TRANSFORM WORLD 4/14: HOW GOD IS CHANGING THE WORLD FOR CHILDREN

From Susan:

My 15 Year Journey to the Transform World Summit

My journey to this summit began over 15 years ago. It is my story of how God jolted my heart to love children. All of us have such a story about how God tugged at our hearts to love children. For me, it was seeing my first-born son of promise crushed by a car before my very eyes, combined with the clear leading of God through an unknown monk's prayer over me, that transformed my life. But it didn't stop there. I was driven by hope and purpose to love children who are at high risk of dying at a young age from something that is entirely preventable--NO LOVE! As the clear solution to this love deficit, I have prayed for more than 15 years one simple prayer, 

Lord, would you put a believer in the life of very orphan? 

In the early years I conceptualized "orphan" as those with an official orphan status, either one or both parents dead. Now however, I conceptualize "orphan" as anyone with an orphan spirit, regardless of age. By orphan spirit, I mean those children and even adults (it happens to all of us at times, but there are children in every country who live it every day) who have that overwhelming darkness the tells us we do not belong, no one cares, we are nothing to the people who should care most about us, and that God has forgotten us.  That pack of horrible lies bangs insistently on the doors of our minds and hearts on those days, and in those dark times we  are all, adult and child alike, most vulnerable. Well, I am here to say we must say to the accuser of our souls and theirs what my dear friend Michelle says, "THAT IS NONSENSE!  WE WILL NOT STAND FOR IT!"  
The truth is we are all children of the light, sons and daughters of the living God. We have a Father who has loved us with an everlasting love, who has created us in Christ Jesus to lavish His love upon us, and that God cares so much for us that He counts every hair on our heads and plans our days for good before they ever happen!

Transform World 4/14

Many of you know that I just spent last week on annual leave to participate in a global Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, called Transform World 4/14. The vision is to "Root and Release" children ages 4 to 14 to walk in their full identities as sons and daughters of their heavenly Father, and to release them through faith in Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill their God-given purpose and destiny. There were 1000 invited Christian leaders from 100 countries, and I was honored by being asked to speak. The focus of the summit is on "the 4/14 Window," which refers to children ages 4 to 14 throughout the world. This is the demographic age range during which approximately 80% of the known believers come to faith. And it is an age that the world is neglecting. What was unprecedented for me was the inclusion in this global movement of "orphans and vulnerable children" as a major challenge that must be addressed and reversed in order for the next generation to be whole. Among invited denominational and ministry leaders from ten geographic regions of the world (every one except Antarctica!), there is a clear move of God to lead His people to care for His children, a new "let the little children come to me" type of realization.

For those of us called to love orphaned and hurt children, I long for you to see this! We are all part of God's great story of hope for the WORLD! God is calling believers within many countries to stand up and speak on behalf of orphans and vulnerable children! I at times have felt like the weight of the world's children is on only a few shoulders --my dearly beloved, THIS IS NOT TRUE! God is moving His church in miraculous ways to care for His children. What was amazing during that summit was that, even though the organizers did not plan for orphans and vulnerable children to be a focus, the Holy Spirit clearly planned it, as about 5 plenary talks had this theme as the clarion call, in spite of the fact that several of those speakers were not even asked to address the vulnerable ones. Such was the prioritization by the Lord of these His beloved that the closing remarks highlighted the fact that God clearly had it on His heart for us to colabor with Him in transforming orphans to sons and daughters, as it so clearly came out in so many messages! At one point those who felt that God had called them in a way never experienced before to LOVE THE ONE and to LOVE THE MULTITUDE of orphans and vulerable children in their midst, were asked to stand for prayer--about 300 of the 1000 persons there stood!  If God's leaders in all the countries of the world catch His heart for His children, we will indeed see the world transformed in our lifetimes. These talks will be translated into 10 countries and distributed around the world at grassroots levels through churches over the next 5 years!  

We are living in unprecedented times. Just as the Roman roads made it possible for the gospel to spread to the known world in the early church, so the digital Roman road is making it possible for the good news of hope and purpose in our Lord to speak like wildfire.

The Royal Kids

I will close with the story of a dear believer, Anton Cruz, who I met.  He was a catholic priest in India and commonly preached to 10,000 people at a time. One day the Lord says to him, after an abandoned baby dies in his arms, "you can preach to thousands but can you love a baby?"  He realized he could not love a baby and so he stopped preaching to learn from God how to love children. Today God has used him to raise an army called The Royal Kids.

Susan with Anton and his daughter.

These children are the most marginalized children of Indian society, and they intercede for people around the world!   Now, instead of preaching to 10,000, Anton is serving and leading 10,000 children as they grow in intimacy, capacity, and authority. 

All I can think of is two words.  

BUT GOD. 

BUT GOD, who is RICH in mercy, because of His great love for us, does things like this for the children. Jesus does indeed love the little children.  All the children of the world.  And you. And me. We too must see we are His children. I can only close with the famous John Piper quote we have all grown to love..."God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him."  The children are teaching the world what it means to be "most satisfied in Him."  

Lord, we stand in awe of you, and we, like them, are most satisfied in You, our soul's joy and delight.  Amen