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163
May, 1945
WINNING NEGRO CHILDREN TO CHRIST
By Lester E. Huber ;
O N a bright morning in a small southern town a negro newsboy is seen delivering his daily papers from house to house. Just before he throws each so we ask him what it is he is placing in the papers. With eager enthusiasm he tells us about the fine gospel tracts and the Christian literature he is distributing via the daily news. The story back of this young black boy’s unique ministry is an interesting one. There was a Good News Club in his neighborhood' a few years ago, and he was one of its most attentive members. A white woman directed the club, and under her faithful, prayerful presentation of God’s Word, this boy received Christ as his Saviour and became interested in the Bible, learning to love its precious message more each time he heard it. Later, someone told him about the Southern Bible Training School in Dallas. He is now fifteen years old, in high school, and is one of our best students. The Lord is using him to distribute gospel literature on his news route. Not only is he serving the Lord daily in this way, but he is preparing himself for the gospel ministry. His boy friend whom he brought with him to the school is also planning to train for the ministry. The teacher of that club had to take three buses to get to her class in the colored neighborhood of the little town, and the trip took over an hour each way. There were other hardships and inconveniences in connection with the class, many of them; but they are all counted as nothing by that loyal Christian servant as she praises the Lord for the work He has wrought in the life of the negro newsboy. For two years the average attendance in the class was thirty children. The boys and girls were assembled each week by the wife of one of our negro students. The teacher not only taught the children, but trained this colored woman, and has now turned the class over to her. In the average negro church little attention is paid to the children, mainly because of the lack of trained teachers. The pastor is expected to do most of the work, but he is unable to spend much time with the children. One of the greatest needs is for trained negro teachers, but until such teachers are available it will be necessary to depend largely upon white leaders.
paper he slips something into it. Our curiosity is aroused,
They Must Be Loved The negro children can never be won to Christ apart from a manifestation of His love, not only .as it is re vealed in His Word, but as it is exhibited to them by His servants. Never speak to them of the love of God in Christ unless you are willing to let God show the reality of that love through you. The Apostle Paul clearly ex presses this in 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 (R.V.): “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become. . . a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind . . . seeketh not its own. . . beareth all things. . . endureth all things." [ Continued on Page 177]
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