We Serve an AMAZING God!

This has been a pretty amazing week so far! We have finished our math and reading curriculum for the year, so this week I had planned to double up on Bible, and spend the rest of the time reviewing. We normally start each morning with Bible, and spend the first period on it. We also have a special in the morning, so by doubling up, we do Bible until lunch. On Tuesday, my students said "Miss Chaplin, we've only done Bible today! Can we only do Bible ALL day?" Now, who can say no that? So we did. Wednesday, I had a similar plan, to do Bible all morning, and to review reading and math in the afternoon. We were studying Paul and Barnabas, and the importance of encouragement. One of the verses we read said something about being Paul and Barnabas being brothers. This lead to an interesting conversation about what it means to be brothers and sisters in the Lord. Which lead to a conversation about how you become a Christian. I shared verses with them, such as John 1:12 "But as many as received Him, who believed on His name, shall be called the sons of God." We talked about how receiving Christ means to admit that you are a sinner, to believe that Jesus died for you, and to ask him to forgive your sins, and come into your heart and be your savior. At this point, one of my students asked his classmates how many of them had done that because he wanted to know who his brothers and sisters were. One little girl spoke up and said that she had never believed on Jesus, and that she was afraid that she would forget to pray and ask Him to be her savior when she got home. I explained that you can accept Jesus anywhere, anytime. Her whole face lit up and she said "Okay, can we pray NOW!" Two other students spoke up and said that they had never received Jesus as their savior either, and that they also wanted to. After talking with them a little further, all three prayed to receive Jesus as their savior!!!! Another little boy asked if he could pray for them, because they were making an important decision. It was so neat to see God working in their lives! By this time, we were running late for lunch, so we lined up, and were heading down, when I noticed one of my other girls was standing in the back of the line with tears in her eyes. I asked her if she was okay, and she said "No." I sent the other kids on down to lunch, and this student and I went back into the classroom and talked. She said that she was afraid because she also wanted to believe on Jesus, but she didn't know what to say. I talked with her and answered some more questions, and she too received Christ as her savior! It was such a blessing to be able to lead my students to the Lord. All of the times I've questioned why God brought me to Singapore suddenly didn't matter. God is working here and developing in my students a love for Him and His word. By the time I got to lunch, my students had already shared their decisions with Gretchen, and were excited to tell others. When we got back to the classroom, I got the question again "Can we please do Bible all day again, I want to learn more about Jesus and how to live for Him!" What a dream come true. My students spend the rest of the day pouring over God's Word together. This morning, as they arrived, the question was the same "Can we study the Bible all day today?" And again, we did. They just can't seem to get enough! As we were working on an encouragement project, they were singing their memory verses from this semester over and over again. They kept saying "Do you remember the memory verse from the week we learned about Nehemiah? Let's sing that one!" I was also reminded this evening of just how much some of our brothers and sisters sacrifice for the Gospel. I think I've mentioned my friends from homegroup before, they are both from Muslim families, and have been disowned because of their faith. Tonight I was talking with another friend, who also converted from Islam. She was saying that she met up with some family members this week, who had just found out she had converted. Her cousin told her that as a Muslim, he thought she was wrong, but as a person he guessed it was her decision. Then he told her that if she was living in a certain place (in her original country) she would already be dead. Wow! How lightly I take the freedoms that I have been given. It was a good reminder to me to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters. These aren't just stories to me anymore, these are my friends. These are real people who have a real love for the Lord, and face real persecution and trials because of their faith.