Serving Faithfully
Bob VerBurg
In our sermon series on Chronicles, Ron and Arek showed examples of how God uses many different people to bring honor to Him; these people didn’t realize the extent to which God used them. And were it not for the hundreds of names called out by the Chronicler, these people would have been lost to history thousands of years ago. But God assured these people would be remembered, so Ron and Arek could show us how God used them to bring honor to His Kingdom. And as Pastor Ron touched upon this idea in his message, “It’s Never Been About Our Power,” the Chronicles were written to give God’s people hope.
Keith VanderWeele and Phil Broekhuizen have been teaching Sunday school at Hillside for about 20 years each and their faithfulness is an example of the type of service God used in Chronicles and still uses today.
Commenting about his time as a Sunday School teacher, Phil tells me, “There were a lot of great students over the years and what I enjoyed was seeing how God shaped each child and how unique and special each one of them are. Even at an early age, I could see them starting to use the gifts and talents that God gave them. They would tell stories about their lives and how they related to the Bible story we were learning.”
Keith adds, “We [Phil and I] have probably taught over 200 children during those years and some of those children are now having families of their own. It is so great to see the students progress and develop in their spiritual lives after they move on to other stages in life. We have even had former students want to be assistants in our classroom once they have graduated from Sunday School. That is a blessing and makes you believe that you may have had a very small impact on them over the years. Every child is a gift from God and every child has their own unique set of gifts. It was great through the years to see how we could try to develop some of those gifts and at the same time, provide Biblical teaching to the children.”
So, will Phil and Keith ever know how much of an impact they’ve made on each child? Probably not in this lifetime. But, rest assured, their time and commitment will not go unnoticed by God - their greatest reward is still coming.
When you serve God by investing time in children, the blessings go both ways. Not only do you bring blessings to kids, but God uses the kids to bring blessings to you.
Kim and I experienced this 20 years ago when we also taught Kids Rock for a couple of years. Kim’s wheelchair always brought a lot of attention from the kids. - some times unwanted. But we remember one of our students in the 2nd grade who took more of an interest in Kim than in her wheelchair. And that was an incredible blessing to Kim. And even though it’s been almost two decades, Kim and I remember the wonderful young girl that brought blessing and ministry to Kim.
Hillside Kids Ministry wants to publicly thank Keith and Phil for their combined 40 years of service to Kids Rock as they have retired this year. They encourage anyone who has a desire to see the next generation follow Jesus to get involved. You don’t have to make a 20 year commitment or be a Bible scholar.
“And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.”
- Matthew 18:5