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[Jani Virolainen/Orvo Miettinen/TEDNews Staff/TED News] 

Tampere, Finland - The first Kids In Discipleship (KID) training event in Finland was held on 25-27 September, in the Aitolahti Adventist Church and the Church School in Tampere. This training event was organised by a team from the Aitolahti Church, after having attended the KID training in 2007, this ministry was applied in their home church; and finally in April 2009 they attended the KID Coach training, equipping them to train other church teams.  Pastor Ansku Jaakkola from the Jyvaskyla team commented on the KID ministry, “KID provides the local church with the tools and mindset that we have yearned for, for a long time. It may well bring change to the spiritual dryness and apathy both of the adults and children. I can only imagine what effect the ministry has on our members, families, local churches and thus the whole Church in Finland, when the parents and children grow spiritually together and live out their faith.” “The KID ministry is designed for families and focused on children, but it touches the wellbeing of the whole congregation. The prayerful support for the parents by the church members and their willingness to help both the parents and children grow as disciples of Christ is immeasurably valuable. On the behalf of the KID team of the Aitolahti Church, I thank all who participated at the training event and the churches that send their teams to attend. It is good to walk in the footsteps of Jesus”, said Jani Virolainen, Director of the Children, Family and Youth Departments in the Finland Union Conference.

[Anne-May Muller/TED News]

Watford, England – Four new teams were able to attend the Kids In Discipleship (KID) training seminar held in Watford, 8-11 October. A group of 21 participants from Denmark, England, Israel and Scotland attended this seminar, which aims to equip parents to spiritually nurture their children to have a personal, meaningful, and fruitful relationship with Jesus Christ.

Following the seminar in Watford, one of the participants, Anne-May Muller, Family and Women Ministries Director of the Adventist Church in Denmark, expressed her experience of the KID seminar, saying, “I have attended quite a few seminars on parenting, family life and children in general. Even though I looked forward to develop my skills, I did not come prepared for the change KID was going to do to me.”

Anne-May Muller continues, “The first thing that I noticed on entering the seminar room was the warm atmosphere and the well-organized setting. The devotion was not just an inspiring sermon, or some nicely put words to soothe my soul, - it was a setting in which we could worship God together. When we talked about the importance of the parents’ and mentors’ spiritual life and their walk with God, we were given the opportunity to retreat and consider our own relationship with Him. When we prayed, it was our hearts that we turned over to God…Later, when we practiced conducting these seminars for parents and mentors, it was not just an educational exercise; it became a life-transforming bible study for all of us.

When the coaches gave us their vision for this ministry, they presented their personal vision, personal emotions and personal passion for making God’s dream for their own children come true. When we prayed for each team at the end of the weekend, it was genuine commitment and concern for each other.”

“I have read the research and books about children’s spiritual development and how to make them spiritual champions, but Kids In Discipleship actually gave me the tools and the skills to do it. I have read many statistics; some show that 3 in 4 of our young people leave the Church. I am a mother of four boys, age 4 to 9. I want all four of them in heaven with me! The fact that most people make their decision to become disciples of Jesus before the age of 13 made me again painfully aware, that I only have four more years to be their primary spiritual mentor.”

“The KID seminar was a life-changing experience for me – and my prayer and my vision is that it will be life-changing for my boys, for our family, and for the children of our Church, and that we all may become empowered disciples of Jesus. May God keep on blessing all the wonderful coaches, trainers and mentors, who made this ministry a reality and made it available to so many families. Please extend my thanks and appreciation to the prayer partners who prayed for us during the seminar – it could never have been so life-transforming for me, if not for the intervention of the Holy Spirit through prayer.”

The Trans-European Division Children Ministries Department, directed by Anne-May Wollan, organizes KID seminars regularly in various part of the TED, in cooperation with local churches.

For more info on the KID ministry, please visit:

http://www.ted-adventist.org/resources/cm.htm