February 2019

THE REASON WHY I LOVE OUR CHURCH CHILDREN

“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant” (Mark 10:43).

In Christ I love all men and women, but I especially love the sweetness of children. There are three main reasons why children inspire me. First, children have very pure hearts. Second, they do not lie to people on purpose. The last reason is that they are good teachers to me.
Here is one example of how I learned about some English culture and language from children.

When I served at St. James UMC in East Troy, WI, in 2015, I was one of the Sunday School teachers. One day, we shared our thoughts about our favorite candies and chocolates. The kids said that their favorites were Snickers, KitKat, Hershey, and Skittles. One cute girl named Gracy said to me, “Pastor Kook Ho,. I love candy corn!”.

Unfortunately, I did not know what candy corn was, so I guessed that she meant she loved both candy and corn. So I answered her, “Yes. I also love candy and corn. I love sweet corn especially. There are a lot of corn fields here in Wisconsin, so I like to live here.”
After I finished my reply, the kids smiled a lot. And then, one of them explained to me why they laughed. Candy corn, of course, is a kernel style sweet candy. In addition, they gave me one more piece of information kindly: that I could buy it in any grocery store in the U.S.
Through this situation, I learned two things from the children. First, that it is better to say “Sorry” or “Pardon” than guessing, when I do not understand perfectly. Second, that candy corn is a kernel style of candy and there are two kinds of corn. One is a kernel, and the other is taffy.
Jesus said that “whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant” (Mark 10:43). As Christians, to be servants and serving other people is our mandatory duty.

We generally think that as parents, we take care and serve our children very well and try to do our best every time. Yes, this is true. You are good parents and try to do your best any time not only for your children, but also our Sunday School children. However, we often forget that our children also serve their parents very well with their smiles, love, dedication, pure hearts, and by showing us God’s spirit through their actions.

I think that the first step of servant leadership is to express your thankful heart to other people, and I believe that it will be one of key points to deal with once the upcoming result from 2019 Special General Conference is announced at our church.
Anyway, how could you better say, “Thank you for your service at church and home” to your children and our faithful little people at church this upcoming Sunday?

Blessings,

Pastor Kook Ho