker at the Child Evangelism Fellowship annual fund raising breakfast on April 12 at Martin’s West.
Robert Anderson, pastor of Colonial Baptist Church, Randallstown, was the guest spaker at a recent Child Evangelism Fellowship breakfast at Martin’s West, Baltimore, Md.
Anderson shared from Matthew 15:21 about the Gentile woman who came to Jesus asking him to heal her demon-possessed daughter, crying, “Have mercy on me, Oh Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”
Anderson said there are six cases in the Bible where Jesus deals with demonic people. Two out of the six have to do with children, a little girl and a little boy.
“That gets to me a little bit,” Anderson said. “What that tells me is that the enemy, the devil, who is called Satan, the enemy who seeks to devour, does not care if you are an adult or a child.”
Anderson referred to a recent news story about a teen who recently went into a school with a kitchen knife and began stabbing and killing innocent people.
“Why do we find our kids doing some of the terrible things we see? Something is covering our country and it’s coming from hell because our country has decided we don’t want prayer any-more; our country has decided we don’t want the Bible anymore. Our country has decided we don’t want the Lordship of Christ anymore. Our country has decided our churches don’t matter anymore. I’ve got news for you. You cut out the Bible, you cut out Jesus, you cut out churches, you create an environment where the evil one can come and snatch your children.”
Bill Vogel, Child Evangelism Fellowship’s director of strategic ministries said he is heartbroken when he finds that children don’t know that Christmas commemorates the birth of Christ.
“God has opened a great door for us,” Vogel said. Many people don’t realize that you can share Christ in public schools, Vogel said. In fact, the Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that Child Evangelism Fellowship’s “Good News Clubs” must be given the same access to school facilities ac-corded any other non-school-related outside group.
These “Good News Clubs” are 90-minute programs for kids ages 4 to 13 designed to promote good citizenship, high moral values, obedience to those in authority and other positive behav-iors. They also include Bible lessons, songs, and scripture memorization. Some principals re-ported that suspensions have dropped dramatically since the clubs began in their schools.
Vogel said there are schools in Maryland where the principal has to “shoo” the kids out because they don’t want to go home.
“When we see our children hurting, we cannot be silent.”
Vogel said as he visits churches in Maryland, he sees a lot of empty seats.
“You want to fill your pews? Those children accepting Christ aren’t attending church.” Vogel said. Often when the child wants to attend, he brings the parents, the brothers and sisters and the grandparents.
Children are responding and making decisions for Christ.
“Over 1,000 kids have prayed to accept Christ this year,” Vogel said.
Beth Vogel, William Vogel’s wife and a CEF missionary said the same Holy Spirit that convicts adults convicts children.
“If we’re trying to reach hour kids there’s no better place than out of your local church…we can join together with CEF and hand in hand we help bring children to Jesus,” Anderson said.