God calls many for various ministries in his vineyard. From the day of my conversion, my passion had been to work with children. I changed my name to Emmanuel Eyom Agbi shortly after conversion with the name Eyorm representing the call of God upon my life. It was at this point I always heard the voice of the Holy Spirit whispering the questions “everyone is after the adults, what of the children”?
I had clearly identified this voice with the force that brought me to my knees. It was no other than the Holy Spirit, my comforter. When I responded to the call in 1979, I joined the Child Evangelism Fellowship CEF to adequately prepare myself for the Children’s ministry. Thus in 1981, I was equipped to step out and fully obey the command of the lord to reach children. With no support and one long metal horn from a deserted tipper truck, I launched out in 1979, gathering and teaching children from different localities, the way of the lord.
My only weapon was the bible and my metal horn, the blowing of this horn was the means of assembling the children together for meetings and anytime it was blown, children ran from all directions to the meeting grounds. Some of these children would come looking unkempt and many came with hands soiled from their evening meal with so much excitement and expectations. It was always an amazing moment for me to see these little angels respond enthusiastically to the call of the savior. At the end of the meeting, it was a norm for me to take every child to their parent before I go home. I did this diligently with a close companion.
The ministry grew and the response was overwhelming and children from both Christian and non-Christian homes always attend our meetings and I had to break the children into various groups meeting at different locations to make the needed impact. This was the humble beginning of the GoodNews Club Time with Children. The blowing of the horn had become familiar to not only children but adults; I did not know the reach and impact of my work on the community.
During the military rule, there were a lot of curfews. The situation was so bad that people were molested and abused for just breaking the curfew. But we kept faith, live and did not give up in our work to save the children for Christ, we continued to hold our meetings despite all the fear and panic. The bible says God is with us always and this evidently became a reality in my life, when on one of our meeting days, the siren was blown with me still in town .This is what happened, as it has been my practice, I took all the kids home before going home, on this particular day, as soon as I escorted the last child and returning home, the siren was blown, and immediately I was surrounded by the military who ordered me to stop. In those days, an arrest means trouble, running away was also trouble as you will be shot for that attempt. As I stood there shaking, I contempt my options, either to run away or just obey the order to enter the vehicle. Truth be told, all two options were not good. Within the midst of making a decision, and shoving around by the soldiers, a thundering shot was fired, making me more confused than I ever was. Just then, I heard the Lord instruct me to blow my horn, without thinking twice of the consequences; I took the horn from it hideout, that’s my armpit and with all the strength in my lungs blew the horn more louder than I had ever than throughout my ministry.
To my surprise, that attempt confused the soldiers who just stood there and watched me; the leader asked me, “Are you the man preaching and teaching the children”? Without hesitation, I replied in the affirmative. The solider was so happy to have met me, because he had heard so many stories about my work and the impact it was making in the lives of the children. I was so shocked myself; the solider complimented me for my work and encouraged me to keep up the good work. So instead of an arrest, I received great compliments. The solider rather asked me to go home peacefully. Indeed the Lord knows how to deliver his own from seemingly hopeless situation. You can imagine my resolve to serve wholeheartedly after this great experience, from that day on, the horn I found abandoned at a fitting shop, became my horn of the Lord and a great companion.
I have always found fulfillment sharing the gospel with children than adults. In my ministry as a children’s Pastor, I have conducted countless crusades all over the region and also organized teaching seminars for children teachers from various denominations. I ministered to those little angels through movies, puppetry, songs and illustrated cards.
From my years of work, I learnt that children are like adults, have feelings and must be taken care of properly with love. The foundation given to children in their formative years is critical because children have their own emotional, physical and personal peculiarities. Ignoring these can be detrimental later for a child so if these children can be reached at an early stage, the better.
It is now a common phenomenon to see children grow in the fear of the lord and give up on God later in their adult life and all we can ask is why it happened that way. These reasons reflect the responsibility of the church in developing a mission dedicated to this very important group of people. These missions should include child evangelism, counseling and Christian service. The Lord has blessed the fruit of my labor, in that most of the children who have had contact with me are serving in various capacities in different denominations.
