Today, I was thinking back to when I was a child growing up in a small town in Arkansas. I was extremely sheltered. I played crazy games with my brother, went to church every Sunday to learn Bible stories, and took the bus to school every day. I never had a worry in the world. I always had plenty of food to eat, a comfy warm bed to sleep in, and loving parents to tell me bedtime stories and tuck me in at night.
I didn’t grow up learning about the POWER of God. I knew God loved me and that he would protect me, but I didn’t know Satan could attack me.
Some of the children here at Challenge Farm consistently have bad dreams. This month, we have been counseling and praying for these children. One day I went with Liz, and we listened to a little girl (7 years old) share about her bad dreams. She said the previous night she had a dream where a man was chasing her trying to kill her, but when she said the name, “Jesus” the man disappeared.
When I was little, I didn’t know I could call on the name of Jesus and the scary dreams would stop. I didn’t know the devil could give me scary dreams. My parents did an amazing job of comforting me and making me feel safe, but these children here at Challenge Farm do not have a mom or dad to tuck them in every night. They don’t have a mom or dad to run to in the middle of the night when they have a bad dream. They have other girls and boys just like them, and they have Jesus.
In art class, I was helping one of the boys make a necklace, and I asked him about his family and how he accepted Christ. Here’s what he said,
“My grandmother was a Christian and my mom was Muslim. I learned about God from my grandmother. I had 5 brothers and sisters, but they were all killed along with my mother in a war between two different tribes back in 2007. My dad died back before I was born. I was alone. I went to live with my mom’s sister, and I always saw her talking to someone in the mirror. I thought she was talking to the one true God, but I realized she wasn’t when she told me we must give out a sacrifice. She said the sacrifice was me. I heard a voice say to me, “My Beloved son, just go away to where I will show you.” My aunt sent me away, and she sent a demon to haunt me. I don’t know how but I found myself in the streets of Kitale, and that’s when I was taken to Challenge Farm. I was told that I needed an education. One day while at Challenge Farm, the demon told me to jump off a fence, so I did and broke my hand. The doctors performed two surgeries on my hand but said there wasn’t much else they could do. Then God healed me. That’s when I accepted Christ.”
Now he writes songs about how the Lord saved him and how Satan cannot touch him.
Geoffrey is only 14 years old. He learned at a pretty young age about spiritual warfare and the power of God. He had no choice but to learn that there is evil in this world. But God didn’t let him stay paralyzed with fear because of that knowledge. Father God was faithful to bring him out of it all.
So it got me thinking…. when I have children, what is the best way to protect them?
Is it better to keep them in a “Christian” bubble? Doing everything I can to protect their ears from hearing about the bad things that happen in the world? Withholding parts of the Word of God about how Satan can do scary things like give bad dreams? Just because we think children are too young to learn about the spiritual realm?
Wouldn’t it be better protection to teach them about the power of calling on the name of Jesus? Teaching children that they have nothing to fear when those bad dreams or scary thoughts come because they carry an authority and power that the enemy must flee from.
I think it should go hand in hand. When I become a parent, I want to do everything I can to keep them safe and secure. I want to make sure they can go to bed at night knowing that I will protect them from harm. But I also want to teach them how to call on the true Protector, Jesus. I want them to know that as children of God, they have nothing to fear.
UPDATE FROM MY LAST BLOG: Thanks so much for all of you who prayed, God showed up. He has given me great love for these children here. Now I will be really sad to leave them!
