Joel Reyes – Grand Junction, Colorado … Excited and looking forward to the story they will hear and the new songs they will learn, they cross the large field between Little Lambs Learning Center and Grand Junction church every Friday morning and quietly make their way into the sanctuary of the church–all 22 of them, together with their teachers. Many of them do not come from Christian homes and the Bible stories are new and exciting.

This year, Intermountain Adventist Academy made an effort to reach out to Little Lambs Learning Center, the day care center sharing a section of the campus, inviting the pre-kindergarten class to come to school chapels on Fridays. Both the learning center and Intermountain Adventist Academy had to make a few adjustments to their programs to make it happen, but in the end, both are blessed.

What a joy to see the line of small kids marching in perfect accord, quietly taking their place in the front rows of the church to worship with our Intermountain Adventist Academy (IAA) students.

October 17-21 was our Fall Week of Prayer with Brandon Westgate, the Rocky Mountain Conference youth director, and our little friends came and visited us every day. The final day, Sunday, October 21, was “spirit day” at IAA, a day where students dress in different ways following a predetermined theme. The theme for the day was “wacky day.”

When our little friends from Little Lambs learned what their “bigger” friends across the field were doing, they also wanted to have a wacky day. So, they showed up wearing a rainbow of colors that obviously did not match. Even their teachers put on some outrageous items to match the children.

We express our gratitude to the Lord for Brandon’s visit, and for the opportunity God has given our school to minister to our little friends across the field. Perhaps one of them went home and shared with their parents about Brandon’s biblical illustration regarding value, and how priceless they are, so priceless that Jesus came all the way from heaven to redeem them.

Perhaps they naturally started to sing one of the songs they learned in chapel. Think about it…

“You came from Heaven to earth
To show the way
From the earth to the cross
My debt to pay
From the cross to the grave
From the grave to the sky
Lord I lift Your name on high…”.

Isn’t that how ministry works? It only takes a spark to get a fire going.

–Joel Reyes is Intermountain Adventist Academy principal. Photo supplied.