On Sunday night at CLBC we celebrated what God has done in our AWANA Ministry over the past year. Under the leadership of Jerry Lowe, and all of the supporting leaders, this ministry has grown steadily over the past several years.AWANA is an acronym that stands for "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed", from 2 Timothy 2:15. My home church had a very strong AWANA Ministry during my years there. I had opportunity to serve as a commander of that group and God used that, along with other ministry opportunities I was involved in, to solidify my call to ministry. I also served on the South Florida AWANA Ministry Advisory Board.
I had opportunity to travel to Chicago a number of years ago and meet Mr. Art Rohrheim. Mr. Rohrheim is the co-founder of AWANA. AWANA is now in more than 17,000 churches and 100 countries worldwide. I still have a miniature globe of the world that he gave me along with a couple of international coins. When I graduated from Liberty University with a doctorate, Mr. Rohrheim was being recognized and awarded an honorary doctorate for his work with AWANA. I made my way through the crowd at graduation and told him how much I appreciated the impact he had on my life by his example.
I love AWANA for three reasons:
1) AWANA is all about the Gospel. The motto of AWANA is to reach boys and girls with the gospel of Christ and to train them to serve Him.
2) AWANA is all about the Word of God. There is a clear focus on getting the Word of God into the hearts and minds of the children, believing that God's Word will not return void.
3) AWANA is all about children and families. Jesus ministered to children and He cared about them while He walked this earth. Now, He intercedes on their behalf. We can often reach families for Christ through their children.
So I am thankful for the good year that our AWANA Club had and I pray God continues to bless and prosper this ministry.
