"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation."     Isaiah 12:2

Tips for Leading a child to the Lord:

* Repeat the plan of salvation each time your group gets together. Sometimes children (and adults!) need to hear about God's amazing gift many times before they understand how important it is to make a decision.

* Keep it simple on a level the child can understand.

* Remind the child that the fun with Jesus has just begun. Some times will be hard, but Jesus is right beside them and will be until they go to Heaven to live with Him forever!

You may want to use this simple story:

Juneau was a very good dog. He loved to run and play and chase sticks that Klondike Ike threw to him. At night, Juneau would curl up on Klondike Ike's bed and dream about dog biscuits! One day, as Juneau was running through the woods, he saw a little black and white skunk. Juneau thought the skunk wanted to play, but the skunk wasn't in the mood. All of a sudden, the skunk turned around and sprayed the worst smelling perfume Juneau had EVER smelled! WHEW! Juneau couldn't run home fast enough! He thought he knew a shortcut, but it was right through a big mud puddle! Now, Juneau smelled like skunk stink and was dripping mud and yuck!

Juneau ran right into Klondike Ike who was blocking the door so he couldn't run into the house and jump on his pillow! Juneau was a mess! What do you think Klondike Ike did? (gave him a bath!) That's right! Klondike Ike got out the big wash tub, filled it with lots of water and shampooed Juneau until he was all clean again. NOW he could curl up on the bed and not get everything all dirty! Juneau was happy and decided from then on to choose his friends a little more carefully!

This story kind of reminds us of God and Heaven. See, God has never, ever, sinned. He lives in Heaven, and Heaven is perfect. The problem is, we sometimes do wrong things, don't we? This is called sin. Sin is like Juneau's mud and skunk stink - it ruins everything. If God let us into Heaven the way we are, with sin all over us, we would dirty up Heaven!

But, God really wants to get close to us and love us. That's why He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, all the yucky stuff in our lives. The Bible says we need to have our sins forgiven before we go to Heaven. (Romans 3:23) That's why we need to ask God to forgive our sins and get a kind of spiritual bath. When we ask Jesus to forgive our sins, He cleans away all the sin, and lives inside us to help us! Someday we will live with Him in Heaven for ever and ever! He told us about His love in John 3:16.

If you would like to ask God to forgive your sins and have Jesus come into your heart, just pray after me:

"Dear Father,
I am sorry for all the yucky sin in my life. Please clean me up by forgiving my sins, so we can get close to each other! Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sin, then having Him become alive again and be with You. Please help me to learn all about You, and live with You in Heaven someday! In Jesus' Name, amen."

Luke 15:7 says that whenever someone asks Jesus to forgive their sins, all Heaven gets excited! Welcome to the family!

Outreach leaders:
It is always encouraging to hear how the Lord is working in our lives. We would love to share stories of children coming to the Lord on our "News From Ewes" page! Drop us a line either by mail, fax or E-mail!